Milagro Vargas was born in New York to a mother from Nicaragua and a father from Panama. From the age of five to ten she lived in New Orleans where her first musical experience was singing in her church choir. Returning to New York she began piano lessons while continuing to sing in church choirs.
At fourteen Vargas received a scholarship to the Third Street Settlement in Manhattan where she began formal studies in voice and supporting lessons in piano and music theory.
Vargas’s first voice teacher was soprano Beatrice Rippy. Caroll
Hollister, Rippy’s husband and a noted pianist in New York, provided coaching for performance. Later at the Third Street Settlement School Vargas studied with soprano Lucy Shelton, the beginning of a musical relationship that would last to the present day.
Shelton suggested that Milagro apply to the Aspen Music Festival to study with the famed mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani. Receiving a full scholarship, Vargas first attended the Aspen school in the summer of 1973, returning for additional summers to continue work with DeGaetani. During these summers Vargas was coached also by tenor Paul Sperry, and appeared in opera productions directed by Ed Berkeley.
Vargas attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music on full scholarship from 1973, graduating with a B.M. in 1977. At Oberlin she studied with the noted voice teacher Helen Hodam from 1979 to 1981 Vargas attended the Eastman School of Music where she again studied with DeGaetani. She received an M.M. at the end of her studies. During this period she continued to attend the Aspen Festival and was also a fellow at the Marlboro Music Festival where she studied with Benita Valente and coached with Luis Battle.
Conductor Dennis Russell Davies had heard Vargas at the Aspen Festival. In 1984 he invited her to the Stutgartt Opera as a soloist where he was the new muscial director.
Vargas was as a soloist at Stuttgart from 1984 to 1992, singing many types of roles, including roles in several important world premieres. She worked with some of the best stage directors in the world, including Harry Kupfer, Achim Freyer and Peter Zadek. While at Stuttgart Vargas continued to travel for other opera, orchestral and chamber engagements. These years at Stuttgart were especially rich personally and artistically, allowing the close collaboration and friendships one forms when performing with one company for an extended period. Also, Stuttgart became a city that Vargas still thinks of as one of her homes, returning often to be with musicians and friends.
In 1992 Vargas returned to the United States and began teaching at the University of Oregon. She maintained her performance career through travel and recording. Having had such wonderful teachers, Vargas had always wanted to continue that tradition. Also, despite the fruitful Stuttgart experience, the time restraints for a soloist in one company limited many other performance and repertoire opportunities. Thus Vargas’s teaching position at the University of Oregon allowed new choices, and beginning in 1992 she began appearing with orchestras, chamber festivals, opera houses and other venues, singing important repertoire that would not have been possible had she remained at Stuttgart.
Vargas continues to teach at the University of Oregon School of Music in Eugene Or. She divides her time between Oregon and New York and returns often for extended periods to Stuttgart.
