Mentors

Carla Dirlikov Canales has been praised by Opera Magazine for possessing a voice that “grabs the heartstrings with its dramatic force and musicality.” She has won acclaim on leading stages around the world as a performer while also being recognized as a senior government official, academic, and entrepreneur. Most recently, Carla joined the Biden Administration in a newly created position at the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, as Senior Advisor and Envoy for Cultural Exchange. Through this role, she created and spearheaded the Artists for Understanding initiative, In coordination with the White House, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Artists for Understanding promotes the arts and humanities as crucial in bridging divides through their capacity to foster dialogue, connection, empathy, and change-making in communities.

In addition, Carla leads a course titled “Finding Your Authentic Voice” at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School.  She has recently served on faculty at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and she was also appointed as Professor of Practice at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.  In addition, for the past twenty years Carla has served  as an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Department of State.  In 2024, she led a seven month cultural diplomacy project with the U.S. Embassy in China, as part of the recently launched Global Music Diplomacy Initiative.

Carla has been a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Turnaround Arts Program, was selected by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers and won the Medal of Excellence from the Sphinx Organization, which was presented to her at the Supreme Court by Justice Sotomayor. Carla was also named one of Musical America’s 30 Movers and Shapers of 2018. In each case, she was the first opera singer ever to receive the honor.  In 2021, Carla became a member of the Recording Academy.  Carla was honored as one of twenty selected alumni to receive the University of Michigan Bicentennial Alumni Award.

As a classical singer, Carla has been in demand for her portrayal of Bizet’s Carmen, a role she has performed over eighty times in twelve countries. Her performance was praised by Opera News as “a well-practiced, sexy Carmen, [Carla] dominated the show.” Other roles in her repertoire include Dalilah in Samson et Dalilah, Eboli in Don Carlo, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Adalgisa in Norma, Fenena in Nabucco and Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino. As a concert soloist, she has sung at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has also performed extensively as a soloist with the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, and appeared multiple times with the China National Symphony Orchestra.  An accomplished recitalist, Carla has performed solo recitals at the National Gallery of Art, Guangzhou Opera, China’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Forbidden City Concert Hall, and most recently a solo recital at the Kennedy Center.

Carla is the founder of The Canales Project, a non-profit arts and advocacy organization through which she created Hear Her Song, a musical celebration of distinguished female leaders worldwide that commissions new songs written by female composers to honor them. To date she has performed project selections over a dozen times at venues including the National Gallery of Art, The Public Theater and Kennedy Center. The project engages a variety of participants and partners worldwide, including Vital Voices, El Sistema USA, and participants including honorees Hillary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, and Malala Yousafzai.

Carla has been a guest speaker/lecturer at the United Nations, the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Americans for the Arts, Harvard University, Oxford University, William & Mary, Aspen Institute, and TEDxMidAtlantic. Previously, Carla served as a co-creator and Artistic Director of CultureSummit Abu Dhabi, an annual conference conceived to bring together arts and policy leaders from around the world to discuss common challenges and to develop joint approaches to using the arts to help address major global issues. She is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English and studies Mandarin.