Barbara DeMaio is currently an associate professor of voice and vocal pedagogy coordinator at the University of Central Oklahoma, teaching both opera and musical theatre styles, as well as opera history and the voice pedagogy curriculum. Barbara is the executive director of Painted Sky Opera and a Level III Somatic Voicework© teacher. In October 2016, she was honored to be named as a Member Laureate by Sigma Alpha Iota.
Her vast repertoire includes all the great roles of a Puccini and Verdi soprano, performed in theatres in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France; Tosca, Lady Macbeth, Turandot, Aida, Abigaille in Nabucco, and also Amelia in Ballo in Maschera, Elvira in Ernani, Lucrezia in I Due Foscari, Leonora in La Forza del Destino and Odabella in La Scala's Attila directed by Riccardo Muti. She is also a noted interpreter of Norma, the Bellini heroine. Since returning to the United States she has added new roles to her repertoire; Bolcom’s Medea and Hoiby’s Bon Appetit!, the Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Baba in The Medium, Domina in Forum, Mama Rose in Gypsy, Grandma Helene in Freaky Friday, Ida Strauss in Titanic, Miss Lynch in Grease, Costanza in the play Enchanted April, and Bobrita Tolliver in Wedding Belles.