Aria M. Mason

Co-founder | Production Director |

Mezzo- soprano

Ms. Aria Mason is the co-founder and production director of OperaCréole.

Her vision and work have recently been covered in Atlas Obscura magazine
and NBC Nightly News.

Her vision and accomplishments have also been captured in interviews on NPR in

Her work as production director and performer earned Opera Créole three nominations and two awards from New Orleans' "Tribute to the Classical Artis Awards" and "The Big Easy Awards" plus national recognition from Southern Living Magazine (Southerners of the Year 2017), and the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA)

The mezzo-soprano sang the role Rosalia in our award-winning 2017 American premiere of La Flamenca. (1903). She sang the leading role of Madame DiNoyan in the New Orleans premiere of William Grant Still's Minette Fontaine.

Ms. Mason has also been featured on Le Grand Tour: du Québec à la Louisiane, a documentary for France III TV. In 2006, she sang before President Clinton on C-Span in a memorial service for his Aide, Eli Segal.

Aria has been seen and heard on EWTN, WLAE-TV, and WWL-TV and has performed in Boston; New York; Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Rome, Italy, in addition to her native city of New Orleans and locales in the Gulf Coast:

The mezzo-soprano is a member of the nationally acclaimed New Orleans Opera Chorus and was featured in the role of Annie in the 2010 production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. As a Music Minister, she served as choral director and director of the music ministry at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, section leader, and Cantor at St. Louis Cathedral, as well as Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.

Ms. Mason graduated from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she studied voice with Regina McConnell. She received bachelor's degrees in history and music and the Student Activities Award. At CUA, she was featured as Second Lady in Die Zauberflote and productions of La Traviata and The Tender Land. She is also an alumna of Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She has been a featured soloist in works by Mozart and Bach at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France in New Orleans, and has been featured in concerts and recitals around the Gulf South.

Aria has continued to show her commitment to the renaissance of the New Orleans community. Through her work on the inaugural faculty at Morris Jeff Community School, as a founding member of City Year Louisiana-where, she helped rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, as the New Orleans Outreach Coordinator at S.J. Green and Arthur Ashe Charter Schools, and as a member of Mayor Mitch Landriue's Transition Team, she has demonstrated her commitment to work toward providing more significant opportunities for success for the next generation of New Orleanians. She also owns an online boutique, Belle Lafaye: Creations by Aria.

Aria is the Granddaughter of Civil rights icon Dr. Gilbert R. Mason, Sr.

She is the godmother of RV Gilbert Mason, a Marine Research Vessel that LUMCON is building in his name. She spoke at the Keel Laying.

She is married to her high school beau, Henri Folse, and is the mother of a

beautiful daughter named Amara.