Born in Lima, Peru, Juan Diego Flórez undertook music studies both in his native Lima and at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. In 1996 he made his official operatic debut in Matilde di Shabran at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where his expressive voice and astonishing agility immediately won him critical accolades. Since then, Flórez has become the tenor of choice in major international theaters. Flórez has enjoyed great success in theaters such as La Scala of Milan (Gluck’s Armide, Falstaff, Nino Rota’s Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Nina Pazza per Amore, La Sonnambula, Italiana in Algeri, Cenerentola, Fille du regiment, Concerts, Recital), Comunale of Florence (Le Comte Ory, Falstaff), Carlo Felice in Genoa (La Cenerentola, Le Comte Ory, Donna del lago, Fille du regiment), Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Matilde di Shabran, Il Signor Bruschino, Petite Messe Solennelle, La Cenerentola, Il Viaggio a Reims, Donna del lago, Stabat Mater, Le Comte Ory, Barbiere di Siviglia, Otello, Concerts), Regio of Turin (La Sonnambula, Stabat Mater, Maria Stuarda) Accademy of Santa Cecilia in Rome (Stabat Mater and Cantata, both by Rossini, Recital), Comunale of Bologna (Il Viaggio a Reims, Barbiere di Siviglia, Fille du regiment, Le Comte Ory, I Puritani), Filarmonico of Verona (L’Italiana in Algeri, Barbiere di Siviglia), Opera of Rome (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Italiana in Algeri),San Carlo of Naples (Concert), Massimo of Palermo (Concert).

Out of Italy: The Metropolitan Opera House of New York (Barbiere di Siviglia, Cenerentola, Italiana in Algeri, Don Pasquale, Fille du regiment, Sonnambula), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Cenerentola), San Francisco Opera (Cenerentola); Covent Garden in London (Donizetti’s Elisabetta, Rossini’s Otello, Cenerentola, Sonnambula, Don Pasquale, Fille du regiment, Matilde di Shabran); Staatsoper of Vienna (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’Italiana in Algeri, Gianni Schicchi, Sonnambula, Puritani, Fille du regiment), Salzburg Festival (Donna del lago), Musikverein of Vienna (Stabat Mater), Konzerthaus in Vienna (Semiramide); Paris Ópera (L’Italiana in Algeri, Cenerentola), Châtelet in Paris (Falstaff), Festival Radio France Montpellier (La donna del lago); Deutsche Oper Berlin (Sonnambula, Concert), Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper (L’Italiana in Algeri); Real of Madrid (Barbiere di Siviglia, Orfeo, Concerts), Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona (Stabat Mater, Maria Stuarda, Semiramide, Cenerentola), La Maestranza of Seville (Donizetti’s Alahor in Granata); Dresden Staatsoper (Rigoletto), Opernhaus in Zurich (Cenerentola, Don Pasquale). Sang also in Moscow, Tokio, Varsovia, Caracas, Lisboa, Sao Paulo, San Petersburg, Toulouse, Nice, Champs Elysées of Paris, Lyon, Hamburg.

He has sung under Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Wun Chung, John Elliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Neville Marriner, Antonio Pappano, Roberto Abbado, Carlo Rizzi, Marcello Viotti, Christophe Rousset, Jesùs Lopez Cobos, Michele Mariotti, Alberto Zedda, Gustavo Dudamel.

In 2007 he broke the tradition at La Scala singing an encore after 75 years. this happened in Donizetti’s Fille du regiment with the aria of nine high Cs. The same happened at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York in 2008.

Future engagements for Flórez through 2014 are scheduled for La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, Covent Garden in London, Staatsoper in Vienna, Paris Opera, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Real of Madrid, Liceu of Barcelona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Japan. Since March 2001 he has been an exclusive artist for Decca.

He received the Abbiati Prize conferred by Italian music critics, Rossini d’Oro in Pesaro, Aureliano Pertile’s Prize, Francesco Tamagno Prize, L’Opera Award Prize, Bellini’s Prize, ISO d’Oro. All his recordings obtained many important prizes, for example the Choc of the Monde de la Musique magazine, the Echo Klassik Preis, the Cannes Classical Award. From the Government of Perù he received the maximum honor, the Orden del Sol in the grade of Gran Cruz.