Carla Canales is an internationally renowned mezzo-soprano who has also received high-level recognition as both a cultural entrepreneur and a social advocate.

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. As a concert soloist, she has sung Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.  She has also performed 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. She is the founder of the Canales Project, a nonprofit arts and advocacy organization focusing on using the arts to address issues of identity and culture.

In early 2023, Carla joined the Biden Administration as the first Senior Advisor and Envoy for Cultural Exchange, a newly created position at the National Endowment for the Arts.  Carla currently serves in this title at the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Carla is a 2023-24 Social Innovation and Change Initiative Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Carla visited Fujian, China as guest soloist in 2023 and currently leads a six-month Arts Envoy project for the U.S. State Department, in collaboration with Xiamen Zheng Xiaoying Opera Center. Carla will travel to China for performances there during the summer of 2024. She is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English and is currently working on achieving proficiency in Mandarin.