Aquiles Machado is a Venezuelan tenor born in 1973 in Barquisimeto who began musical studies at the Schola Cantorum of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Lara and later studied in Caracas before receiving a scholarship in 1994 to work with Alfredo Kraus at Madrid’s Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía. He made his professional debut in Caracas in 1996 in L’elisir d’amore and debuted in Europe the same year.

Machado won the Francisco Viñas competition in 1996 and Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition in 1997, and became the first Venezuelan tenor to sing at La Scala, in 2007. He has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Arena di Verona under conductors including Domingo, Daniel Barenboim, and Gustavo Dudamel, and has also recorded Venezuelan folk repertoire alongside his operatic work.