Crossing

Matthew Aucoin, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, was named LA Opera's first ever Artist in Residence, a position he held from 2016 to 2020. He has conducted LA Opera productions of Akhnaten (2016) and Rigoletto (2018), as well as concert performances of his own opera Crossing (2018) and performances of Joby Talbot's new score for the film Vampyr (2018).  In 2020, he conducted the world premiere of his newest opera, Eurydice, in Los Angeles; the opera will subsequently be presented by the Metropolitan Opera.

He will return to LA Opera in 2021 for a chamber music program (which will include music he has composed) entitled Veils of Desire.

Born in 1990, he is an American composer, conductor, writer and pianist. In the 2014/15 season, he conducted the premieres of two of his operas: Crossing at Boston’s American Repertory Theater (directed by Diane Paulus); and Second Nature, a chamber opera for the young, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He wrote the libretti for both works. He is currently at work on a new opera for the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater’s New Works program. In the coming season, he will conduct the premiere of his new orchestral work, commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. His new song cycle, set to texts by James Merrill and co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New York, and Wigmore Hall, London, will be premiered by tenor Paul Appleby and pianist Ken Noda at recitals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Notre Dame, and Miami. Violinist Jennifer Koh will premiere Aucoin’s new solo violin work at the New York Philharmonic Biennale and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

He is also at work on a piano concerto commissioned by The Gilmore for pianist Charlie Albright. This season, he makes conducting debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Music Academy of the West (Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, as well as his own chamber opera Second Nature); the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy (The Marriage of Figaro); and he returns to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In recent seasons, he has appeared as a conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Rome Opera Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (a special event featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma) and Juilliard Opera (Eugene Onegin). (MatthewAucoin.com)

Rod Gilfry is a two-time Grammy nominee, singer and actor who has performed in all the world's music capitals and appears on over 30 recordings. He is acclaimed worldwide in opera, musicals, recitals and cabaret. His 75-role repertoire includes 13 leading roles he has created in new operas. Recent performances include LA Opera productions of David Lang's solo opera the loser and Matthew Aucoin's Crossing, and Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life at the San Francisco Opera. He recently created the role of Claudius in Brett Dean's Hamlet at the Glyndebourne and Adelaide Festivals, a role he reprised in the 2021/22 season at the Metropolitan Opera.  

Other appearances for the season include the Marquis de la Force in Houston Grand Opera’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and Robert McNamara in the world premiere of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s The Rift at the Washington National Opera. 

In 2019, he began a tour of Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light with Renée Fleming at the Tanglewood Festival, which was later performed with the National Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Future performances of The Brightness of Light are scheduled for the Aspen Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Oregon Symphony. 

Future seasons will find Mr. Gilfry singing Alfonso in Così fan tutte with the Dallas Opera, Scarpia in the Houston Grand Opera’s Tosca, Claudius in Dean’s Hamlet and Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. 

He earned advanced degrees from California State University Fullerton and the University of Southern California. From 1987 to 1989 he was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble, and from 1989 to 1994 he was a member of the Zurich Opera ensemble. He is in his 14th year as a professor of vocal arts at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, but will retire from that position in December 2022 to make more time for performing.

(RodGilfry.com)

Winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize at the 2016 Operalia competition, he is quickly establishing himself as a singer of great vocal diversity and dramatic depth. Mr. Ryan returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the 2018/19 season to sing both Spoletta in Sir David McVicar’s production of Tosca and Monostatos in the Julie Taymor production of The Magic Flute. Mr. Ryan also makes his European debut singing Pedrillo in a new production of The Abduction from the Seraglio with Opéra de Monte-Carlo, returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis singing Nero in Tim Albery’s production of The Coronation of Poppea, and returns to Opera Philadelphia for his role debut as Lysander in the U.S. premiere of Robert Carsen’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Orchestral engagements include Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

The 2017/18 season saw Mr. Ryan’s return to the Metropolitan Opera as Spoletta in a new production of Tosca, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume, which was broadcast to theatres around the world as part of the Met’s Live in HD program. Mr. Ryan also made his house debut with Opera Philadelphia as Monostatos in the Barrie Kosky production of The Magic Flute and his house debut with Santa Fe Opera singing the role of Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos. Additional engagements included his house debut with Dallas Opera singing both Gastone in La Traviata and Florian in Der Ring des Polykrates, as well as a return to LA Opera singing John Wormley in concert performances of Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing. Concert work included his debut with Virginia Symphony Orchestra for Orff’s Carmina Burana.

An alumnus of LA Opera's young artist program (2014 to 2016), he made his LA Opera debut as Gastone in La Traviata. His many appearances as a young artist include, most notably, Léon in The Ghosts of Versailles (2017 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), Beppe in Pagliacci and Monostatos in The Magic Flute. He most recently returned to Los Angeles as Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio (2017) and as John Wormley in Matthew Aucoin's Crossing (2018).

Liv Redpath is quickly becoming a leading soprano leggero on the opera and concert stage today. During the 2021/22 season, Ms. Redpath returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin to make her debut in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, as well as the Metropolitan Opera where she covers two title roles: Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Simon Stone’s new production of Lucia di Lammermoor conducted by Riccardo Frizza. Ms. Redpath’s concert performances include a Verbier Festival debut singing in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Gábor Takács-Nagy; joining the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble and Maestro Nézet-Séguin to sing new arrangements of arias from Aucoin’s Eurydice in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; a chamber music gala concert in honor of Martin Chalifour’s 25th anniversary with Los Angeles Philharmonic; a New Year’s Eve concert with American Bach Soloists featuring works of Handel, Rameau and Purcell; and a Mozart Requiem with the Long Beach Symphony.

In the 2020/21 season, Ms. Redpath sang “Das himmlische Leben” from Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl for their presentation of Icons on Inspiration with introduction by Julie Andrews. In December, she performed a program comprising the Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël and Schubert Mass in G under Vasily Petrenko in her debut with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in the Netherlands followed by a holiday concert with the Minnesota Opera. Later in the season, Ms. Redpath made her debut with the Bregenzer Festspiele as Woglinde in Das Rheingold with the Wiener Symphoniker led by Andrés Orozco-Estrada and directed by Johannes Erath. Ms. Redpath ended the season by making a return to the Edinburgh International Festival to sing Naiad and cover Zerbinetta in concert performances of Ariadne auf Naxos with Lothar Koenigs on the podium.

The previous season, Ms. Redpath made her role and house debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin singing Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots under the baton of Alexander Vedernikov and covered the role of Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Concert appearances included the role of Crobyle in Thaïs with Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and recorded for release on the Chandos label subsequently winning a 2021 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year; Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with conductor Yaniv Dinur and the New Bedford Symphony; and an evening with the Bakken Trio in her native Minnesota to sing Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel, Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson and André Previn’s Four Songs.

Ms. Redpath has been engaged by the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Scottish Opera, New York Festival of Song, Wolf Trap Opera, Pacific Symphony, Tesserae Baroque, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Los Angeles Master Chorale. Conductors with whom she has collaborated include William Christie, James Levine, James Conlon, Emmanuelle Villaume, Christophe Rousset, James Gaffigan, Barbara Hannigan, Matthew Aucoin, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Jun Märkl, Steven Lord, and Grant Gershon, as well as stage directors Tim Albery, Mark Lamos, James Robinson, Francesca Zambello, Paul Curran, Ed Berkley, John Neumeier, Omer Ben Seadia, Louisa Muller and Thaddeus Strassberger, Ms. Redpath’s wide-ranging operatic repertoire includes The Marriage of Figaro, Hansel and Gretel, Ariadne auf Naxos, Béatrice et Bénédict, Orphée et Eurydice, Dido and Aeneas, Cendrillon, The Magic Flute, Lakmé, The Tales of Hoffmann, Die Fledermaus, Les mamelles de Tirésias, The Golden Cockerel, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Candide, L’enfant et les sortilèges and Matthew Aucoin's Crossing. Her orchestral and chamber assignments have included Messiah (Handel), Choral Fantasy (Beethoven), “Lord Nelson” Mass (Haydn), Mass in C major (Beethoven), Songs of Ascent (Kirchner), Requiem (Mozart), La Resurrezione (Handel), String Quartet No. 2 (Schoenberg), Philomel (Babbitt), Gloria (Poulenc) and Hodie (Vaughan-Williams).
Ms. Redpath was one of 12 finalists worldwide at the 2019 Operalia competition and sang under the baton of Plácido Domingo in Prague for the final round concert. She received second prize, as well as the special French opera prize and audience favorite, at the 56th Tenor Viñas International Contest at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and subsequently sang the winners concert held at Teatro Real in Madrid.

A graduate of Harvard University and The Juilliard School, Ms. Redpath is a former Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist with LA Opera.

Learn more at LivRedpath.com.