Eurydice

Danielle de Niese has been hailed as “opera’s coolest soprano” by the New York Times Magazine. A multi-faceted artist, de Niese has gained wide recognition for her superb stagecraft, assured singing and her ability to communicate on every level. She regularly appears on the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages and is a prolific recording artist, TV personality and philanthropist.

In the 2018/19 season, de Niese made a highly anticipated return to Lyric Opera of Chicago, following her triumphant Roxane Coss in the world premiere of Bel Canto, to sing Musetta in La Bohème in Richard Jones’ acclaimed production, a role for which she garnered huge acclaim at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden: “She is magnificent. Her voice is an incredibly powerful instrument, riding over the orchestra with shattering high notes. Her “Quando m’en vo” was unforgettable, sensual, flirtatious and beautifully even of tone” (Opera Today). She starred as Norina in Laurent Pelly’s production of Don Pasquale at La Monnaie and made her role debut as Cendrillon at Glyndebourne in a new production by Fiona Shaw. On the recital platform she was heard at the Cheltenham Festival in their 75th anniversary season.

In the 2019/20 season, de Niese returns home to Los Angeles, where she made her operatic debut at the age of 15 to sing the title role in the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin highly anticipated new opera Eurydice as well as making a hugely exciting role debut as Blanche in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Dialogues des Carmélites at Glyndebourne. She also returns to Japan in one of her signature roles as Norina in Don Pasquale at the New National Theatre Tokyo.

Last season de Niese made a sensational debut as Hanna Glawari with Opera Australia in a new production of The Merry Widow, first presented in Melbourne and reopening in Sydney with a gala performance on New Year’s Eve. She also returned to Royal Opera House where she sang her first Musetta to huge public and critical acclaim and to Wiener Staatsoper as Norina in Don Pasquale. On the concert platform she appeared as Eileen in Bernstein's Wonderful Town with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, a performance slated for CD release in September 2018 as well as making hugely successful solo tours in the Middle East and in Asia. She also returned to Dublin to perform an opera gala with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and headlined the BBC Biggest Weekend at Scone Palace in Perth. De Niese also curated a chamber music evening, part of the reopening of the Queen Elisabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre where together with her guests Menahem Pressler, Sir James Galway, Mark Simpson and the Navarra String Quartet she performed music by Roussel, Schubert and Chausson.

Recent highlights include a double header for the BBC Proms, singing at the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall opposite Jonas Kaufmann, broadcast worldwide, and at Proms in the Park in Hyde Park as well as appearances at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and gala concerts with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and in St Petersburg at ‘Classics at the Palace Square’. Audiences in the UK have heard her in recital with Julius Drake at the Barbican, the Snape Proms and at the Birmingham Conservatoire as part of the Celebrity Recital Series. Her operatic engagements included the world premiere of Jimmy López’s Bel Canto at Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, her role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Semperoper Dresden, Norina in Don Pasquale in her company debut with Wiener Staatsoper, Adina in L’elisir d'amore at the Opera national du Rhin, Rodelinda and Poppea in Agrippina at Theater an der Wien and the new production of The Barber of Seville as Rosina at the Glyndebourne Festival and BBC Proms. Further operatic appearances include Concepción in L’heure espagnole and L’Enfant in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Norina in Don Pasquale, Adina in L’Elisir d’amore at Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Ariel in The Enchanted Island, and Despina in Così fan tutte, all at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; the title role of L'incoronazione di Poppea at Teatro Real Madrid; Partenope and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at San Francisco Opera; the title role of Semele at Theâtre des Champs-Elysees; the title role of La Calisto at Bayerische Staatsoper; and Poppea in Agrippina at Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona.

Born in Australia to parents of Sri Lankan and Dutch heritage, de Niese, became at the age of 18, the youngest ever singer to enter the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. One year later she made her Metropolitan Opera debut under James Levine, as Barbarina in Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed new production of The Marriage of Figaro. On the strength of her performance, de Niese went on to make major debuts at the Opéra National de Paris, Saito Kinen Festival and Netherlands Opera. In 2005 de Niese made her Glyndebourne Festival debut as Cleopatra in Sir David McVicar’s production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare and was catapulted to international fame. She has since reprised the role in the 2009 Glyndebourne revival, and in 2013 at the Metropolitan Opera, always to critical praise.

A prolific recording artist, her debut recording for Decca, Handel Arias, was awarded the prestigious Orphée d'Or from and the much-coveted ECHO Klassik award, as well as earning her a Classical Brit Award nomination for Female Artist of the Year. The Mozart Album, Diva, and Beauty of the Baroque followed.

A TV and media personality, De Niese won her first Emmy at the age of 16, when hosting a weekly arts showcase for teenagers at a Los Angeles local television. Her many TV appearances received widespread attention whilst her BBC documentaries such as Diva Diaries, The Birth of an Opera and the most recent and highly praised Unsung Heroines attest her extraordinary passion for the art form she represents and tireless commitment to bringing new audiences to it.

Offstage, de Niese is an advocate for children’s rights and a passionate philanthropist and has been named by Marie Claire magazine on its influential list of “Women on Top”. She is an Ambassador for HRH The Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Children and the Arts, a patron of Future Talent, which assists young musicians and singers with financial support and guidance and is an Artist Member of the Mannes Board of Governors. For the past year, de Niese has also been serving as an official Ambassador Voice for the International Rescue Committee.

Erica Petrocelli was a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program from 2018 to 2020. Her additional company appearances include Annina in La Traviata (2019), the First Lady in The Magic Flute (2019) and both Thetis and Eurydice in Stefano Landi's The Death of Orpheus (2020).

She recently completed her tenure as a studio member with Opernhaus Zürich. Her engagements for the 2022/23 season include guest appearances with Opernhaus Zürich as Musetta in La Bohème and the First Lady in The Magic Flute, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah with James Conlon and the Baltimore Symphony, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Ravinia Festival, also with James Conlon.

In the 2021/22 season, Ms. Petrocelli performed Pamina in The Magic Flute at Opera Theater of St. Louis, and also joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem. As a Studio member in Zürich, she performed Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Delia in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, she also covered the title role in Arabella and Stella in The Tales of Hoffmann.

In the 2019/20 season, she made her principal debut at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, as Micaëla in Carmen.

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)

Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins was chosen by Opera News as one of 25 artists poised to break out and become a major force in the coming decade. He has been hailed as having “…a glistening, malleable baritone of exceptional beauty, and…the technique to exploit its full range of expressive possibilities from comic bluster to melting beauty.” (Opera Today)

He will return to the Metropolitan Opera for three leading roles during the 2020/21 season: the title role in Billy Budd, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, and Mercutio in Romeo et Juliette.

In the 2018/19 season, Joshua Hopkins made his San Francisco Opera debut as Harry Bailey in Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life. He also revisited the role of Valentin in Faust with Washington National Opera. Role debuts of the season included Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Pittsburgh Opera, as well as the title role of Billy Budd with Central City Opera. Concert engagements included Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jane Glover, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Matthew Halls, as well as Haydn’s Creation with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, also under the baton of Matthew Halls.

In the 2017/18 season, Joshua Hopkins made his house debut at the Norwegian National Opera as Figaro in The Barber of Seville and returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. In the spring, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Plácido Domingo. Mr. Hopkins finished the season with a return to the Glimmerglass Festival in a new production of The Barber of Seville. Mr. Hopkins’s recent seasons have featured the roles of Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival, Verbier Festival, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Washington National Opera; Figaro in The Barber of Seville with the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Opera Lyra Ottawa; Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Oper Frankfurt; Papageno in The Magic Flute at Canadian Opera Company, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa and Arizona Opera, and Marcello in La Bohème at the Canadian Opera Company and Houston Grand Opera.

His 2018/19 season includes a featured performance with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, his role debut as Nero in Agrippina with Ars Lyrica, Handel’s Israel in Egypt with MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall, and his debut with the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor in Handel’s Messiah. His season continues with his debut at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan, singing the role of the First Male Voice in Huang Ruo’s engrossing chamber opera Paradise Interrupted, a role he created at the Spoleto Festival in 2016 for the world premiere. His 2017/18 season began with his Opera Philadelphia debut as John Blue in the world premiere of Daniel Roumain’s We Shall Not Be Moved. The production, directed by the award-winning Bill T. Jones, premiered in Philadelphia before going to New York City’s famed Apollo Theater.

He was a 2014 winner of Operalia. As the winner of the 2017 Marian Anderson Award, Mr. Holiday gave a recital at the Kennedy Center in February 2018, marking his Kennedy Center debut. His season continued with his European debut in We Shall Not Be Moved with the Dutch National Oper ain Amsterdam, and a tour with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, singing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms in Los Angeles, New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Barbican, and the Philharmonie de Paris. He closed out his season performing the role of the Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight at Des Moines Metro Opera. (JohnHolidayLive.com)

The tenor's outstanding facility in roles by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti has regularly taken him to the world’s leading opera houses. With the Metropolitan Opera he has partnered with Renée Fleming in Rossini’s Armida, Natalie Dessay in The Daughter of the Regiment and La Sonnambula, with Olga Borodina in L’Italiana in Algeri and with Anna Netrebko in Don Pasquale and L’Elisir d’Amore. Notable roles have included his debut as Arnold (Guillaume Tell) at Welsh National Opera, the title role in Mitridate, Re di Ponto and Don Narciso (Il Turco in Italia) at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville) at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Idreno (Semiramide) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and at Royal Danish Opera.

He has appeared as Iago in Rossini’s Otello at both Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Salzburger Festspiele. The role of Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola) saw his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Oreste (Ermione) marked his debut at the Santa Fe Festival. He made his debuts in Vienna as Norfolk (Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra) at Theater an der Wien, and at the Teatro Real, Madrid as the Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel. During a long association with English National Opera he has appeared as Tamino (The Magic Flute), Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Edgardo (in David Alden’s acclaimed production of Lucia di Lammermoor), Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) and as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. 

In concert Barry Banks has performed Berlioz’ Grand Messe des Morts under Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra which was released to considerable acclaim on LSO Live. He sang in Britten’s War Requiem at the Teatro alla Scala under Xian Zhang, The Dream of Gerontius with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Sir Andrew Davis, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Utah Symphony under Thierry Fischer. In the 2018/19 season, Barry Banks makes his role and house debuts as Pirelli in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Sweeney Todd at Operhaus Zurich. Bel canto roles include Roberto Devereux at Welsh National Opera under Carlo Rizzi and Rossini’s Sigismondo in concert with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Ulf Schirmer. Other highlights include Gurrelieder with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España under the baton of David Afkham, and Berlioz’s Te Deum with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Kazuki Yamada. His discography includes Mitridate with Classical Opera Company (Ian Page), The Elixir of Love, The Italian Girl in Algiers, Don Pasquale, Don Giovanni, The Thieving Magpie and The Magic Flute in the Opera in English series for Chandos. DVD releases include Armida from the Metropolitan Opera. His solo recital disc for Chandos - Barry Banks sings Bel Canto Arias - received substantial critical acclaim.

Soprano Stacey Tappan continues to distinguish herself as a world-class musical artist. In stellar reviews for her "witty and sexy" Adele in Die Fledermaus with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, she was praised for the production's "most polished singing... her coloratura bright and well-focused." Plaudits for her Gilda in Rigoletto with Opéra de Lille and Opéra de Dijon included, "the revelation of the evening" - "a luminous Gilda" - "a magnificent discovery" and "high notes of a splendid sweetness." Her debut in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor with Arizona Opera was "poignant and tragic" and lauded for "her beautiful coloratura, easy upper range and unfailing ear."

In the 2018/19 season, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Dawn in Nico Muhly's Marnie and as a Lay Sister in Suor Angelica, as well as covering Madame Jouvenot in Adriana Lecouvreur and Woglinde in the Ring cycle.

In the 2017/18 season, she performed the roles of Griselda in the U.S. premiere of Alma Deutscher's Cinderella with Opera San Jose, and Aveline Mortimer in the world premiere production of Kevin Puts' Elizabeth Cree with Chicago Opera Theater. She also returned to San Francisco Opera to reprise the roles of Woglinde and the Forest Bird in the critically acclaimed Zambello production of the Ring cycle. In the 2011 mounting of this production, she was singled out for her "sparkling high voice that captivated" with "great beauty and carrying power." She also toured with Pop-Up Magazine for live performances in New York City, Washington DC and Saint Paul.

Ms. Tappan is highly sought after as a performer of modern works. In 2016 she originated the role of Madame White Snake in Scott Wheeler's Naga. Opera News declared, "Stacey Tappan made an imperious White Snake, tossing off Wheeler's staccati and roulades with shining, crystalline tone and astonishingly clear diction even in the stratosphere." Her professional debut in 2000 was in the role of Beth in the mainstage premiere of Adamo's Little Women for Houston Grand Opera. This production was also broadcast on PBS, released on CD by Ondine and on DVD by Naxos. Additional collaborations with Adamo include the world premiere of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene for San Francisco Opera. One of her signature roles is Stella in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, which she has performed with LA Opera (opposite Renée Fleming), Opera San Jose and Hawaii Opera Theater. In close collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, Tappan created the stage work Once I Was, a monodrama built from 22 of Gordon's songs, which she subsequently recorded for Blue Griffin Records with the composer at the piano.

A perennial favorite of LA Opera for more than a decade, Ms. Tappan has performed in 11 productions to date, including Woglinde and the Forest Bird in the Ring cycle, Queen Tye in Akhnaten, Nella in Gianni Schicchi (directed by Woody Allen), First Lady in The Magic Flute, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Virtù and Pallade in The Coronation of Poppea, the Wren in Braunfels' The Birds (released on DVD by Arthaus Musik) and Clorinda in La Cenerentola. Ms. Tappan also gave a "beautifully pure, delicately ethereal" and "luminous" performance as Florestine on LA Opera's multiple GRAMMY award winning live recording of Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles.

Stacey Tappan appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic singing Wing on Wing, composed and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" at the Hollywood Bowl. She sang in the first concert of the Recovered Voices series at LA Opera under the baton of James Conlon. Ms. Tappan's signature concert work is Carmina Burana, which she has sung throughout the country, including performances with Los Angeles Master Chorale and Colorado Symphony. Additional concert performances of note include Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Jacksonville Symphony, Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives with Springfield Symphony, Mozart's Requiem with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and several performances of Handel's Messiah, most recently with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

Hailed by the New York Times as a "mezzo-soprano with a burnished voice and dramatic fervor" and by the San Francisco Chronicle for her "electrifying sense of fearlessness," she will make her La Scala debut in 2022 as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera. Other upcoming engagements, in addition to her return to Los Angeles as Azucena in Il Trovatore, include Azucena at the Glimmerglass Festival and at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, Fricka/Ortrud in Gods and Mortals at the Glimmerglass Festival, Componist in Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, La Principessa in Suor Angelica at La Monnaie de Munt, and a role debut as Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans with Theater St. Gallen. 

Additional credits include Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Preziosilla in Verdi's La Forza del Destino at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Leonora in Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust conducted by Maestro John Nelson with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Ms. Alexander in Phillip Glass' Satyagraha at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Kristina in The Makropulos Affair at the Janáček Brno Festival, Wellgunde in Wagner’s Die Ring-Trilogie at Theater an der Wien, Madeline Mitchell in Heggie’s Three Decembers at Opera Maine, and Nezhata in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

Ms. Bryce-Davis’ concert highlights include the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall; which won a Grammy nomination, Verdi’s Requiem with conductor Kent Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at the Olympic Stadium, Elgar’s Sea Pictures at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, Verdi's Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, the world premiere of Anthony Davis' We Call the Roll with The Lied Society, Martinů’s Julietta with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Corigliano’s Of Rage and Remembrance at the Aspen Music Festival, the world premiere of Come, My Tan-Faced Children by Melissa Dunphy at Lyric Fest, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with Maestro Philippe Entremont at Manhattan School of Music, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

As a producer/performer Bryce-Davis has released "To the Afflicted," her first music video, which received much critical acclaim and was chosen as an official video for World Opera Day. Her second digital short, “Brown Sounds,” was co-produced with LA Opera and Aural Compass Projects, and won Best Music Video at film festivals around the globe including the New York International Film Awards, New York Cinematography Awards, Hollywood Boulevard Film Awards, the Anatolian Short Film Festival, and the Silk Road Film Awards - Cannes.

Bryce-Davis is a 2018 recipient of the prestigious George London Award at the George London Competition, the 2017 first place and audience prize-winner of the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino competition; chaired by Dominique Meyer, winner of the 2016 Richard F. Gold Career Grant at the Merola Opera Program, winner of the 2015 Hilde Zadek Competition at the Musikverein in Vienna, and the 2015 Sedat Gürel - Güzin Gürel International Voice Competition in Istanbul. She holds a Master of Music and Professional Studies certificate from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Raehann Bryce-Davis is a co-founder of the Black Opera Alliance and is an advocate for social justice in opera.

Learn more at Raehann.com.

Kevin Ray as been praised by Opera News for his “commendable style” and abilities with “subtle coloristic nuance.” This season, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for their production of Simon Boccanegra, and joins Indiana University for a special bicentennial production of Parsifal, covering the title role. Last season, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Messenger in Aida, and also joined the company for their productions of The Girl of the Golden West and Das Rheingold. He also recently sang his first performances of King Charles VII in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans with Odyssey Opera, the Prince in Rusalka with Arizona Opera, Erik in The Flying Dutchman with Estonian National Opera, and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Berkshire Opera Festival. Mr. Ray made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut singing Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, joined the Phoenix Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Florida Orchestra for Rachmaninov’s The Bells, the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem, and was a resident artist at the Ravinia Festival Steans Music Institute.

The tenor recently returned to Houston Grand Opera to sing performances of the company’s new commission of Iain Bell’s one-man opera, A Christmas Carol in addition to returning to the company for Roderigo in Otello, Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd, and both the First Armed Man and Second Priest in The Magic Flute. He is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and his previous roles with the company include Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the Third SS Officer in Weinberg’s The Passenger, Melot in Tristan und Isolde, and the Messenger in Aida, in addition to being responsible for responsible for both Froh and Loge in Das Rheingold as well as Don José in Carmen. He also sang the Defendant in a special performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury presented by the company at the Harris County Courthouse and scenes of Heggie’s Moby-Dick and Carmen in concert.

Mr. Ray’s other recent engagements include his first performances of the title role of Peter Grimes with Chautauqua Opera; Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos presented by his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, in association with Opera Philadelphia and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts; as well as Don José in Carmen with Wolf Trap Opera and the Lyrique-en-Mer/Festival de Belle-Île. While a Santa Fe Apprentice Artist, he created the role of the Second Clubman in the world premiere of Moravec’s The Letter. Also with the company, he sang the role of the Poet in Menotti’s The Last Savage, covered the Drum Major in Wozzeck, and performed scenes of the title role of Idomeneo. On the concert stage, Mr. Ray has joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Sunriver Music Festival for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. He has also sung Verdi’s Requiem with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and has appeared in numerous concerts with the Opera Orchestra of New York.

He is a 2016 second prize winner in the Wagner division of the Gerda Lisnner Foundation’s International Vocal Competition and a 2015 winner of the William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation Award. The tenor was one of eight finalists in Seattle Opera’s 2014 International Wagner Competition. He is a 2012 Grand Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions as well as a three-time district winner of the competition in previous years. He has also received second prize from the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and third prize in the Wagner division of the Liederkranz Comeptition. Additionally, he is a two-time recipient of study grants from the Wagner Society of New York.

The Cornwall, New York, native earned his Master of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, at which his roles included Don José in La tragédie de Carmen, the Schoolmaster in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Toni Reichsmann in The Elegy for Young Lovers. He is also a former participant in the Merola Opera Program of San Francisco Opera, where he sang scenes of Jenik in The Bartered Bride. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and completed further studies at the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro and the Mozarteum Sommerakademie in Salzburg.

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)

Sarah Ruhl's plays include Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for Best New Play), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Passion Play (Pen American award; the Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Melancholy Play (a musical with Todd Almond); Eurydice; Orlando, Demeter in the City (NAACP nomination), Late: a cowboy song, Three Sisters, Dear Elizabeth, The Oldest Boy and most recently, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday and How To Transcend a Happy Marriage.

Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, Off-Broadway at Playwrights’ Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country, with premieres often at Yale Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, and the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago. Her plays have also been produced internationally and have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. An alum of 13P and of New Dramatists, she won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006 and most recently, the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. She was the recipient of the PEN Center Award for a mid-career playwright, the Whiting Writers award, the Feminist Press’ Forty under Forty award, and a Lilly Award. She proudly served on the executive council of the Dramatist’s Guild for three years, and she is currently on the faculty at Yale School of Drama. Her book of essays on the theater and motherhood, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write, was a Times Notable Book of the Year. She lives in Brooklyn with her family. (SarahRuhlPlaywright.com)

Mary Zimmerman is the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship ("Genius Award"). She has earned national and international recognition in the form of numerous awards. Metamorphoses, for which she received the Tony Award for Best Direction, was developed at Northwestern University, where she is the chair of performance studies. She is also a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company and is an Artistic Associate of the Goodman Theatre.

Other acclaimed works include Journey to the West, The Odyssey, The Arabian Nights, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, and Eleven Rooms of Proust. She is the director and co-librettist of the 2002 opera Galileo Galilei, with music by Philip Glass, at the Goodman Theatre. At the Metropolitan Opera, she created new productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, Armida and Rusalka. Her interests lie in the adaptation of literary texts for performance, directing and devising theater. 

Daniel Ostling is a two-time Tony Award-nominated scenic (and lighting) designer based in Taipei, San Francisco, Chicago and New York. He has been an ensemble member of Lookingglass Theatre Company since 2003 (1997-2003 as artistic associate) where he has designed over 28 productions. He is a longtime collaborator with fellow Lookingglass ensemble member Mary Zimmerman, with whom he has designed over 29 productions including Metamorphoses on Broadway (earning a Tony nomination for Best Set Design).

Recent productions worth note include the original ballets Cleopatra and Carmen (K-Ballet in Tokyo), Rusalka (Metropolitan Opera), A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre), Odyssey, Timon of Athens and Guys and Dolls (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Lookingglass Alice (Lookingglass and regional theater tours), King Charles III (A.C.T./ San Francisco), Clybourne Park (Broadway; Tony nomination for Best Set Design), White Snake (Wuzhen Theatre Festival/China, Guthrie, Old Globe, Goodman, Oregon Shakespeare, Berkeley Repertory, McCarter), Candide (Chicago, DC, Boston tour), Title and Deed (sets & lights, Lookingglass), and Danai Gurira’s The Convert (Princeton, Los Angeles, Chicago tour; Ovation Award for Best Set Design).

His projects for 2018 include designing scenery for Love’s Labour’s Lost at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Major Barbara at Portland Center Stage. His work as a director include his 2016 Lookingglass directing debut production of Blood Wedding (which he also designed sets for) and his 2011 production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at Two River Theater in New Jersey.

Opera designs include Rusalka (Metropolitan Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor (Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Tokyo), La Sonnambula (Metropolitan Opera), The Merry Widow (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Ainadmar (Tanglewood Music Festival, LA Philharmonic), Phillip Glass’ Galileo Galilei (NYC, London, Chicago) and Suor Angelica and Gianna Schicchi (San Francisco Opera Center). Internationally, his Pacific Overtures traveled to the Donmar Warehouse in London.

His work has also been seen in Japan, Italy, Australia, China, the UK and Canada. He was a tenured associate professor at Northwestern University in Chicago from 2003 to 2011 in the MFA program before he moved to San Francisco. Since then, he has continued to teach at Northwestern part-time. (DanielOstling.com)

Ana Kuzmanić is a Chicago-based costume designer. Her theatrical work has been seen on Broadway (August: Osage County, Desire Under the Elms, Superior Donuts), off-Broadway (The Jacksonian), in the U.K. (The Royal National Theatre) and Australia (Sydney Theatre Company).

She is closely associated with many Chicago companies including the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Looking Glass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and The House. Among the regional companies with whom she has worked are Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Berkley Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Washington Shakespeare Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Geffen Playhouse.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Don Giovanni, directed by her long-time collaborator Tony Award-winning director Robert Falls, was her operatic debut.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in costume and fashion design from Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, Serbia, and her MFA in stage design from Northwestern University. She has designed for her fashion label from 1993 to 2002. She is an associate professor of costume design at Northwestern University in Evanston. (AnaKuzmanic.com)

He has frequently worked with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where he has worked on Wonderful Town, The White Snake, The Jungle Book, Pericles and Candide, among others. Additional Chicago credits include work with Lookingglass Theatre Company, Court Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. New York credits include Metamorphoses (Broadway and Off-Broadway); The Notebooks of Leonardo di Vinci (Second Stage) and Measure for Measure (Central Park). Select regional theater credits include work with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville and BAM. Opera credits include Lucia di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula and Rusalka with the Metropolitan Opera and Lucia di Lammermoor with La Scala in Milan. Awards include Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Award. He is the faculty Lighting Designer at Otterbein University.

Hailed for his adventurous and bold artistic leadership, and for eliciting technically precise and expressive performances from musicians, Grammy Award-winner Grant Gershon celebrated his 20th anniversary as Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in the 2021/22 season. The Los Angeles Times has said the Master Chorale "has become the most exciting chorus in the country under Grant Gershon,” a reflection on both his programming and performances. 
 
During his tenure, Gershon has led more than 200 Master Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in programs encompassing a wide range of choral music, from the early pillars of the repertoire to contemporary compositions. He has led world premiere performances of major works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Eve Beglarian, Billy Childs, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ricky Ian Gordon, Shawn Kirchner, David Lang, Morten Lauridsen, Steve Reich, Ellen Reid, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Chinary Ung, among many others.  

Gershon is committed to increasing representation in the choral repertoire, and in 2020 he announced that the Master Chorale will reserve at least 50% of each future season for works by composers from historically excluded groups in classical music. 
 
In July 2019, Gershon and the Master Chorale opened the famed Salzburg Festival with Lagrime di San Pietro, directed by Peter Sellars. The Salzburg performances received standing ovations and rave reviews from such outlets as the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which called Lagrime “painfully beautiful” (Schmerzliche schön). Gershon and the Master Chorale debuted the production in Los Angeles in 2016 and began touring the world with it in 2018. In its review of the premiere of Lagrime, the Los Angeles Times noted that the production “is a major accomplishment for the Master Chorale, which sang and acted brilliantly. It is also a major accomplishment for music history.”

He was the Resident Conductor of LA Opera from 2012 to 2022, and in this capacity conducted the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha in November 2018. He made his acclaimed debut with the company with La Traviata in 2009 and has subsequently conducted productions including Il Postino, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Florencia en el Amazonas, Wonderful Town, The Tales of Hoffmann and The Pearl Fishers. In 2017, he made his San Francisco Opera debut conducting the world premiere of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West directed by Peter Sellars, who also wrote the libretto, and made his Dutch National Opera debut with the same opera in March 2019. Gershon and Adams have an enduring friendship and professional relationship which began 27 years ago in Los Angeles when Gershon played keyboards in the pit for Nixon in China at LA Opera. Since then, Gershon has led the world premiere performances of Adams’ theater piece I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, premiered his two-piano piece Hallelujah Junction (with Gloria Cheng), and conducted performances of Harmonium, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, El Niño, The Chairman Dances, and choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer. 

In New York, Gershon has appeared at Carnegie Hall and at the historic Trinity Wall Street, and he has performed on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Making Music series at Zankel Hall. Other major appearances include performances at the Ravinia, Aspen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Salzburg, and Vienna festivals, the South American premiere of LA Opera’s production of Il Postino in Chile, and performances with the Baltimore Symphony and the Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino in Turin, Italy. He has worked closely with numerous conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, and his mentor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. 
 
His discography includes the 2022 Grammy Award-winning recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as Grammy–nominated recordings of Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony Classical); six commercial CDs with the Master Chorale, including Glass-Salonen (RCM), You Are (Variations) (Nonesuch), Daniel Variations (Nonesuch), A Good Understanding (Decca), Miserere (Decca), and the national anthems (Cantaloupe Music); and two live-performance albums, the Master Chorale’s 50th Season Celebration recording and Festival of Carols. He has also led the Master Chorale in performances for several major motion pictures soundtracks, including, at the request of John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Gershon was named Outstanding Alumnus of the Thornton School of Music in 2002 and received the USC Alumni Merit Award in 2017.  

He choreographed the Broadway production of Tootsie, earning him his second Tony Award nomination in 2019. The musical will begin a national tour in the fall of 2020. Other Broadway credits include the musicals Holiday Inn: The New Irving Berlin Musical, for which he received a Tony Award nomination, and Honeymoon in Vegas. He also choreographed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and She Loves Me for the Williamstown Theatre Festival; A Chorus Line for Signature Theatre; Paint Your Wagon for New York City Center’s Encores!; The Sound of Music for Lyric Opera of Chicago; and The Tempest for the New York Shakespeare Festival.