The Magic Flute

She studied at the Prague Conservatory, participated in master classes with Mietta Sighele and Veriano Lucchetti in Riva del Garda, and continued her vocal studies with Paola Pittaluga at the opera studio in Bologna. In recent seasons, she debuted at Opernhaus Zürich as Elvira in I Puritani, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in La Traviata, at Teatro San Carlo in Napoli in Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze and at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa in Lucia di Lammermoor. She appeared in concert with the Essen Philharmonic, returned to Teatro Massimo di Palermo as Violetta, to La Fenice in Lucia di Lammermoor and to Oper Köln in Manon. Most recently, she performed La Traviata at Opera di Firenze.

Future plans include I Puritani at Oper Frankfurt and at Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liegi, Rigoletto at Opéra de Massy, and her U.S. debut in La Traviata at Atlanta Opera. Recent season’s engagements have included Marianne in Sauget’s Les caprices de Marianne with Opéra de Reims, Opéra-Théâtre de Metz-Métropole, Opéra Municipal de Marseille, Opéra de Tours, Opéra Grand Avignon, Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux and Opéra-Théâtre de Limoges; Ismene in Alceste with Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera with Teatro Massimo di Palermo; La Traviata at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari; Anna Bolena at Opéra Municipal de Marseille; and Lucia di Lammermoor with Opéra Grand Avignon and Teatro delle Muse in Ancona.

In 2013 he completed his vocal studies graduating at Tchaikovsky Kiev National Academy of Music. From 2013 to 2015, he was a member of the Young Artists Program of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. During this period, he made his role debuts as the Simpleton in Boris Godunov, as Mozart in Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri, as Kai in Banevich's The Story of Kai and Gerda and as Vladimir Igorevich in Prince Igor. In 2014 he debuted as Lykov in a new production of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar’s Bride, conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. With this role, he took part in the Bolshoi Theatre tours to Austria, Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Lincoln Center Festival. In 2015 he was awarded the first prize and audience prize at the Paris Opera Competition. That same year, he debuted as Lensky in Eugene Onegin, working with director Dmitry Tchernyakov in his production at the Bolshoi. Since January 2016 he has been a principal soloist of the Bolshoi.

In 2016 he was awarded the second prize at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, the World Opera Competition in Guadalajara. In 2017 he took part in the production of Weinberg`s The Idiot, singing the title role of Prince Myshkin, and he later performed in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden at the Bolshoi Theatre. For his performance in this role, he was awarded the national opera award. He also took part in concerts of the Bolshoi Theatre tours to Switzerland and France.

In 2017 he sang Lensky at the Festival d’Aix-En-Provence and Savonlinna Opera Festival and he made his Glyndebourne Festival debut as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte. In 2018 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Tybalt in Romeo et Juliette. His future engagements include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni in Palm Beach, The Tale of Tsar Saltan in Brussels, Fenton in Falstaff at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and Lensky in Eugene Onegin in Vienna.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, his appearances with the company have included Malcolm in Macbeth, Cacambo in Candide, Abdallo in Nabucco, Borsa in Rigoletto and Count Lerma in Don Carlo. Additionally, he has covered the leading tenor roles in The Pearl Fishers, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Nabucco and Rigoletto.

In the summer of 2019, he will return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for his role debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.

Recent performances elsewhere include both Don Basilio and Don Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro and Malcolm in Macbeth with Kentucky Opera. He has also appeared with Dayton Opera, Opera Iowa, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Aspen Music Festival, and Des Moines Metro Opera. He has performed under the baton of James Conlon, Placido Domingo, Steven Lord and Grant Gershon. He has been the District winner, and recipient of awards for the Regional portion of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. 

In the 2019/20 season, he makes his first professional performances as Papageno in The Magic Flute at LA Opera under the baton of James Conlon, marking his eighth production with the company. Additionally, he debuts with Opera Philadelphia as Denis in the world premiere of Denis & Katya by Philip Venables, and will debut at Seattle Opera as Schaunard in La Bohème. Mr. Hoffman has been seen previously at Atlanta Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Des Moines Metro Opera.

Mr. Hoffman has concertized with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Wiener Akademie and Il Giardino Armonico at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Marlboro Music, Orchestre National de Lille, Grand Teton Music Festival, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Music Northwest. He has appeared in recital at some of the world’s leading venues, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. He is the recipient of awards from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the Sullivan Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, The Kurt Weill Foundation, and was a Grand Finalist in the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Mr. Hoffman is a graduate of The Juilliard School. (TheoHoffmanBaritone.com)

Her LA Opera appearances have included the leading roles of the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Blondchen in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann and Miss Schlesen in Satyagraha. During the 2018/19 season, in addition to returning to LA Opera in Satyagraha, she makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute and performs the leading role of Setsuko in Jack Perla's An American Dream with Lyric Opera of Chicago. She also appears in concert with the New York Philharmonic. In the summer of 2019, she will perform Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she previously appeared in 2016 as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos.

During the 2017/18 season, she joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Le Fée in Cendrillon. She also made her debut with the LA Master Chorale as the soprano soloist in Orff's Carmina Burana, returned to the LA Philharmonic as soprano soloist in Esa-Pekka Salonen's Wing on Wing, conducted by the composer, and returned to Michigan Opera Theatre as Gilda in Rigoletto. She has performed the Queen of the Night with LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Colorado, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Baroque, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Aspen Music Festival and New England Conservatory. Her engagements for the 2016/17 season include covering the leading role of Dai Yu in San Francisco Opera's world premiere of Bright Sheng's Dream of the Red Chamber, and returns to LA Opera in Akhnaten, The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Tales of Hoffmann. (SopranoSoYoung.com)

She makes her LA Opera debut as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, a role she will subsequently perform for her Metropolitan Opera debut in January 2020.

She began the 2019/20 season with her Dallas Opera debut as the Queen of the Night, also appearing there in the title role of The Golden Cockerel. Later this season, she performs Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld with Madison Opera and the Queen of the Night with New Orleans Opera. Last season, she made her Vienna State Opera debut as Franzi in the world premiere of Johannes Maria Staud’s Die Weiden and sang the Queen of the Night with Kentucky Opera, Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music with Madison Opera, and Viv in the world premiere of Rachel Peters’ Companionship at Fort Worth Opera.

She has previously sung the Queen of the Night in Barrie Kosky’s production with Minnesota Opera and Cincinnati Opera. Her other recent performances include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with Austin Opera, the Queen of the Night with Central City Opera, and Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Amy in Little Women and Johanna in Sweeney Todd with Madison Opera. Her other roles with Minnesota Opera include Zerbinetta as well as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro. (JeniHouser.com)

Hailed by critics for his stage presence and glorious basso cantabile, he has been particularly renowned for the Mozart roles of Figaro, Count Almaviva, Leporello and Don Giovanni. In recent years he has added the great Verdi roles of Attila, Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra and Banquo in Macbeth as well as Méphistophélès in both Faust and La Damnation de Faust to his repertoire.

Throughout his distinguished career he has appeared at the Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Teatro Real Madrid and Metropolitan Opera New York with conductors including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Tugan Sokhiev and Antonio Pappano. 

During the 2019/20 season, Mr. Ballentine made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess, and returned to Seattle Opera as Charlie Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and to LA Opera as Monastatos in The Magic Flute. In concert, he made his debut with the New Jersey Symphony for Handel’s Messiah. Other original engagements for the COVID-19 shortened 2019-20 season include the role of Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess in a return to Washington National Opera, creating the role of Judah in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s Castor and Patience with Cincinnati Opera, and his debut in the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann with Opera Louisiane. Future seasons include additional performances of Sportin’ Life with the Metropolitan Opera, performances of Don José in Carmen with Houston Grand Opera, his first performances of Rodolfo in La Bohème with Florentine Opera, and Dr. Richardson in Breaking the Waves with LA Opera.

His 2018/19 season began with a series of debuts, as Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess with both the English National Opera and De Nederlandse Opera. He returns to Cincinnati Opera later in the season in the same role. In the spring, he performed Don José in Carmen with Seattle Opera, having debuted that role earlier in the season with Annapolis Opera, and he also appeared in concert with Wolf Trap Opera’s Chamber Music at the Barn series.

In the fall of 2019, he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess, a role he will reprise with Washington National Opera in 2020. Other appearances for the season include his return to LA Opera as Monostatos in The Magic Flute, and to Seattle Opera in the title role of Daniel Schnyder's Charlie Parker's Yardbird. He also performs the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann with Opera Louisiane. Concert appearances include Handel's Messiah with the New Jersey Symphony.

Hailing from Norfolk, Virginia, Frederick Ballentine performed a number of roles during his time as a young artist in Los Angeles, with appearances in The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, The Ghosts of Versailles and Patrick Morganelli's cinematic opera Hercules vs Vampires. He subsequently returned to the company in 2016 as the High Priest of Amon in Akhnaten.

He joined the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program in the fall of 2016, where he has performed Luis Griffith in Champion and made a role debut as Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro. He also created the roles of T. Morris Chester and Senator John Lewis in the world premiere of Appomattox to rave reviews. During the 2017/18 season, his performances in Washington included the Messenger in Aida, the Herald in Don Carlo, and Cacambo in Candide. He also appeared with Cincinnati Opera as the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman.

Recent engagements include Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess in a return to Glimmerglass Opera, the First Armored Man in The Magic Flute with Seattle Opera, Reverend Parris in Robert Ward’s The Crucible at the Glimmerglass Festival under the direction of Francesca Zambello. In 2015 he was a Filene Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where he sang Count Almaviva in The Ghosts of Versailles. He has also trained with The Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Aspen Music Opera Center.

In concert, Mr. Ballentine has appeared as a featured soloist with the New York Choral Society for their Christmas Concert, with Naples Philharmonic and the Colburn School for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Arvo Part’s Miserere, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela as Pang in Turandot. He is also featured on Placido Domingo’s Christmas album, My Christmas.

Learn more at FrederickBallentine.com.

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.

Her mainstage appearances during the 2018/19 season include Tebaldo in Don Carlo, the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel and Annio in The Clemency of Titus. Additionally, she was the mezzo-soprano soloist for the world premiere of Joby Talbot's new score for Vampyr at the Theatre at Ace Hotel, and she appeared as Jocabed in the world premiere of Henry Mollicone's Moses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Her LAO appearances for the 2019/20 season included the Third Lady in The Magic Flute.

In March 2022, she will make her North Carolina Opera debut in Sanctuary Road by Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell. In the 2022/23 season, she will make her debut with San Francisco Opera as Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra, followed by appearances there as Sister Mathilde in Dialogues of the Carmelites and as Flora in La Traviata.

In the summer of 2019, she returned to Wolf Trap Opera Company as a Filene Artist to perform the roles of Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Concepción in Ravel's L’heure espagnole.

In 2018, she appeared with Wolf Trap Opera Company as Gertrude in Romeo et Juliette. Ms. Raven was a Pittburgh Opera Resident Artist in the 2016/17 season, where she performed as Oronte in Handel’s Riccardo Primo and as "Hannah after" in Laura Kaminsky's As One for its Pennsylvania premiere. In 2016, Ms. Raven performed in the Schwabacher Summer Concert with San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program. She recently performed the role of Marian Anderson in Deep River: Marian Anderson's Journey with Virginia Opera. As a Young Artist with Central City Opera in 2015, Ms. Raven was seen in scenes from Carmen, Street Scene and The Ballad of Baby Doe.

Praised for her “extremely attractive and extremely large voice” (Berkshire Review for the Arts), Vivien Shotwell recently made her debut as Fricka in Die Walküre with the Miami Music Festival.

Her engagements for the 2019/20 season include Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with James Conlon and the RAI Symphony Orchestra (Torino, Italy), as well as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Wichita Grand Opera.

She received her Artist Diploma in opera from the Yale School of Music, where she performed Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi under the baton of Speranza Scappucci. Also at Yale, she sang the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, for which she was described by the Hartford Courant as being “filled with intensities… like the ringing of a haunted bell.”

She was an Emerging Artist with Calgary Opera, where she performed Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict. Other roles include Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, the Third Lady in The Magic Flute and the title role in Giulio Cesare, which she has performed four times.

Her concert repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Rückertlieder, Elgar’s Sea Pictures and The Music Makers, Mozart’s Requiem, and Copland’s In the Beginning.

She has received grants from Early Music America and the Canada Council for the Arts, and was twice a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. At Yale she was awarded the David L. Kasdon Memorial Prize and the Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Prize. When not singing, she enjoys writing, and is the author of a historical novel, Vienna Nocturne (Random House, 2014), about a soprano who loved Mozart, which has been translated into seven languages. A dual Canadian-American citizen, she was born in Colorado and divides her time between Halifax and Montreal.
(VivienShotwell.com)

She made her LA Opera debut as the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel under the baton of James Conlon. Ms. Vautour will return to the LA Opera stage in the 2019/20 season as Papagena in The Magic Flute and as Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro, and she will cover Musetta in La Bohème. Prior to this, Ms. Vautour joins Teatro Nuovo for their 2019 summer season as a Resident Artist to cover the title role in Bellini’s La Straniera. Additionally, she makes her Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Das klagende Lied with the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus and James Conlon.

Ms. Vautour’s other assignments during the 2018/19 season included covering both the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and appearing as Zipporah/Voice of God in the world premiere of Henry Mollicone’s Moses, conducted by James Conlon. She came to LA Opera following a summer as an Apprentice Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera, where she covered Adele in Die Fledermaus.

Sarah Vautour earned her Master of Music from Rice University and a Bachelor of Music from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Her notable engagements include the title role in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Morgana in Handel’s Alcina with CCM Opera d’arte, as well as Rose Maurrant in Street Scene with Harrower Summer Opera Workshop. Ms. Vautour made her Aspen Music Festival debut in the role of Mozart and Donna Anna in Stephen Stucky’s The Classical Style, under the baton of Robert Spano. In the 2017/18 season, she appeared under the baton of Thomas Jaber as the soprano soloist in the Poulenc Gloria, and again, later, with the Houston Masterworks Chorus as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

He was also recently featured in several roles in the company's 2018 production of Candide. Previously, he has had solo roles in Jenůfa (2007), Carmen (2013), Billy Budd (2014), Pagliacci (2015) and The Festival Play of Daniel (2016). He has been a member of the LA Opera Chorus since 2005. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, where he is a frequent soloist. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Long Beach Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Choir, the Lark Society and Orange County Choral Society. Other career highlights include appearing with the LA Philharmonic as Hercules in The Civil Wars by Philip Glass, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Pasadena Schubertiad, Alonzo in Hoiby’s The Tempest with USC Thornton Opera and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro with Pacific Repertory Opera.

He previously performed with the company as a member of the Los Angeles Children's Chorus in productions of Hansel and Gretel (2018) and La Bohème (2019). He has performed in Andrew Norman’s A Trip to the Moon and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, both with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recently, he was the boy soloist with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in the “Main Theme from Alice in Wonderland.” 

Now in his sixth year as a member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, he previously appeared in LA Opera productions of Carmen (2017), Hansel and Gretel (2018) and El Gato Montés (2019). He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in productions of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Carmina Burana (twice), Otello, Buddha Passion and A Trip to the Moon. He has also performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Pasadena Symphony. In 2014, he appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. In 2010, he co-starred as Grey Martin in an episode of NBC's Prime Suspect.

She previously performed with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus in the companies productions of La Bohème (2016) and Hansel and Gretel (2018).  A junior at Polytechnic High School, she has been a member of the LACC for seven years. She performed with the LA Philharmonic in performances of Bernstein’s Mass, Persephone, A Trip to the Moon, Otello and Carmina Burana, among others. In addition to loving opera and participating in her high school musical theater productions, she has played piano for 10 years and is a double gold medalist U.S. figure skater.

Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 67 different operas and more than 450 performances to date with the company.

(Click here to visit James Conlon's Corner, where you can find essays, videos and conversations he has created especially for LA Opera.)

Internationally recognized as one of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. Since his 1974 debut with the New York Philharmonic, he has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra, and at many of the world’s leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and filmography, numerous writings, television appearances, and guest speaking engagements, Conlon is one of classical music’s most recognized and prolific figures.

Conlon has been Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (2016–20); Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera (1995–2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989–2003), simultaneously leading the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1983–91). Conlon was Music Director of the Ravinia Festival (2005–15), summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival―the oldest choral festival in the United States―where he was Music Director for 37 years (1979–2016), marking one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. He also served as Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2021–2023). He has conducted over 270 performances at the Metropolitan Opera since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals such as the Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

As Music Director of LA Opera, Conlon has led more operas than any other conductor in company history. Highlights of his LA Opera tenure include the company’s first Ring cycle; initiating the groundbreaking Recovered Voices series, an ongoing commitment to staging masterpieces of 20th-century European opera suppressed by the Third Reich; spearheading Britten 100/LA, a city-wide celebration honoring the composer’s centennial; and conducting the West Coast premiere of The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a prominent Black composer in 18th-century France.

Conlon opens his 18th season at LA Opera conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni directed by Kasper Holten. His groundbreaking Recovered Voices initiative, dedicated to rescuing works from historical neglect or censorship, returns to the company with a double-bill featuring the company premiere of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA in a new production directed by Kaneza Schaal, and a revival of Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf (Der Zwerg)—an opera that launched the Recovered Voices initiative in 2008—directed by Darko Tresnjak. He also conducts Verdi’s La Traviata—the first opera he led as Music Director of LA Opera—continuing his multi-season focus on the works of the great Italian composer. To date, Conlon has conducted more than 500 international performances of Verdi’s repertoire. Conlon closes his LA Opera season honoring the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death, conducting Turandot, Puccini’s final opera composed in 1924.

Additional highlights of his season include returning to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to lead Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and conducting Wagner’s Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper Berlin. He also returns to Switzerland’s Bern Symphony, where he is Principal Guest Conductor, to lead three programs including Schubert and Beethoven symphonies, a celebratory New Years Day concert, and a season finale with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

Conlon is dedicated to bringing composers silenced by the Nazi regime to more widespread attention, often programming this lesser-known repertoire throughout Europe and North America. In 1999 he received the Vienna-based Zemlinsky Prize for his work bringing the composer’s music to a broader audience; in 2013 he was awarded the Roger E. Joseph Prize at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for his efforts to eradicate racial and religious prejudice and discrimination; and in 2007 he received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League. His work on behalf of silenced composers led to the creation of The OREL Foundation, an invaluable resource on the topic for music lovers, students, musicians, and scholars; the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School; and a recent virtual TEDx Talk titled “Resurrecting Forbidden Music.”

Conlon is deeply invested in the role of music in civic life and the human experience. At LA Opera, his popular pre-performance talks blend musicology, literary studies, history, and social sciences to discuss the enduring power and relevance of opera and classical music. He also frequently collaborates with universities, museums, and other cultural institutions and works with scholars, practitioners, and community members across disciplines. He frequently appears throughout the country as a speaker on a variety of cultural and educational topics.

Conlon’s extensive discography and filmography spans the Bridge, Capriccio, Decca, EMI, Erato, and Sony Classical labels. His recordings of LA Opera productions have received four Grammy Awards, two respectively for John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and for Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Additional highlights include an ECHO Klassik Award-winning recording cycle of operas and orchestral works by Alexander Zemlinsky; a CD/DVD release of works by Viktor Ullmann, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik; and the world-premiere recording of Liszt’s oratorio St. Stanislaus.

Conlon holds four honorary doctorates, was one of the first five recipients of the Opera News Awards, and was distinguished by the New York Public Library as a Library Lion. He received a 2023 Cross of Honor for Science and Art (Österreichische Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst) from the Republic of Austria, and was named Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic. He was also named Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and, in 2002, personally accepted France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, from then-President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac.

Learn more at JamesConlon.com.

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.  

In 2014, he was voted "Opera Director of the Year" at the International Opera Awards in London and at the same awards in 2015, the Komische Oper was voted 'Opera Company of the Year." His most recent work at the Komische Oper Berlin has included The Magic Flute (co-directed with 1927), which has been seen by over a quarter of a million people on three continents, the Monteverdi trilogy, Ball at the Savoy, West Side Story, Moses und Aron, The Tales of Hoffmann, Eugene Onegin, and his production of Castor and Pollux (co-produced by English National Opera) which won the Laurence Olivier Award for best opera production in 2012.

IHe made his debuts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with The Nose, and at the Bayreuth Festival with Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He has directed opera productions for the Bavarian State Opera (Die Schweigsame Frau and The Fiery Angel), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Saul), Oper Frankfurt (Dido and Aeneas/Bluebeard's Castle and Carmen), Dutch National Opera (Armide), Oper Zurich (La Fanciulla del West and Macbeth) and LA Opera (Dido and Aeneas/Bluebeard's Castle and The Magic Flute). He has also presented his productions at Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Vienna Staatsoper, English National Opera, Oper Graz, Theater Basel, Aalto Theater Essen, Staatsoper Hannover, Deutsches Theater Berlin and Schauspielhaus Frankfurt and is a regular guest at the Edinburgh International Festival.

1927's trademark style integrates performance, music and animation to create ground breaking theater. At 1927, she and Mr. Barritt (alongside fellow collaborators Esme Appleton and Lillian Henley) have worked together for 10 years to create their own unique style of theater making, inspired by their love of silent film and animation. For 1927, she has written and directed the multi-award-winning shows Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, The Animals and Children Took to the Streets and Golem. Awards for these productions include Herald Angel, Fringe First, Carol Tambor, Arches Brick, Total Theatre, Off West End, Critics Circle and the Peter Brook Empty Space Ensemble Award. Since 2007, the company has toured extensively across five continents to 38 countries. She is currently creating a new 1927 show, which will premiere in 2019.

Her operatic debut was with The Magic Flute for the Komische Opera Berlin, which she co-conceived and co-directed and which has been licensed to opera houses in Germany, the United States, Spain, Finland and Poland. In 2017, she co-created productions of Stravinsky's Petrushka and Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges for the Komische Opera, co-directing the show with 1927 collaborator Esme Appleton. In 2015, she was featured alongside Paul Barritt in the Progress 1000, a list of the 1000 most influential people in London and in 2016 she was featured in The Stage 100 List of the most influential people in UK Theatre.

For more info visit: 19-27.co.uk.

For 1927, he has co-created, animated and designed three highly acclaimed and innovative animated shows: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, The Animals and Children Took to the Streets and Golem. His operatic debut was The Magic Flute for the Komische Opera Berlin, which he co-conceived and animated and which has been licensed to opera houses in Germany, the United States, Spain, Finland and Poland. In 2017, he co-created and animated Stravinsky's Petrushka and Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges for the Komische Opera. For his work with 1927, he has won the Critic’s Circle Award for best design (Golem) and the coveted Knight of the Illumination award for best Projection (Golem). He is currently creating a new 1927 show, which will premiere in 2019.

Outside of 1927, he has collaborated with Musik Fabrik Köln on an animated new music concert (Krazy Kat Projekt), his short film White Morning (2013) played in many of the major film festivals including Sundance, Melbourne International Film Festival and London Short Film Festival, and he has collaborated with the Victoria and Albert Museum to animate a painting by Dennis van Alsloot. He also lectures in animation and illustration at Middlesex University. In 2015, he was featured alongside Suzanne Andrade in the Progress 1000, a list of the 1000 most influential people in London and in 2016 he was featured in The Stage 100 List of the most influential people in UK Theatre.

For more info, visit: 19-27.co.uk and PaulBarritt.com.

Her collaborations as a stage and costume designer with director Barrie Kosky include Strindberg’s A Dream Play (Deutsche Theater Berlin), Strauss’s The Silent Woman (Bavarian State Opera), as well as Ball im Savoy, Seven Songs/The Seven Deadly Sins, West Side Story and The Magic Flute (Komische Oper Berlin).

She also has a longstanding collaboration with director Nicolas Stemann, designing costumes for his productions of Hamlet (Schauspiel Hannover), Jelinek’s The Work (Burgtheater, Vienna) and Schiller’s The Robbers (Thalia Theater, Hamburg). Together with director Christiane Pohle, she founded the women’s theater company LaborLavache, presented at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.

She has designed stage and costume designs for the Basel Theater, Vienna Burgtheater and the Deutsche Theater Berlin, for opera productions in Lucerne and Basel, as well as for film. Other design credits include The Tales of Hoffmann (Bregenzer Festspiele, directed by Stefan Herheim); Eötvös’s Three Sisters (Vienna State Opera); costumes for La Cenerentola (Oslo Opera, directed by Stefan Herheim); and costumes for La Traviata (Theater Basel, directed by Daniel Kramer).

Esther Bialas studied costume design in Hamburg. Since 2004 she has taught costume design at the Lerchenfeld University in Hamburg.

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.