El Gato Montes: The Wildcat

He has sung more than 150 different roles to date, with more than 3900 total career performances. An integral part of LA Opera since its earliest days, he served as the company's general director from 2003 to 2019.

His more than 100 recordings of complete operas, compilations of arias and duets, and crossover discs have earned him 12 Grammy Awards, including three Latin Grammys, and he has made more than 50 music videos and won two Emmy Awards. In addition to starring in three feature opera films—Carmen, La Traviata and Otello—he voiced the roles of Monte in Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Skeleton Jorge in The Book of Life, and also appeared as himself on Sesame Street and The Simpsons. His telecast of Tosca from the authentic settings in Rome was seen by more than one billion people in 117 countries. He subsequently took the title role in a 2010 live telecast of Rigoletto from Mantua, Italy, the city in which the opera’s story takes place. In 1990, he and his colleagues José Carreras and the late Luciano Pavarotti formed the Three Tenors, performing with enormous success all over the world and attracted millions of new fans to opera.

He has conducted more than 500 opera performances and symphonic concerts with the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Chicago Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Montréal Symphony, National Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic. In 2018, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival as a conductor, leading performances of Die Walküre. In 1993, he founded the international voice competition Operalia.

Grammy Award winner Ana María Martínez is considered to be one of the foremost sopranos of her time, with an international career that spans the world’s most important opera houses and concert halls.

A winner of the 15th Annual Opera News Awards, her repertoire encompasses opera’s most intriguing and diverse leading ladies, and she engages her audiences season after season with signature roles, spellbinding debuts, and a myriad of captivating recordings.  In addition to a full calendar of performances, Ms. Martínez continues to explore all aspects of her career, both on and off stage, highlighted by such diverse opportunities as voicing the role of opera singer Alessandra in season three of Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, to proudly representing her birthplace of Puerto Rico as an honoree and performer in the 62nd Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City, and all the while maintaining her commitment as a leader in the industry and as an advocate and educator to the next generation of musicians. 

In 2019 Ms. Martínez joined Houston Grand Opera as their first-ever Artistic Advisor where she works with the artistic team on casting and production decisions, adjudicates the annual Concert of Arias competition, mentors and coaches HGO Studio artists, and engages with the larger Houston community on behalf of the Opera.  Equally exciting, following a two year appointment as Artist-in-Residence at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in July 2021 she became a professor in their Department of Voice.

Her appearances in the 2022/23 season will include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera.

Performance highlights of the 2021/22 season include the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas with Lyric Opera of Chicago and a role debut as Despina in Cosi fan tutte with Washington National Opera. On stage during the 2020/21 season, in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms. Martínez was thrilled to join San Diego Opera as Mimi in their production of La Bohème, in the world’s first-ever drive-in opera production.  Virtual performances during the season included a “Living Room Recital” with LA Opera performed in Ana María’s home and available digitally.  She curated two Spanish-themed virtual programs, the first for Lyric Opera of Chicago with pianist Craig Terry, was entitled Pasión Latina and featured a dynamic selection of music from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Argentina and Spain. The second program, created by Ana María for Houston Grand Opera, entitled Suite Española, featured music of Spain, including zarzuela, and stared Ana María alongside HGO Studio artists.  Additional performances during the season included her role debut in the title role of Tosca with Opera Philadelphia, which she performed again later in the season with Cincinnati Opera, as well as Nedda in Pagliacci with Palm Beach Opera. 

Learn more at AnaMariaMartinez.com.

Arturo Chacón-Cruz has established himself in recent years as a leading tenor with exciting appearances in renowned theaters and concert halls across the globe. He has sung over 60 roles in more than 30 countries.

Performances in the 2021/2022 season include Don José in Carmen (Parma, Italy), Gabriel Adorno in Simon Boccanegra in Palermo, Jacopo Foscari in The Two Foscari in Paris, Alfredo in La Traviata in Moscow and Seville, the title role of Don Carlo with Maryland Lyric Opera, Hoffmann in The Tales of Hoffmann in Las Palmas, and Manrico in Il Trovatore in Spain, as well as concerts in Mexico City and Monterrey, Corpus Christi, San Francisco, Palermo, Muscat, Paris, and Vienna.

Since winning Operalia in 2005, Arturo’s career has seen a successful and steady development. His repertoire spans from Bellini and Donizetti to Puccini and Verdi. Some of his more sought after roles are: Rodolfo, the Duke of Mantua, Alfredo, Jacopo Foscari, Gabriele Adorno, Pinkerton, Hoffmann, Werther and Romeo to name a few.

He has sung private recitals for King Felipe of Spain, Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos of Spain, as well as another one for all the leaders of Iberoamerica.

Recent highlights include role debut at the Vienna State Opera, his role debut as Manrico in Il Trovatore, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Oronte in Verdi’s I Lombardi in Montecarlo, Cavaradossi in Tosca in Oviedo, Spain, Ismael in Nabucco in Valencia, Spain, and Rodolfo in Luisa Miller in Barcelona, as well as a reprisal of one of his signature roles, the eponymous role in Massenet’s Werther in Stuttgart’s State Opera.

Other performances include: the Duke in Rigoletto (Houston, Verona, Naples, Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles and Florence), Rodolfo in La Boheme (San Francisco and Hamburg), Alfredo in La Traviata (Munich, Valencia, Moscow, Rome, Barcelona, Verona and Oman), Ruggero in La Rondine in Genova, Faust in La Damnation de Faust in Mexico City’s Bellas Artes, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Werther in Barcelona and Budapest, Des Grieux in Manon in Monte Carlo, Don Jose in Carmen (Tel Aviv, Lyon, Tampere, Palermo and Zurich), as well as a critically acclaimed role debut as Macduff in Macbeth in Los Angeles and later in Vienna.

He has worked with star directors Sofia Coppola (La Traviata, with Valentino costumes) and Woody Allen (Gianni Schicchi, available on DVD and BluRay by Sony); these shows were internationally acclaimed with sold out performances in Los Angeles, Valencia and Rome.

In addition to an extensive existing operatic discography, the artist’s first solo CD is available. Arturo Chacón le canta a México features some of the most beautiful Mexican music ever written, and is accompanied by the Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora. Arturo’s mariachi recordings De México para el Mundo and De mi Casa a tu Casa were recently released, including a duet with his wife Venetia-Maria Stelliou, as well as his first ever English language recording A Christmas Wonderland available on all digital platforms as well as physically on Amazon.

Chacón-Cruz has received many honors and awards throughout the years. The most recent one being the “Moncayo Medal” in Jalisco, Mexico, he was also “GQ Man of the Year 2018” in Mexico. He was the “Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Emerging Star” of 2017 for the San Francisco Opera.

He made his La Scala di Milano debut as Hoffmann in The Tales of Hoffmann, and received a very warm reception from the audience and press: “He excellently portrayed the lovelorn poet, with a youthfulness that only made him more attractive, exhibiting great mastery over his instrument and an indeed pleasant high register, all in all, a brilliant participation” (GB Opera).

Arturo is the spokesperson for Beyond Celiac, an organization he proudly supports that works towards a cure for Celiac Disease.

He currently lives in Miami with his wife and his son. Learn more at ArturoChaconCruz.com.

She enjoyed many great successes on 2018, including the releases of two new recording. She appeared in concert at the Barbican Center with the London BBC as Rosario in Granado´s Goyescas, recorded by Harmonia Mundi, and also appeared in concert with the Manchester BBC as Salud in Falla's La vida breve, recorded by Chandos. She received the Opera Actual Magazine 2018 Lifetime Career Achievement Award. She also made her debut at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as Isabella in L´Italiana in Algeri.

Other concert appearances included Rossini´s Stabat Mater in Malaga, the Verdi Requiem at Palma de Mallorca´s Cathedral, a concert at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow with Alexis Soriano, Mahler´s 3rd Symphony with the OSSODRE in Uruguay, a concert tour with the Valencia Soloists Septet, and the Verdi Requiem in San Sebastián and Guadalajara (Mexico) conducted by Plácido Domingo. She also performs recitals at Palau de la Musica de Valencia, and with soprano Ainhoa Arteta at the Benicassim Festival. Another successful debut was as Bernarda in Miguel Ortega's La casa de Bernarda Alba at Madrid's Teatro de la Zarzuela, conducted by the composer.

Carmen is undoubtedly Ms. Herrera´s signature role. Her hypnotic portrayal has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, New National Theater in Tokyo, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich's Bavarian State Opera, Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Dresden Semperoper, Masada Festival, Israeli Opera, LA Opera (where she received the Plácido Domingo Award for her performance of this role), Teatro Bellas Artes in México, and other Spanish theaters such as Sabadell Opera, Teatro Villamarta in Jerez, San Sebastian, Teatro Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santander and Lyric Opera of A Coruña among others. In summer 2009 she opened the season at the Arena di Verona as Carmen and was honored to perform Act IV of the opera with Plácido Domingo in his 40th anniversary gala there.

The combination of his commanding vocalism and musicianship, jointly to his elegant stage presence and theatrical abilities has enabled him to portray a broad variety of characters, such as Don Giovanni, King Philip II in Don Carlo and Mephistopheles in Faust. This bass acquired and honed his musical skills in Switzerland and the United States and he adopted his refined technique thanks to his lessons with Professors Dennis Hall, Carlos Montané and Nicolai Gedda. His career has taken him to the stages of New York, Moscow, Zurich, Stuttgart, Vienna, Geneva, Palm Beach, Paris, Prague, Mexico, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona and Seville, among others.

Mr. Amoretti has worked with major conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Anton Guadagno, Pinchas Steinberg, Bruno Bartoletti, Marcello Viotti, Nello Santi, Zubin Mehta, Alberto Zedda and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. His repertoire includes the most important roles for bass, such as Mephistopheles in both Faust and The Damnation of Faust, both Don Giovanni and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Mustafá in L'Italiana in Algeri, King Philip II in Don Carlo, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Colline in La Boheme and Scarpia in Tosca.

He also has a special interest in the Spanish lyric repertoire, appearing in both zarzuelas and Spanish operas. He is a regular guest singer at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, where his many roles have included Padre Antón in El Gato Montés.

Bass-baritone E. Scott Levin, described as having a “smooth, buttery voice,” “incredibly sharp timing,” and “a gifted comic actor,” has been making audiences laugh for the past 15 years. He first appeared with LA Opera in 2015 in the Off Grand production of as Babayan (Bartolo) in ¡Figaro! (90210). Later that year, he made his mainstage debut with the company as Maestro Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi, opposite Plácido Domingo. In 2019, he returns as Hormigón in El Gato Montés.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis and Graduate Certificate in Vocal Performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. While in St. Louis, he sang in over 20 productions with Union Avenue Opera, where his roles included Masetto in Don Giovanni, Pooh-Bah in The Mikado, Benoit and Alcindoro in La Bohème, and Alidoro in La Cenerentola.

Since moving to Los Angeles, he has regularly performed with Pacific Opera Project, where he most recently performed Papapeno in The Magic Flute. Other roles with that company include Leporello in Don Giovanni, Schaunard in La Bohème, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, the Sacristan in Tosca, and Ko-Ko in The Mikado, among others.

He debuted at Townsend/Fresno Opera as the Sacristan in Tosca and he has also performed with Long Beach Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Celestial Opera, Center Stage Opera, Redlands Opera Theater and Orange County Opera. 

In addition to his work in opera, he also performs as a concert soloist. For the past seven years, he has been a featured soloist with the Los Angeles Bach Festival. Between 2003 and 2006, he served as the liturgical soloist at Temple Sha’are Emeth and as the baritone young artist with the Bach Society of Saint Louis. 

He is the co-founder of Chamber Opera Players of LA (COPOLA), a chamber opera troupe that regularly performs in Glendale, California. (EScottLevin.com)

American dramatic contralto Sharmay Musacchio has performed as a soloist with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, LA Opera, Sarasota Opera, Portland Opera/IVAI, Opera Southwest, Fresno Grand Opera, Townsend Opera, Winter Opera St. Louis, Pacific Opera Project, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, New England Symphonic Ensemble, Mid America Productions at Carnegie Hall, San Diego City Ballet, San Diego International Fringe Festival, Bodhi Tree Concerts, and the SFCM Opera Theatre/SFOpera.

Ms. Musacchio’s concert work includes her Carnegie Hall debut as the alto soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, alto soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Peninsula Symphony, alto soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Masterworks Chorale, alto soloist in ten productions of Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall, San Diego Chamber Orchestra and the San Diego City Ballet.

Ms. Musacchio has worked with renowned conductors including James Conlon, Plácido Domingo, Matthew Aucoin, Victor DeRenzi, Jayce Ogren and Martin Wright. She has worked with renowned directors such as Phelim McDermott, Marta Domingo, Julie Taymor, Brad Dalton, Josh Shaw and Sam Buntrock.

Ms. Musacchio recently debuted the roles of The Mother in Martinu’s The Tears of the Knife with the San Diego International Fringe Festival, Dame Quickly in Falstaff with Pacific Opera Project, and debuted Dame Carruthers in Yeomen of the Guard with Winter Opera St. Louis.

She returned to LA Opera singing the role of a Daughter of Akhnaten (and covering the role of Nefertiti) in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten. In 2017,  she covered the role of Herodias in Salome with LA Opera and performed the role of the Voice of Antonia's Mother in The Tales of Hoffmann conducted by Placido Domingo. For the 2018/19 season, she sings the role of Frasquita in El Gato Montés with LA Opera

Recent engagements include debuting the title role of the one-woman opera Katie Luther by Dr. Glenn Winters/Virginia Opera, returning to NYCO singing the role of La Vecchia in L’amore dei Tre Re, singing the role of Giovanna in Rigoletto with LA Opera, and making her Metropolitan Opera debut singing the role of Novice 2 in Suor Angelica as part of the Met's production of Il Trittico.

Ms.Musacchio’s engagements for the 2019/20 season include making her Chicago Opera Theater debut as Auntie in The Scarlet Ibis (Chicago premiere), and returning to the Metropolitan Opera covering Sotopenre in Akhnaten this fall. 

(SharmayMusacchio.com)

She received her bachelor of music at Xinghai Conservatory of Music (in Guangzhou) and her master of music degree from Manhattan School of Music. She also holds a graduate diploma in opera performance from New England Conservatory.

Her operatic roles include Prince Charming in Massenet’s Cendrillon, the Third Lady in The Magic Flute, the Third Witch in Bloch’s Macbeth (U.S. premiere of original French version), Thetis in Ibert’s Persée et Andromède, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, and the title role in Carmen. In the 51st International Vocal Competition Hertogenbosch, she was the sole winner in the Lied Duo category of the Asia-Pacific region. Through a rigorous selection process, she was chosen as one of the four singers to attend the 2018 Pacific Music Festival, where she was a soloist in a gala concert.

During the 2016/17 season, he performed the roles of Schlemil in The Tales of Hoffmann and Sciarrone in Tosca. He made his company debut in Luisa Fernanda, with many subsequent appearances including Yamadori in Madama Butterfly (2016) and Starbuck in Moby-Dick (2015).  In the 2017/18 season, he made his Dallas Opera debut as Marquis d’Obigny in La Traviata.

He has performed the leading roles of the Jester in the West Coast premiere of Ernst Krenek’s The Secret Kingdom and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia with the Colburn Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon. Other performances include Bach’s Magnificat with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of music director Ježrey Kahane, and Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ with the Anna Maria Island Concert Chorus & Orchestra.

He is the 2021 Los Angeles District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

In the summer of 2022, he performs the title role of Don Giovanni and Ford in Falstaff (opposite Bryn Terfel in the title role) with Aspen Opera Theater. His engagements for the 2022/23 season include a recital with pianist Sandra Leary at SUNY at Fredonia's Rosch Recital Hall, a role debut as Dr. Buchanan in Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke at Hillman Opera, and a role debut as Papageno in The Magic Flute with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta.

In the summer of 2021, he returned to Santa Fe Opera as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2019, he made his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He also appeared in Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony and in the U.S. premiere of Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane with the Bard Music Festival.

Other recent appearances include the First Officer and Croupier in Candide at Santa Fe Opera; the Cobbler in Philip Glass's The Juniper Tree at Wolf Trap Opera; Nardo in La Finta Giardiniera, Professor Bhaer in Mark Adamo's Little Women, Curio in Giulio Cesare and Betto in Gianni Schicchi with the Shepherd School Opera; the Reverend Olin Blitch in Susannah and Dandini in La Cenerentola with the Hillman Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni and Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with the WNY Chamber Orchestra.

He received his master’s degree in May 2018 from Rice University, where he studied with Stephen King. In 2018, he was a finalist in Houston Grand Opera's Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias; in the summer of 2018, he joined the Apprentice Singer Program at Santa Fe Opera, where he covered the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the new production John Adams' Doctor Atomic, directed by the librettist Peter Sellars. In the summer of 2017, he joined the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, covering the role of Pacuvio in Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone and singing in Four of a Kind, a recital with Steven Blier and Joseph Li.

Learn more at MichaelJHawkBaritone.com.

He made his debut LA Opera appearances in 2013 with Tosca and a concert of zarzuela and Latin American music. He studied at the Joaquin Rodrigo Conservatory in Valencia and at the Vienna Conservatory. Recently he conducted I Puritani in Piacenza, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Rigoletto in San Francisco, Carmen and Tosca in Rome, Nabucco and Aida in Verona, The Merry Widow in Padova, La Traviata in Catania and Naples, Le Comte Ory in Liege, and Simon Boccanegra in Bari.

His upcoming appearances include Lakme in Oman, El Gato Montes in Los Angeles, Tosca in Rome and Carmen in Berlin.

Born in Seville in 1980, he studied at the Teatro Viento Sur Theater and at Escénica (Center for Scenic Studies of Andalusia).

Since 2010, he has collaborated with the esteemed director José Carlos Plaza for productions of El cerco de Leningrado, Los diamantes de la corona, El Gato Montés, Electra, El diccionario, Hécuba, Gala of the Lyric Awards of Oviedo, Los Amores de la Ines and La Verbena de la Paloma, Medea, Towards Love, Juan José and El Padre.

His performances as an actor include roles in The Car of the Innocents, The Oresteia, The Father, The Night of the Tribades (for which he was named Best Actor by the National Festival of Teatro Vegas Bajas), Medea and The Diamonds of the Crown, directed by José Carlos Plaza; Hotel Party for Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa; Lope de Vega's The Dog in the Manger, directed by Antonio Reina; Arrabal's The Tricycle, directed by Jorge Cuadrelli; Acolytes and Cowards for Montse Peidro; and Sherlock Holmes for Juan Carlos Martín. He has also acted in film and television (in the film El Impostor and in the Hospital Central series), in short films and advertising work. (JorgeTorresActor.com)

He has collaborated with directors including Jose Carlos Plaza, Josefina Molina, Robert Wilson, Miguel Narros, Manuel Guiterrez Aragon, William Layton and Jose Luis Gomez, in productions for the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Palacio de Festivales de Santander, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Auditorio de La Coruna, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Teatro Regio in Torino and the Teatro Lirico de Cagliari, as well as numerous productions from the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. He has been technical director for the Centro Dramatico Nacional and the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de Almagro.

Born in Madrid, he studied fine arts in his hometown and in Paris. From the 1960s to the mid-eighties, he worked as a haute couture designer in Elio Bernhayer's studio. In theater he has worked with directors including Jose Carlos Plaza, Josefina Molina, José Tamayo and Pilar Miró. With Miró, he has also collaborated in cinema, winning the Goya Award for Best Costume Design for El perro del hortelano. He won a second Goya Award for the costumes of Goya en Burdeos, directed by Carlos Saura, with whom he also collaborated in Salomé and in the opera Carmen. In the world of dance, he has notably designed for the National Ballet of Spain, the Ballet of Cuba, the Ballet of Antonio Gades and the Victor Ullate Ballet.

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.  

Born in Seville, Spain, she began dancing at the age of 12 in the children’s show Galas Juveniles. Her most important teachers include Adelita Domingo and Enrique El Cojo. In 1969, she joined Antonio Gades’s company as his dance partner. She stayed with the company for two decades, during which she not only travelled the world but also participated in a well-known cinematic trilogy directed by Carlos Saura: Bodas de Sangre ("Blood Wedding"), Carmen and El Amor Brujo (known in English as either "Love, the Magician" or "Wedded by Witchcraft"). In 1983, she traveled to Paris to play the starring role in Carmen. At the time, she was widely considered to be the greatest dancer to have ever played the part.

Since 1988, she has participated in many other movies and television programs, including Jaime de Armiñan’s Juncal, Vicente Escrivá’s Montoyas y Tarantos, and Manuel Huerga’s Antártida. She also appeared as herself in the biographical film Despacito y a compás ("Softly and to the Rhythm"). In 1989, she debuted her own company, Ballet Cristina Hoyos, in Paris with its first show, Sueños flamencos. Only one year later, it became the first flamenco dance company to perform at the Parisian opera house Palais Garnier, opening with overwhelming success. The company also presented the first flamenco performances at the Paris Opera and the Royal Swedish Opera. Cristina Hoyos later choreographed the opera Carmen, directed by Nuria Espert and Zubin Mehta, which was performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

He studied flamenco at the school of Alfonso El Maleno and in Seville with José Galván and Manolo Marín. He began his professional career with La Familia Vargas, with whom he toured throughout Spain and Portugal. In 2000, he performed in the show Ritmo presented by the María Serrano company at the Seville Biennial. In 2002, he toured the world with Ballet Cristina Hoyos. He later was a soloist in Picasso et les ballets at the Châtelet Theater in Paris. Since 2003, he has been a member of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, as a dancer and as a choreographer. He has taught in Santiago (Chile), Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Havana and throughout Spain and Japan. In 2010 he received the CAB award in recognition of his artistic career as a dancer and choreographer. In 2013, he relocated to Badajoz where he opened the Jesús Ortega Flamenco Dance Center. He continues to perform throughout the world. To learn more about him, visit JesusOrtegaFlamenco.com.