La Traviata

She made her LA Opera debut in 2018 as Gilda in Rigoletto. In the 2017/18 season, Ms. Zaharia returned to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein ensemble where her roles included the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Gilda in Rigoletto, and the dual role of Fire and the Princess in Suzanne Andrade’s new production of L’enfant et les Sortilèges. She made her Bavarian State Opera debut in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, her role and house debut as Elisabetta in concert performances of Roberto Devereux at Oper Frankfurt, and also returned to the Komische Oper Berlin as Pamina in The Magic Flute. Additional concert appearances include her debut at the George Enescu Festival, where she performed the mad scene from Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress, a gala concert with Placido Domingo in Guadalajara with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jalisco, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Arad State Philharmonic in her native Romania.

Ms. Zaharia has been a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhen ensemble since the 2015/16 season, where she has sung the title role of Lange’s The Snow Queen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. As a former member of the Komische Oper opera studio, she also sang Micaëla in Carmen, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Princess Nicoletta in The Love for Three Oranges, Elsbeth in Offenbach’s Fantasio, and Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Magic Flute. She has also appeared in Kosky’s production for her debuts at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Bolshoi Theater, the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Shanghai Grand Theater. While studying voice and piano at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in her native Romania, Ms. Zaharia sang such roles as Gilda in Rigoletto, Norina in The Elixir of Love, and Musetta in La Boheme. Her concert repertoire includes Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Brahms’s Ein deutches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri. She was the recipient of the Grand Prix of the Haricleea Darclée International Competition in 2012.

In 2016, he was a prize winner in Placido Domingo's Operalia competition. His most notable engagements in the 2017/18 season include Alfredo in La Traviata with Placido Domingo at the Paris National Opera and at the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and with Kasper Holten in Malmoe and well as international concert tours with Angela Gheorghiu in South Korea and in Mexico with Orquestra Filarmonica de Jalisco (Guadalajara). Other future engagements include Faust at NCPA Beijing, Rigoletto at Opéra de Montreal in Canada and his house debuts as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona and Nemorino in The Elixir of Love at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Rodolfo in La Bohème at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Bruckner's Te Deum at the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic and Alfredo in La Traviata at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. 

In addition to numerous performances at LA Opera, he has appeared with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Berlin State Opera, Vienna State Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, San Francisco Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera.

His repertoire spans from the great Mozart tenor roles in Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and The Magic Flute, to Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore and Alfredo in La Traviata. In recent seasons Castronovo has also won wide acclaim for his performances as the title role in Faust, Romeo in Romeo et Juliette, the Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo in La Boheme and Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress. He starred in the title role of Daniel Catan’s Il Postino opposite Placido Domingo in the work’s world premiere in Los Angeles, as well as Paris and Santiago.

He has appeared with the Opéra National de Paris, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Hamburg State Opera and San Francisco Opera. In the 2017/18 season, his performances include Germont in La Traviata at the Opéra National de Paris and Opera Australia, Amonasro in Aida at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, and the title role in Macbeth at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.

In the 2016/17 season, he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, returned to the Semperoper Dresden as Germont, and performed Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Opéra National de Paris, Don Carlo in Ernani and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, and Escamillo in Carmen at the Bavarian State Opera and Hamburg State Opera. He also returned to the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples as Count di Luna.

In recent years, he has performed many roles at the Metropolitan Opera, including Count di Luna, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, Germont and Shaklovity in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina. Vitaliy Bilyy is a graduate of Odessa Conservatory and has won many international competitions, such as the Elena Obraztsova Competition in St. Petersburg, Francisco Vinas International Singing Contest in Barcelona, and Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition in Andorra. He was a 2004 winner of Operalia, held in Los Angeles. (Bilyy.org)

Russian baritone Igor Golovatenko quickly made a name for himself on both the concert platform and operatic stage after his debut in the 2006 Russian premiere of Delius' Eine Messe des Lebens with the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Having studied at the Moscow Academy of the Choral Arts with Dmitry Vdovin, Mr. Golovatenko was awarded first prize at the St. Petersburg Three Centuries of Classical Romance Competition and second prize at Dresden's International Competizione dell'Opera. A leading baritone at the Bolshoi Opera, Igor Golovatenko will return there this season as Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, and Robert in Iolanta. He has previously appeared at the Bolshoi as Germont in La Traviata, Posa in Don Carlo and Marcello in La Boheme.

In recent seasons, he has made a number of significant debuts: Severo in Donizetti's Poliuto at the Glyndebourne Festival, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Guy de Montfort in Les Vêpres Siciliennes at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and Count di Luna in Il Trovatore at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. This season, he will also debut at the Salzburg Festival as Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, appear at the Opéra de Bordeaux as Ernesto in Il Pirata, and sing Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the BBC Wales’s Proms in the Park.

His appearances in the 2022/23 season will include Rodrigue in the original five-act French version of Don Carlos with Lyric Opera of Chicago. Future engagements also include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera.

Peabody Southwell has established herself as a multifaceted artist in a range of creative endeavors. As a Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano recognized for her “stylistic mastery and ripe, sensual sound” (Opera magazine, UK), she has performed principal roles for LA Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Carnegie Hall, Seattle Symphony, LA Philharmonic, New World Symphony and San Francisco Symphony and has been conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, John Adams and Robert Spano.

She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2018 in Nico Muhly's Marnie.

A champion of new music, she is slated to premiere works for composers Ashley Fure, Ted Hearne, Laura Kaminsky and Jodie Landau. A native of Los Angeles, she frequently appears with LA Opera. Most notably, she performed the central role in the world premiere of David Lang's anatomy theater, in an "electrifying" (Wall Street Journal) performance, leading Musical America to note, "Southwell gave another demonstration as to why she has become one of the most fearless, versatile young singing actresses on the stage today." As a director, designer and dramaturg she prioritizes bold collaboration across the arts in productions, installations and experimental events described by the Los Angeles Times as "the future of classical music."

In the 2018/19 season, he debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in The Girl of the Golden West and covered the role of Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. He then collaborates with composer Ricky Ian Gordon and director Bartlett Sher in developing Gordon’s new opera Intimate Apparel, a co-commission by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. He will return to the Met in the 2019/20 season as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier and as the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman.

Most recently, Mr. Kumar made several company debuts including at Covent Garden with the Royal Opera House and the London Philharmonic Orchestra creating the role of Chyavana in the world premiere of Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya, Don José in Carmen with Michigan Opera Theater, Florida Grand Opera and Musica Viva in Hong Kong, a reprisal of the Duke of Mantua in Palm Beach Opera’s production of Rigoletto and the Barber in New York City Opera’s production of Respighi’s La Campana Sommersa.

Notable events from previous seasons include Macduff in Macbeth under the baton of Emmanuel Plasson, debuts at Canada’s le Domaine Forget International Music Festival and at the Sanibel Music Festival in Florida, a debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, a concert of French operatic excerpts in France under the direction of Michel Plasson, his portrayal of Pinkerton in the excerpted love duet from Madama Butterfly with the Cincinnati Pops/Cincinnati Opera led by John Morris Russell and a debut as the tenor soloist in the New York premiere of Stephen Paulus’ To Be Certain of the Dawn at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. In the recital forum, Mr. Kumar unveiled a solo recital of Romani-influenced art song at the Ware Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

An avid proponent of new musical works, Mr. Kumar most recently collaborated with composer Robert Paterson at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) performing works which included the world premier of Paterson's Spring Songs. He premiered the tenor solo in the Thomas Cabaniss cantata My Song is a Fire and collaborated with director Scott Schwarz and librettist Marc Aceto in Jeffrey Stock’s musical adaptation of E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View. Mr. Kumar recorded the role of Jesus of Nazareth in Marcos Galvany’s operatic tableaux Oh My Son with members of the Washington National Symphony and Washington National Opera Orchestra, members of the Washington National Opera Chorus and the Washington National Cathedral Children’s Choir. He later performed the role of Jesus in the work’s European premiere in Spain and reprised the role at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Mr. Kumar has appeared with the Santa Fe Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Opera Delaware, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and Portland Opera Repertory Theater among others and has most frequently portrayed leading roles in the operas of Bizet, Puccini and Verdi.

As a solo concert artist, he has appeared with symphonies and orchestras in Spain, California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Massachusetts, including in Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops for the Richard Rodgers Centennial and in Sanders Theater with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Federico Cortese. Mr. Kumar’s festival appearances include the Italy’s Spoleto Festival, Canada’s Le Domaine Forget International Music Festival, Florida’s Sanibel Music Festival and Colorado’s Crested Butte Music Festival.
(AlokKumarTenor.com)

Praised for his “commanding sonority” (Opera News) and described as “handsome, agile, and with a voice to match” (Boulder Daily Camera), bass-baritone Christopher Job is a “rising star on the American opera scene” (Grand Junction Free Press). This season, he performs as a soloist in performances of masterworks such as Handel’s Messiah with Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, a Vaughan Williams Christmas concert with Lexington Philharmonic, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with DCINY. He also returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Sciarrone in Tosca.

Last season, Job performed Ashby in The Girl of the Golden West with New York City Opera, Sarastro in The Magic Flute with Opera Fairbanks, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore with Opera Idaho, and Sciaronne in Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. Additionally, Job returned to the Metropolitan Opera for productions of Cendrillon and Roméo et Juliette, and performed various masterworks including Verdi’s Requiem with Distinguished Concerts in New York, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with DCINY in Barcelona and for the Phoenix Symphony, Puf in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass for MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall, and Handel’s Messiah with DCINY at Carnegie Hall and Hitchcock Presbyterian Church. This past summer he performed Aguirre in Brokeback Mountain for New York City Opera, Montano in Otello for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Wolf/Prince in Into the Woods with Charlottesville Opera.

A house favorite at the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Job has been engaged by the company since the beginnings of his career in his debut for their production of The Nose under the baton of Valery Gergiev. Other notable engagements there include the role of Sir Gualtiero Raleigh in Roberto Devereux and their productions of Don Carlo, The Enchanted Island, The Nose, Janáček’s From the House of the Dead and Lulu. He also can be seen on two “Live in HD” broadcasts as Brühlmann in Werther and in Macbeth.

Quickly becoming one of his signature roles, he has performed Olin Blitch in Susannah to critical acclaim with Opera Idaho and in his debut with Ash Lawn Opera. Critics wrote: “Bass-baritone Christopher Job sings stunningly well as the Olin Blitch, the preacher dealing with his own demons.”

Recently, Mr. Job appeared in productions of some of opera’s best-known titles throughout the country. Some highlights include the creation of the role of Senator Thomas Jordon in the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Putz’ The Manchurian Candidate with Minnesota Opera; his debut in the title role of The Marriage of Figaro with Fargo-Moorhead Opera; his debut as Escamillo in Carmen with Lyric Opera Virginia; Angelotti in Tosca with New York City Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera; Hobson in Peter Grimes at the Princeton Festival; Colline in La Bohème with Lyric Opera Baltimore; and Fifth Jew in Salome with Palm Beach Opera. He also had a featured role in On the Town in his debut with Barrington Stage Company.

Lauded by the Chicago Sun-Times for his “rich, dark tone and beautiful legato,” Wayne Tigges joins Michigan Opera Theatre for Basilio in The Barber of Seville, returns to LA Opera for Baron Douphol in La Traviata, Atlanta Opera for Owen Hart in Dead Man Walking, and joins Opera Santa Barbara for John Proctor in The Crucible in the 2018/19 season. Last season, he sang further performances of the title role in The Flying Dutchman with Atlanta Opera, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana and Tonio in Pagliacci with New Orleans Opera, the title role in Gianni Schicchi and further performances of Tonio with Utah Opera, Ping in Turandot with Tulsa Opera, and created the role of Sgt. Aaron Marcum in the world premiere of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s An American Soldier in a return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Recent performances include his first performances of Méphistophélès in Faust at the Macau Music Festival, Owen Hart in Dead Man Walking and Howie Albert in Blanchard’s Champion with Washington National Opera, all four Villains in The Tales of Hoffmann with  LA Opera and Hawaii Opera Theater, the title role of Falstaff in a return to Des Moines Metro Opera, Assur in Semiramide with Washington National Opera, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd with San Francisco Opera, the title role of The Flying Dutchman with Virginia Opera, Austin Opera and Florentine Opera, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress with the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Roy Cohn in Angels in America with New York City Opera, Mr. McGuire in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Gustavo in Handel’s Faramondo with Brisbane Baroque, and Il conte Gil in Il segreto di Susanna with Opera San Antonio Opera. He also joined Opera Philadelphia for Basilio in The Barber of Seville as well as Justice Sir Alfred Wills and Colonel Henry B. Isaacson in Morrison’s Oscar.

He created the role of Joe St. George in the world premiere of Picker’s Dolores Claiborne with San Francisco Opera; sang Escamillo in Carmen at the Glyndebourne Festival and with San Diego Opera; Kolenaty in The Makropolous Case with the Opéra National de Paris; and Ariodate in Xerxes, Sam and Wesley in the world premiere of Theofanidis’ Heart of a Soldier, Ariodate in Xerxes and Zuniga in Carmen with San Francisco Opera. He sang Achilla in Giulio Cesare in his Metropolitan Opera debut and returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago the following season for further performances of the role as well as Basilio in The Barber of Seville. Mr. Tigges enjoys a strong relationship with the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he sang the title role in The Marriage of Figaro to great critical acclaim while still a member of the prestigious Ryan Opera Center (formerly Lyric Opera Center for American Artists). Also with the company, he sang Snook in Bolcom’s A Wedding, Capulet in Roméo et Juliette, Angelotti in Tosca, Sam in Un Ballo in Maschera, and Bonze in Madama Butterfly.

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.

His theater credits include several productions at MUNY in St. Louis, numerous productions including Catch Me If You Can, Elf, Nice Work if You Can Get It and A Chorus Line at Musical Theatre West, Steve Wynn's Showstoppers at the Wynn Las Vegas, and Aladdin and his Winter Wish at the Pasadena Playhouse. He has been a solo dancer in Aida and Rinaldo for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Don Giovanni and Salome for Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Film credits include The Aerialist. He has worked with Christina Aguilera, Demi Lovato, Fergie, Neon Trees, Ariana Savalas and Ben Vereen. He earned his BFA from Webster University, with additional training at The Ailey School and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 66 different operas and more than 435 performances to date with the company. Highlights of recent seasons include the 2020 company premiere of The Anonymous Lover (L'Amant Anonyme) by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the 2021 company premiere of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, and the 2022 company premiere of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.

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

One of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974. He has conducted more than 270 performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and videography, numerous essays and commentaries, frequent television appearances and guest speaking engagements, Mr. Conlon is one of classical music’s most recognized interpreters.

In September 2021, he became Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

He 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).

Mr. Conlon has served as the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (2005–15), 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. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals including 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 LA Opera's Music Director since 2006, Mr. Conlon has led more performances than any other conductor in the company’s history—to date, over 420 performances of more than 60 different operas by over 20 composers. Highlights of his LA Opera tenure include conducting the company’s first Ring cycle, recently re-aired in a marathon webcast celebrating the performances’ tenth anniversary; initiating the groundbreaking Recovered Voices series, an ongoing commitment to staging masterpieces of 20^th-century European opera that were suppressed by the Third Reich; and spearheading Britten 100/LA, a city-wide celebration honoring the centennial of that composer’s birth. During the period in which Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was closed due to the pandemic, Mr. Conlon conducted LA Opera’s live-streamed, socially distanced production—staged at the Colburn School—of The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a prominent Black composer in 18^th-century France. The performance was presented as an online-only event in fall 2020 and marked the work’s West Coast premiere. The Pavilion reopened in June 2021 with Mr. Conlon conducting the company premiere of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, with which LA Opera became the first major American opera company to perform live in its own theater since the coronavirus outbreak. The performance was subsequently released online for at-home viewing. During LA Opera’s 2021/22 season, Mr. Conlon conducts three operas long absent from the company’s repertory: Verdi’s Il Trovatore, which opens the season; Wagner’s Tannhäuser; and Verdi’s Aida. He also conducts John Neumeier’s ballet adaptation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, performed at LA Opera for the first time.

After a successful career as a leading soprano, Marta Domingo, née Marta Ornelas, retired from the stage to raise the Plácido Domingo family. Once their sons had grown up, she turned her attention to stagecraft, a subject that had always fascinated her. Her directing debut took place in 1991 with Samson et Dalila for CulturArte at the Teatro de la Opera in Puerto Rico. She subsequently directed Tosca for Seville’s La Maestranza Theater and The Barber of Seville in Puerto Rico.

Her acclaimed production of La Rondine has been presented by the Bonn Opera, Washington National Opera, Warsaw Opera and LA Opera, and it was televised internationally. She directed the casts in an inherited Rigoletto production in both Los Angeles and Washington. She has directed two different productions of La Traviata; the earlier traditional staging has been seen in Liège, Washington, Los Angeles, St. Etienne as well as in 2019 at the Royal Opera House Muscat. Her production of Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly at the Washington National Opera gave the work its American stage premiere and later served for her Metropolitan Opera directorial debut. She also directed Sly in Tokyo (for the Washington National Opera’s tour of Japan) and in Rome. Her production of The Tales of Hoffmann, created for the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, has been seen in Washington and Los Angeles.

He lit large-scale arena productions of Carmen and Tosca in England, Germany, Australia and Japan. He also lit the complete works of Beckett for the Gate Theatre in Dublin, New York and London, as well as a U.S concert tour by Duran Duran. In 1995 he began a long collaboration with LA Opera, where he has designed 36 productions to date. Currently based in Los Angeles, Alan Burrett continues to work as a freelance lighting designer for companies in the United States and abroad. His productions have received critical acclaim and international awards. In 2008 he was appointed professor at the University of California San Diego where he heads the lighting design program. (Burrett.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.  

Her early years in LA were spent honing her craft as Artistic Director of Hysterica Dance Co., a consistently prolific and creative collective that redefined dance in Los Angeles. Her unique approach to direction and choreography was declared by Dance Magazine to possess “an outsize talent for that most elusive gift, originality.”

Kitty has collaborated extensively with the LA Philharmonic, developing new productions of Rite of Spring, Firebird, Bolero, Esa Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing, A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and more. Ballets include RIFT, commissioned by Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Kennedy Center, the creation of the new ballets Traces and Transit for National Choreographer’s Initiative and colony for LA Ballet’s NEXT Wave Series.

Kitty moves effortlessly between her work in opera, including Roméo et Juliette, La Traviata, Don Carlo, La Rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor and The Tales of Hoffmann for the country’s largest opera houses, to commercials for Target, Adobe MAX, Novartis, Mercedes Benz, Grey Ant and Uniqlo. She finds shifting from high art settings to the demands of pop culture to be incredibly invigorating. Kitty loves working with actors and is known for her ability to draw out organically nuanced performances. She has coached and choreographed for Paz Vega, Julianne Hough, Margaret Cho, Vanessa Williams, Vittorio Grigolo, Lily Tomlin, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. 

Theater credits include Secret Cinema’s groundbreaking live performances with Laura Marling in London, the world premiere of Colony Collapse (commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Sense and Sensibility (South Coast Rep), The Fantasticks (Pasadena Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (LA Phil/Disney Hall), Man of LaMancha (Reprise!) and Sondheim’s 75th (Hollywood Bowl).

Learn more at KittyMcNamee.com.