Otello

With a “heroically shining tone of exceptional clarity and precision” (Opera magazine) and “gorgeously burnished power” (The New York Times), American tenor Russell Thomas uses his signature elegance and intensity to create vivid character portrayals on the world’s most important stages.

In the 2023/24 season, Mr. Thomas undertakes his first Parsifal at Houston Grand Opera and returns to major stages around the world in signature Verdi and Puccini roles. He sings Radames in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Aida, Cavaradossi in the Royal Opera House’s Tosca, Calaf in LA Opera’s Turandot and Alvaro in the Norwegian Opera’s La Forza del Destino. He appears in concert and recital with the Edinburgh International Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Vocal Arts DC at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, before concluding his artistic residency at LA Opera with Fire and Blue Sky, a world premiere song cycle composed for him by Joel Thompson.

Acclaimed for his “voice of intrinsic warmth and refined sense of style” (Opera News), Mr. Thomas has enjoyed a string of operatic triumphs in key Verdi roles, including appearances as Otello at Canadian Opera Company and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Ernani at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Manrico in Il Trovatore at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Radames in Aida at Houston Grand Opera, Stiffelio at Opera Frankfurt, and Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Opéra National de Paris. An alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Program, he most recently returned to the Met as Don Carlo and Rodolfo in La Bohème. Other important appearances include Cavaradossi at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival, Roberto Devereux at San Francisco Opera, Radames and Otello at LA Opera, Florestan in Fidelio at San Francisco Opera and Cincinnati Opera, and Calaf and Adorno in Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Mr. Thomas created the role of Lazarus in the world premiere of The Gospel According to the Other Mary by John Adams and Peter Sellars, and his portrayal of Tito in the new Sellars production of La Clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg Festival drew praise from The New Yorker, which noted, “Thomas’s penetrating tenor, which has lately acquired richness and heft, anchored the evening.”

Mr. Thomas’s “ardent expression and spine-tingling high notes” (Cincinnati Enquirer) have been heard in the Verdi Requiem with the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Washington, D.C. and Barcelona. He has appeared as tenor soloist in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the symphonies of Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston; the title role in Oedipus Rex at LA Opera and with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen; and as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, BBC Proms, and Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. He joined the Met Orchestra for their first overseas tour in more than 20 years, singing Otello opposite Angel Blue at Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Barbican Centre, and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.

During the hybrid 2020/21 season, Mr. Thomas began his tenure as Artist in Residence at LA Opera, where he plays a substantial role in artistic planning and casting. In addition to hosting and curating the company’s After Hours recital series, he has spearheaded new training programs designed to serve outstanding singers from historically Black colleges and universities and Los Angeles public high school students from underserved communities.

Learn more at RussellThomasTenor.com.

American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen is known for her diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart to Wagner. A regular guest at the leading opera houses around the world, Le Monde enthused, "…the American soprano has without a doubt one of the most impressive voices in the opera world. The timbre, of marmoreal beauty, is striking, the projection telluric..." In 2021, Rachel signed a multi-record deal with Sony Classical. Her debut album was released on April 8, 2022, and her second CD, Strauss: Vier Letzte Lieder, came out on March 10, 2023.

Ms. Willis-Sørensen opens the 2023/24 season with a return to the Grand Théâtre de Genève to perform the role of Elisabeth in Verdi’s Don Carlos which she debuted in Chicago last year. This season finds her performing two roles in two Verdi operas at the Vienna State Opera; her first engagement in Vienna includes a return to the role of Desdemona in Otello, followed by Elena in the Italian version of I Vespri Siciliani. Also in the winter, she makes her first role debut of the season, as Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann at Opéra national de Paris, also marking her house debut. In February, she performs the role of Elsa in Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera, and then returns to LA Opera as Violetta in La Traviata. She makes her debut at Santa Fe Opera in the summer to perform the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. On the concert stage, she performs Mahler’s 8th Symphony at the Bavarian State Opera, Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Vienna Konzerthaus, and Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Houston Symphony as part of their Strauss Festival under the baton of Juraj Valčuha.

Previous engagements include Elisabeth (Don Carlos) with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Rusalka at the San Francisco Opera and NDR Hamburg, Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) at Glyndebourne, Semperoper Dresden and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Violetta (La Traviata) at Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Bavarian State Opera, Marguerite (Faust) as part of the Royal Opera House’s tour of Japan, Elsa (Lohengrin) at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zurich, and Oper Frankfurt, Desdemona (Otello) at the Vienna State Opera, LA Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, Mimi (La Bohème) at the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera and Semperoper Dresden, Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) at the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Vienna State Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Semperoper Dresden, Hélène (Les Vêpres siciliennes) at the Bavarian State Opera, Valentine (Les Huguenots) at the Grand Théâtre Genève, Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) at the San Francisco Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) at the Bavarian State Opera, Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden and the Vienna State Opera, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Houston Grand Opera, Leonore (Fidelio) at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and Leonora (Il Trovatore) at the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Royal Opera House and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Equally at home on the concert stage, she has performed Strauss's Four Last Songs multiple times, including notably at Buckingham Palace for an HRH Prince Charles birthday celebration, and joined Jonas Kaufmann in 2019 and 2020 for a multi-city European tour in support of his latest recording, Wien, on which she is featured. Other repertoire includes Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mahler’s 2nd, 4th and 8th Symphonies, Mendelssohn’s Elias, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and the Verdi Requiem.

Rachel was a member of the ensemble at the Dresdner Semperoper for three years, where she sang the title role in The Merry Widow, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Elettra (Idomeneo), Diemut (Feuersnot), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) and Mimi (La Bohème). She won first prize at the 2014 Operalia competition in Los Angeles and at the 2011 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, and she was a winner of the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Brigham Young University and is an alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. An active presence on social media, she can be found on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok @rachewillissorensen and on X under @RWSing.

Learn more at RachelWillisSorensen.com.

Photo: Olivia Kahler

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.

The winner of the CulturArte Prize at Operalia 2022 and a Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions 2019 National Semifinalist, the tenor is drawing attention for his Italianate sound and compelling stage presence.

In December 2022, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Messenger in Aida. Other appearances for the 2022/23 season include the Verdi Requiem with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and returns to LA Opera as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor and as Cassio in Otello.

In addition to several appearances with LA Opera, his engagements for the 2021/22 season included creating the role of Giorgio in New York City Opera's world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

In the summer of 2021, he performed Tamino in The Magic Flute at the Aspen Music Festival, under the baton of Patrick Summers.

He spent the summers of 2018 and 2019 as an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera, where he covered the role of Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri and performed the role of Toke in the world premiere of The Thirteenth Child.

Mr. Ciaramitaro is a former Cornelia T. Bailey Apprentice Artist at Palm Beach Opera, and a former Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist with Arizona Opera, where he appeared as Theseus in Patrick Morganelli’s Hercules vs. Vampires, Spoletta in Tosca, the Governor and Vanderdendur in Candide, and Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. Mr. Ciaramitaro performed the role of Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola as a member of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in 2017, and spent previous seasons as a studio artist with Chautauqua Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, where he performed the roles of Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro and the Messenger in Aïda.

While working toward a Masters in Music at Florida State University under the direction of Douglas Fisher and voice teacher David Okerlund, Mr. Ciaramitaro performed the roles of Alfredo in La Traviata, Charles II in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, and Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola. Mr. Ciaramitaro earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rollins College and studied with tenor Richard Owens.

In concert, Mr. Ciaramitaro has performed Orff’s Carmina Burana and Haydn’s The Creation with the Tallahassee Community Chorus, and was the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Crystal Cathedral and with the Messiah Choral Society of Winter Park and the Villages Philharmonic.

Mexican-American mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino is quickly becoming known for her versatility and “range of vocal colors” (Miami Herald). She is a 2023 national winner of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

Her appearances for the summer of 2023 include Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte with the Tel Aviv Summer Opera Festival, and Alice Ford in SIr John in Love by Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Bard Music Festival. In October 2023, she will sing the title role in Carmen with Santa Barbara Opera.

Her appearances for the 2022/23 season included Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, appearances with LA Opera as Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia and Emilia in Otello, and a Callas centenary concert with Dayton Opera.

Recent roles include: Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro and Carmen in The Tragedy of Carmen with Shreveport Opera, Vera Boronel in The Consul with Baltimore Concert Opera, Maddalena in Rigoletto with Opera San Antonio and Painted Sky Opera, and the Mother in Hansel and Gretel and Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte with Yale Opera. 

She recently completed her second season with the Shreveport Opera Company's Resident Artist program. In 2020 she performed in Art After Dark where she sang Maria in Feel the Tango, Angie in Pepito, and Julia Child in Bon Appétit. She also sang in their 2021 recorded production of Rigoletto as Maddalena and Giovanna.
 
In 2022, she returned to Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist, covering Meg Page in Falstaff. During the 2021 summer season with Santa Fe Opera, she covered the roles of Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is an alumna of the Chautauqua Opera Company’s Young Artist program. She has performed with the Miami Summer Music Festival as Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon and was a soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival, as well as multiple concerts in Tuscany, Italy, with Bel Canto in Tuscany. 
 
She received the Campbell/Wachter Scholarship Award from the Santa Fe Opera for the 2021 season. She received the Faculty Award from the Vann Vocal Institute in 2020. She was a first place winner of the Pacific NorthWest Competition in Eugene, Oregon in 2019. She has placed in the top ten in the Brava! Competition two years (2018, 2019) in a row and was a Grand Finalist in the Talents of the World Competition in 2018. 
 
She has performed in many concert works including Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Handel’s Let God Arise, O Sing unto the Lord, and Messiah. She has also sung in recitals for the Trinity on Wall Street, Pipes at One and the Chautauqua Opera Company’s Emerging Artists Recital. She has also performed the Old Lady in Candide with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.    
 
She graduated cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a bachelor of arts in vocal performance and a minor in music industry in 2016. Roles at UCLA include: Jenny in Down in the Valley, the Shepherd in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, the Old Lady in Candide, and Le Prince Charmant in Cendrillon. She graduated with honors from the Yale University School of Music with a master's of music in 2018. Roles at Yale included: Second Lady in The Magic Flute, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Bertarido in Rodelinda, and Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking. She continued to work and study at the Potomac Vocal Institute where she studied under the world-renowned Elizabeth Bishop and Arianna Zuckerman in the inaugural class of the Professional Development Program. Roles in that program included Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Quickly in Falstaff and Charlotte in A Weekend in the Country.
 
Miss Saturnino is a choreographer, fight director and intimacy director. Her work includes Feel the Tango, Speed Dating, and The Marriage of Figaro for Shreveport Opera. She works with Sordelet, Inc., as a fight and intimacy director. She is also trained in fencing.  

Morris Robinson is considered one the most interesting and sought-after basses performing today.

The American-born Cuban and Colombian tenor Anthony León is a young up-and-comer who is quickly developing an international performing career. On April 23, 2023, he was a 2023 grand finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. On October 30, 2022, he was the first place winner of Operalia, where he also won the zarzuela prize.

His appearances in the 2023/24 season include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at LA Opera and Nadir in The Pearl Fishers with the Cologne Opera. Engagements for the summer of 2023 include Ravel's L’Enfant et les sortilèges with the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project and performances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

For the 2022/23 season, his appearances included several roles with LA Opera,  Pelléas in Impressions de Pelléas with James Conlon at the Ebell of Los Angeles, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

His most recent engagements elsewhere include singing Remendado in Carmen at Santa Fe Opera, Ernesto in Don Pasquale at New England Conservatory and being on tour performing the roles of Giove and Amphinome in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with the ensemble I Gemelli. On tour, Anthony performed at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, France; Arsenal Theater in Metz, France; and Victoria Hall in Geneva, Switzerland. A recorded album is in the works and is set to be released in 2023. In the fall of 2021, Anthony also presented the role of Count Almaviva in the Opera Theatre of St. Louis production of The Barber of Seville. During the summer of 2021, Anthony was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera covering the role of Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition to these contracts, Anthony has performed in other leading roles recently such as Le Chevalier in Dialogue des Carmélites, Agenore in Mozart's Il re pastore, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance.

Recent honors include receiving a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. Other accolades include being named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list and being awarded the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies among other prestigious awards.

Anthony holds a bachelor of music from La Sierra University and a master of music degree concentrating in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, studying under the tutelage of Bradley Williams.

Learn more at AnthonyLeonTenor.com.

Alan Williams recently received his specialist and master's degrees in voice performance from the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Daniel Washington. He received his undergraduate degree in 2018 from Northern Arizona University, where he studied with Dr. Judith Cloud. 

In the summer of 2023, he appears with Aspen Music Festival as the Voice of the Oracle (Neptune) in Idomeneo,  also covering the role of General Benjamin in Jimmy Lopez's Bel Canto. 

He has performed a number of major roles with various festivals and universities including John P. Parker in Adolphus Hailstork’s Rise for Freedom: The John P. Parker Story, Rev. Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and the title role in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. He has also performed in various concerts with Detroit Opera, recently in Detroit Players Club Opera Event. In the fall of 2021, Alan was invited to sing for Jean Snyder's presentation on the works of Harry T. Burleigh at the Oxford Lieder Festival in Oxford, England. He has also had the honor of singing with Dr. Eugene Rogers' professional chamber choir Exigence since 2020. 

He has received notable awards, recently earning an encouragement award at the Arizona District Laffont Competition. In 2021, he was named the winner of the Graduate Concerto Competition at the University of Michigan. Also during his M.M. studies at Michigan, he was selected as a national finalist in the 2019 National Association of Negro Musicians convention. In his undergraduate studies at Northern Arizona University, he was selected as a finalist for two consecutive years in the Rocky Mountain District for MONC auditions. 

In the summer of 2022, he joined the Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Program at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he sung the role of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covered the role of the Lawyer in Porgy and Bess. 

Ryan Wolfe is a passionate musician fueled by his love for collaboration and performance, who has been commended for his “commanding presence” and “well-tutored, polished baritone.” 

In the summer of 2023, he performed Le Dancaïre in Carmen with Des Moines Metro Opera, followed by his Hollywood Bowl debut in Chris Thile's Attention! with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

His 2022/23 season began with Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Richmond Symphony followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He made his LA Opera debut as the Jailer in Tosca, with later credits including the Herald in Otello, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia conducted by Lina Gonzalez Granados, and the title character in Henry Mollicone’s Moses conducted by James Conlon. Additionally, he was the cover for the roles of Johnson/Owen in Omar, the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, and Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande. He debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the Steersman in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

In the summer of 2022, he returned to the Apprentice Artist Program at Des Moines Metro Opera to cover Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The 2021/22 season saw him make several role debuts including the Count in The Marriage of Figaro and Cardinal 3/Priest/Father in Phillip Glass’s Galileo Galilei at the University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music (CCM). In March of 2022, Ryan covered the role of Papageno in Barry Kosky’s internationally acclaimed production of The Magic Flute with Des Moines Metro Opera. Most recently, Ryan appeared as the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Santa Cruz Symphony, conducted by Daniel Stewart.  

He won an Encouragement Award in the Central Region Finals of the Eric and Dominque Laffont Competition in 2021, won first prize in the 2022 University of Cincinnati – CCM Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition and is a two-time semi-finalist (2021, 2022) of the Lotte Lenya Competition. He has also won awards from Classical Singer National Voice Competition and the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition.  

In the summer of 2021, he joined the Des Moines Metro Opera Company as an Apprentice Artist where he performed Sen. Potter’s Assistant/Bookseller/Priest/Technician/Party Guest in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers and Narumov in The Queen of Spades and covered Cithéron in Rameau’s Platée. He was also featured as Pandolfe in Cendrillon and the title role in Don Giovanni in the festival’s scenes program. He made his professional debut in February 2020 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as the Armchair and Tree in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges under the baton of Louis Langrée and direction of James Bonas. A strong proponent of new music and a consummate musician, he collaborated with Opera Fusion:New Works - Cincinnati Opera to workshop Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice (co-commissioned by LA Opera and the Metropolitan Opera).  

Other operatic highlights include Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Baron Mirko Zeta in The Merry Widow, Giove in La Calisto, Kecal in The Bartered Bride, Simone in Gianni Schicchi, and Seneca in The Coronation of Poppea. He has also been seen performing selections of Bernstein and Mahler with the CCM Philharmonic, and was the bass soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra. 

Ryan completed his master’s degree before partially completing an artist diploma at the University of Cincinnati – CCM where he studied with esteemed baritone William McGraw. Upon Professor McGraw’s retirement, Ryan began studying with world-renowned baritone Elliot Madore. He is a proud alumnus of DePaul University where he received his bachelor of music, studying with Jeff Ray. 

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.

John Cox is recognized as one of the world's major opera directors. For many years, he was director of productions for Glyndebourne, where he directed works by Mozart, Rossini and Haydn, a celebrated Rake’s Progress with David Hockney’s designs, and a notable group of Richard Strauss domestic comedies: Ariadne auf Naxos, Capriccio, Intermezzo, Die schweigsame Frau, Der Rosenkavalier and Arabella. He subsequently was artistic director of Scottish Opera  and production director for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

His opera productions have been seen throughout Europe, North America and Australia, and he has also worked extensively in theater, television, film and major festivals. Recent productions include The Marriage of Figaro for Garsington Opera, Thaïs for the Metropolitan Opera and Cosi fan tutte for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Johan Engels (1952-2014) was renowned internationally for his work in opera, theater and ballet. His designs for The Passenger have been integral to the success of Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera—first in its world stage premiere at the 2010 Bregenz Festival and subsequently in London, Warsaw, Houston (American premiere), New York, Chicago, Detroit and Miami. In addition to his Bregenz productions, highlights of Engels’s operatic career included productions for London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Arne’s Artaxerxes), the Zurich Opera House (such rarities as Johann Strauss II’s Simplicius, Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re, and Chabrier’s L’étoile), the Opéra de Marseille (Ring cycle), LA Opera (L’Elisir d’Amore, also seen in Madrid, Geneva, and Graz), the Salzburg Festival (Turandot), Welsh National Opera (Khovanshchina, Lulu, Don Carlos, the latter coproduced with Houston Grand Opera), the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra National de Paris, Opera North, and Finnish National Opera, among many other companies. In British theater, the designer was associated with the Donmar Warehouse (including David Leveaux’s production of Sophocles’s Electra, which transferred to Broadway), Royal Shakespeare Company, Almeida Theatre, and Chichester Festival.

Among his final projects, he had designed a new Ring cycle for Lyric Opera of Chicago; the first three Ring operas premiered there posthumously between 2016 and 2018.

Jason Hand is a Toronto-based designer working in theater and opera. He has built a reputation for developing innovative lighting designs for site-specific productions with Against the Grain and Tapestry New Opera. His passion is creating the lighting for large-scale musicals and operas, and for new works.

Jason has lit productions at several of Canada’s largest opera companies including the Canadian Opera Company and Vancouver Opera (Carmen), Edmonton Opera (The Tales of Hoffmann). In 2014, made his American debut with Macbeth at the Minnesota Opera. He has worked with acclaimed directors Tim Albery (Imeneo, Dido and Aeneas, M’Dea Undone), Paul Curran (The Rape of Lucretia) and Tom Diamond (The Marriage of Figaro, Oksana G.).

His theater designs include productions for the Stratford Festival (The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Trespassers), Young People’s Theatre (Mary Poppins, Blue Planet, James and the Giant Peach, Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang, Seussical), Tarragon Theatre (Hamlet, Enemy of the People, Peace River Country, The Summoned, Abyss, Sequence, The Ugly One), Canadian Stage (This, The Arsonists, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale), and the Shaw Festival (Arms and the Man), as well as Theatre Calgary, Drayton Entertainment, and the Soulpepper Theatre Company.

In 2015, Jason was invited to become the resident lighting designer for Against the Grain Theatre, cementing a relationship with the company that extends from the company’s first fully-mounted production. For Joel Ivany and AtG, Jason has lit La Bohème, Turn of the Screw, Figaro’s Wedding, Pelléas et Mélisande, Death and Desire, #UncleJohn, AtG’s Messiah, A Little Too Cozy, Bound, and Kopernikus. He has also lit Ayre which has been remounted internationally.

Jason is a regular guest instructor the National Theatre School of Canada and Banff Centre for the Arts.

In 2011, Jason collaborated with director Joel Ivany and designer Camellia Koo to conceive a production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi that placed third in the biennial European Opera-Directing Prize. He has been nominated eight times for Dora Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design, and is a protégé recipient of the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. He has won a Montreal English Theatre Award for his lighting of the NAC/Centaur co-production of The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God.

Jason holds a bachelor of fine arts from York University. After completing his studies, Jason continued his education by working as an assistant and associate designer on over 40 major productions with noted international designers such as Thomas Hase, Max Keller, Peter van Praet and Robert Carsen, Robert Thomson, Bonnie Beecher, Michael Whitfield, and Alan Brodie.

Upcoming projects include projects at the Charlottetown Festival, Tarragon Theatre, and a new production of The Louder We Get (formerly Prom Queen: The Musical) at Theatre Calgary.

Jason holds both American and Canadian citizenship, and makes his home in Toronto with his wife and his daughters.

Learn more at JasonHandLighting.com.

Since joining LA Opera in 2007, he has served as associate chorus director (since 2011) and assistant conductor, and he has worked closely with the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Before becoming Chorus Director, he previously directed the LA Opera Chorus for the Plácido Domingo 50th Anniversary Concert (2017) and for The Clemency of Titus (2019). One of his generation’s most respected pianists and vocal coaches, he has collaborated with major opera houses throughout the United States. He has assisted in the preparation of operas and vocal chamber music at the LA Philharmonic. As a pianist, he has partnered with Sondra Radvanovsky, J'Nai Bridges, Eric Owens, Brandon Jovanovich, Rodell Rosel, Dolora Zajick, Kate Lindsey and Susan Graham. He accompanied Joyce DiDonato at the 54th Grammy Awards, the first time the ceremony featured a performance by a classical singer.

In partnership with the Getty Villa and LACMA in Los Angeles and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., he has curated multimedia recitals which draw connections between the classical vocal repertoire and special exhibits in the museums. He is a frequent collaborator at Wolf Trap Opera as an assistant conductor, chorus master and recitalist. He has been a guest coach at the Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen, in Esterhazy, Austria, and he helped prepare Seattle Opera’s Ring cycle in 2013. He has been a guest faculty member for young artist programs at Utah Opera and Seattle Opera, and he is a part-time lecturer in vocal arts and opera at the University of Southern California. (JeremyMFrank.com)

Grammy Award winner Fernando Malvar‐Ruiz is serving his fourth season as Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, having commenced his tenure in 2018. He is an internationally regarded choral conductor, clinician, and educator who has worked with children’s and youth choirs his entire career. From 2004 to 2017, he was the Artistic Director of the American Boychoir, leading the ensemble in over 150 performances and up to five national and international tours annually. He has prepared choirs for appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, San Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has worked with such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Marin Alsop, Pierre Boulez, Yannik Nézet-Seguin, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Valery Gergiev, as well as artists ranging from cellist Yo‐Yo Ma, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, pop legends Billie Eilish, Beyoncé Knowles, Sir Paul McCartney, Josh Groban, and opera singers Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. He conducted the American Boychoir on six recordings, led its performances on the Academy Awards and a 9/11 memorial service broadcast globally on CNN. Mr. Malvar-Ruiz was the music director on the film Hear My Song (Boychoir), starring Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Debra Winger, and Josh Lucas.

His discography includes the 2022 Grammy Award-winning recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Mr. Malvar‐Ruiz previously served as the American Boychoir’s Associate Music Director from 2000 to 2004 under James Litton. An expert in the adolescent voice, he has guest conducted children’s and youth choirs around the globe. He has a master’s degree in choral conducting from Ohio State University and completed the coursework toward a doctoral degree in choral music from the University of Illinois.

Katherine Syer is a dramaturg for spoken and lyric theater, with research specializations in historical and contemporary opera/theater production. Her work in these areas was at the core of her activities for nearly two decades at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in the theater studies and musicology departments. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has worked with many graduate students in the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. Her scholarly publications include several studies of Wagner's creative process and dramatic art. An international opera critic for over 30 years, Syer is an avid performing arts advocate and public speaker.

As artistic consultant, Syer's collaboration with Moisés Kaufman on the play 33 Variations included script development and the final workshop leading to the 2007 world premiere (Arena Stage, Washington, D.C.) and Broadway run in 2009. With co-organizer and costume designer Olga Maslova, at the University of Illinois, Syer helped launch Sasha Velour's 2019 solo drag show Smoke and Mirrors and the Spurlock Museum's companion exhibit In Her Closet - How to Make a Drag Queen. With opera director Joel Ivany, Syer has previously collaborated as dramaturg on Hansel and Gretel (Canadian Opera Company, 2020).

In 2022, Syer participated in the Beth Morrison Projects: Producer Academy funded by the Mellon Foundation.

His work has been seen on stages around the world, with productions including Armida at the Metropolitan Opera, SAFE at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, West Side Story at the Kilden Teater (Norway), A Little Night Music at the Huntington Theatre Company, Cold Mountain at Music Academy of the West, and productions of Carmen, Don Giovanni, I Puritani and Greek at the Boston Lyric Opera. 

New York credits include Forever Dusty for New World Stages, Pinocchio's Ashes for Theater for a New City and The Saint of Bleecker Street at Dicapo Opera Theatre, among others, and he has worked at numerous regional opera and theater companies around the country. 

As resident fight director for Central City Opera, he staged numerous productions there between 2008 and 2014, including Dead Man Walking, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, West Side Story, Oklahoma! and Rinaldo, while also serving as the stage combat instructor for the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program.