Highway 1, USA / The Dwarf

Praised by the Houston Chronicle for her “warm supple soprano” and by the New York Times for her “radiant” and “handsomely resonant voice,” soprano Nicole Heaston has appeared with opera companies throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Washington National Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, and the Glyndebourne Festival in England.

Ms. Heaston began the 2022/23 season with the long-awaited world premiere of Mazzoli/Vavrek’s The Listeners at Den Norkse Opera, in which she sings the central role of Claire Devon. She sang Amore in a new production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with San Francisco Opera, later returning to the city for her role debut as Melissa in Handel’s Amadigidi Gaula with Philharmonia Baroque, and performing the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro with Houston Grand Opera.

The soprano’s 2021/22 season included returns to San Francisco Opera, making a role debut as Despina in Così fan tutte, and Houston Grand Opera, singing the role of Liù in Turandot. She sings further performances of Liù with Maryland Lyric Opera, performed in “The Majesty of the Spiritual” at Aurora College, and joined the Houston Ballet, singing songs by Joseph Canteloube on their Jubilee of Dance program. 

In the 2020/21 season, her close collaboration with Houston Grand Opera continued, singing Yolanda Cantrell in Jim Luigs’ reimagined The Impresario and Sir Elton John’s Trainer in David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s chamber opera Vinkensport. She co-hosted Giving Voice with Lawrence Brownlee, and presented a recital with Richard Bado as part of the Live from the Cullen recital series, all presented as part of Houston Grand Opera’s re-imagined digital season. Further showcasing her versatility, she created the Purple Robe Series, featuring songs from a large variety of genres including opera, R&B, gospel, rap, and musical theater. The series went viral, especially for its episode honoring Juneteenth featuring Lift Every Voice and Sing as arranged by Roland Carter and performed by a chorus of outstanding Black opera singers.  

Learn more at NicoleHeaston.com.

American baritone Norman Garrett, who has been called “scene-stealing” by The New York Times, is enjoying a varied and exciting career. In the 2021/22 season, Mr. Garrett will make his house and role debut at Seattle Opera as the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. He will also return to both the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago as the Foreman/Adult James in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and reprise the role of Jim in Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera. Finally, he will sing Jake in Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, on tour at both the Lucerne Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, with conductor Alan Gilbert.

Cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic include Jake in Porgy and Bess at Washington National Opera and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Jacksonville Symphony. In the 2020/21 season, Mr. Garrett made his house debut at Theater an der Wien as Crown in Porgy and Bess, joined Bard SummerScape as the title role in Chausson’s Le roi Arthus, made his role debut as the title role in Don Giovanni at Dayton Opera, sang Escamillo in Carmen at Opera Orlando, and performed in a concert of arias with Opera Philadelphia at the Mann Center. During the previous season, he returned to Washington National Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni and made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Jim in Porgy and Bess.

In the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Garrett made his house debut at Houston Grand Opera as Ríolobo in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas and returned to Washington National Opera as Lieutenant Gordon in Silent Night. He also made his mainland Europe debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as Larkens in The Girl of the Golden West, joined Dayton Opera as Jochanaan in Salome, and sang Crown in Porgy and Bess at Fort Worth Opera. High profile concert appearances included Carmina Burana, with both the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl under Bramwell Tovey and the Toronto Symphony under Donald Runnicles.

In recent seasons, Norman Garrett has appeared numerous times with Washington National Opera, where he was a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist. Performances there include Ríolobo, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Masetto in Don Giovanni, the Father in Hansel and Gretel, a Steersman in Tristan und Isolde, Captain Gardiner in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, and the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me. Other operatic appearances include his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Jake in Porgy and Bess, the title role in Delius’ rarely heard Koanga at the Wexford Festival in Ireland, Escamillo at both Austin Opera and Opera Columbus, Crown at both the Glimmerglass Festival and University of Michigan, Minksman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight at Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Mandarin in Turandot at Cincinnati Opera.

On the concert stage, Mr. Garrett has made many important appearances, including debuts with both the Philadelphia Orchestra in a Gershwin program, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl as the Marchese in La Traviata. He has also sung concert of American music with the Cleveland Orchestra, Escamillo in concert with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with both the National Philharmonic at The Music Center at Strathmore and the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon.

Mr. Garrett is a former winner of the George London Foundation Competition, and has received top prizes in more than a dozen international vocal competitions, including the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, the Jensen Foundation, the Giulio Gari Foundation, Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Competition, and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Competition. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Texas Tech University, and the Academy of Vocal Arts, where he was a resident artist.

American tenor Chaz’men Williams-Ali’s recent highlights include his work as principal tenor at Theater und Orchester Heidelbergin in Germany, appearing as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Florestan in Fidelio, Canio in Pagliacci, Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi and most recently the Prince in Rusalka. He travelled to the Metropolitan Opera for his debut as Zorn in Die Meistersinger and to cover the role of Spinner in Fire Shut Up In My Bones, a role he inaugurated in the original production at Opera Theater of Saint Louis. Future engagements include Narraboth in Salome at Madison Opera, and Rodolfo in La Boheme at Kentucky Opera. The artist made an international debut when he joined English National Opera for the roles of Robbins and the Crab Man in Porgy and Bess in a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera and Dutch National Opera; following the London performances, he travelled to Amsterdam to appear in the roles there. At ENO he also covered Edgardo in Lucia de Lammermoor and appeared in a staged production of Britten’s War Requiem. Past engagements include Lensky (cover) in Eugene Onegin at Washington National Opera, and at Fort Worth Opera he sang Robbins and the Crab Man in Porgy and Bess, roles he inaugurated at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival the previous season. Returning to Glimmerglass last season, he produced and appeared in their sell-out Gospel Concerts.

Other past successes include the featured role of Jazz in the rarely heard Regina—the great success of the season--alongside Susan Graham and James Morris. He returned to Washington DC to sing Don Jose in Carmen in concert with the Washington Chorus under the baton of Christopher Bell, and he made his Florida Grand Opera debut as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor. Chaz made his Kennedy Center debut when he sang the role of Pinkerton in concert with Washington National Opera in 2017, and he returned to Glimmerglass Festival, following his previous-year’s success as Giles Cory in The Crucible, to jump in to sing Rodolfo in La Boheme.

Originally from St Louis, Missouri, the artist began his studies at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, went into Opera Theatre St. Louis Artist-in-Training program for two years, and then in studied voice at the University of Iowa School of Music. He made his professional opera debut in 2008 in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre. 

“A formidable display of vocal power and dramatic assurance,” mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel is posed for international stardom having already performed in almost all of the leading opera companies in the U.S.  She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette, her Carnegie Hall debut in Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and her New York Philharmonic debut alongside Eric Owens in In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy. She performed the role of Mother in the world premiere of Blind Injustice, by Scott Davenport Richards, with Cincinnati Opera which was commercially released on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Fanfare Cincinnati label, as well as participated in Glimmerglass Opera Festival’s digital production of Kamala Sankaram's Jungle Book as Raksha.

Her appearances for the 2022/23 season include a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Annina in La Traviata, a house debut with the San Francisco Opera in Eugene Onegin and Dialogues of the Carmelites, a role debut as Amneris in Aida for Opera Grand Rapids, perform Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel for New Orleans Opera, Verdi’s Requiem for Orchestra Iowa, and the Mother Abbess in Suor Angelica for Opera Omaha.

In the 2021/22 season, Ms. Nansteel returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Alisa in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor and the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas. Nansteel performed Azucena in Il Trovatore with Toledo Opera, Sally in Kevin Puts’ new opera The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and joined Seattle Opera in their production of Blue. In concert, she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Rossweisse in Die Walküre under Gustavo Dudamel, in addition to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Milwaukee Symphony, Finger Lakes Opera Tenth Anniversary Gala, and Hartmann’s Symphony No. 1 with the Orchestra Now at Carnegie Hall and the Fisher Center under Leon Botstein. In the spring and summer of 2021, she performed Azucena in concert performances of Il Trovatore with Opera Tampa and returned to Santa Fe Opera as Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin. 

Since her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she has returned for Nabucco, Il Trovatore, as Siegrune in Die Walküre and in her final production of 2020, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly.  She originated the role of Lucinda in the world première of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s adaptation of Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain at Santa Fe Opera. Other notable engagements include Granma in The Grapes of Wrath with the Michigan Opera Theatre, a reprisal of the role of Lucinda in Cold Mountain with North Carolina Opera, the role of Grace in The Summer King with Michigan Opera Theatre, Second Lady in The Magic Flute with the Pacific Symphony, the Mother in The Consul with Opera Saratoga, Jake Heggie’s The Work at Hand for the Mainly Mozart Festival, Nettie Fowler in Carousel and Elvira Griffiths in An American Tragedy, as well as Mary in The Flying Dutchman with Glimmerglass Opera Festival and Berta in The Barber of Seville with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program. 

Ms. Nansteel completed the Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, where she performed many roles including Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Curra (cover Preziosilla) in La Forza del Destino, Paula (cover) in Florencia en el Amazonas, as part of a world-premiere performance of Douglas Pew and Dara Weinberg’s new opera Penny, as well as the Cat in Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me.  As a mainstage artist, Nansteel returned there as Flora in La Traviata, Dame Marthe in Faust, which she also performed at Dayton Opera, as Emilia in Otello, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and as the Marquise of Birkenfield in The Daughter of the Regiment with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, which is featured in the documentary film RBG.  

Sought after for her performances on the concert stage, Ms. Nansteel has performed Händel’s Messiah with the Memphis Symphony and Charleston Symphony; John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs with the Oregon Mozart Players; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Seattle Symphony and Fondazione Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro Sinfonico in Milan under the baton of Xian Zhang; the role of Brigitta in Bard Music Festival’s Die tote stadt in concert; and various additional concerts including Stravinsky’s Les noces, Penderecki’s Credo, and Händel’s Israel and Egypt. 

A house favorite of Seattle Opera, Ms. Nansteel made her main stage debut as La suora infermiera in Suor Angelica, sang Juno and Ino in Handel’s Semele, Foreign Woman in The Consul and, as a former member of Seattle Opera’s young artist program, Giulietta in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno and Maddalena in a performance of Rigoletto.

Ms. Nansteel is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) where she earned an artist diploma in opera and a master of music in Voice. At CCM, she performed the roles of Berta in The Barber of Seville, Marguerite in Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, Mother Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites, Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia, and Mother Goose in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. She also received bachelor of music degrees in both vocal performance and vocal jazz studies from East Carolina University and currently studies with Diana Soviero. 

Recent awards include second place in the Sun Valley Opera competition in Seattle, the Andrew White Award and Seybold/Russel Award in the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition, and a winner in the National Orpheus Vocal Competition. She also recently earned the highly-esteemed Betty Allen Award and a grant from the Sullivan Foundation.

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. 

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.

Kaneza Schaal is a New York City based artist working in theater, opera, and film. Schaal was named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, and received a 2019 United States Artists Fellowship, SOROS Art Migration and Public Space Fellowship, Joyce Award, 2018 Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Award, 2017 MAP Fund Award, 2016 Creative Capital Award, and was an Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage. Her project Go Forth premiered at Performance Space 122 and then showed at the Genocide Memorial Amphitheater in Kigali, Rwanda; Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans; Cairo International Contemporary Theater Festival in Egypt; and at her alma mater Wesleyan University, CT. Her work Jack & showed in BAM’s 2018 Next Wave Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and with its co-commissioners Walker Arts Center, REDCAT, On The Boards, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. Schaal’s piece Cartography premiered at The Kennedy Center and toured to The New Victory Theater, Abu Dhabi Arts Center and Playhouse Square, OH. Her dance work Maze, created with FLEXN NYC, premiered at The Shed. Most recently, she directed Triptych composed by Bryce Dessner with libretto by Korde Arrington Tuttle, which premiered at LA Philharmonic, The Power Center in Ann Arbor, BAM Opera House and Holland Festival. Her newest original work KLII, was co-commissioned as part of the Eureka Commissions program by the Onassis Foundation and is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Walker Art Center in partnership with Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and REDCAT. Schaal will develop and direct a number of upcoming works including Split Tooth with Tanya Tagaq (Luminato Festival, Canada), Hush Arbor (The Opera) with Imani Uzuri (The Momentary, AZ) and Blue at Michigan Opera Theater.

Schaal’s work has also been supported by New England Foundation for the Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, FACE Foundation Contemporary Theater grant, Theater Communications Group, and a Princess Grace George C. Wolfe Award. Her work with The Wooster Group, Elevator Repair Service, Richard Maxwell/New York City Players, Claude Wampler, Jim Findlay, and Dean Moss has brought her to venues including Centre Pompidou, Royal Lyceum Theater Edinburgh, The Whitney Museum, and MoMA.

Schaal is an arts-in-education advocate. Her work at the International Children’s Book Library in Munich, Germany with young asylum seekers to address migration and storytelling led to the creation of Cartography. Additionally, she created arts exchange platforms at three prisons in upstate New York, and has begun work on a new program for New York State’s maximum security facility for girls. Schaal’s education work has spanned from universities to community centers to public high schools; and from workshops for professional artists, to professional development training for teachers, to intergenerational collaborations between elders and teens, to in-schools work with immigrant communities. Schaal taught an Atelier course at Princeton University with Elevator Repair Service and has lectured at Yale University, Wesleyan University, New York University, the University of the Arts (Philadelphia) and Xavier University of Louisiana. She recently taught a course at Harvard University on theater and social practice.

Learn more at KanezaSchaal.com.

Award-winning illustrator Christopher Myers has collaborated with Kaneza Schaal on works including GO FORTH, premiering to great acclaim as part of  PS122’s COIL 2015, and Cartography, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2019. He is the son of acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers. In 1998, the two collaborated on Harlem, which was named a Caldecott Honor Book as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Myers’ solo effort, Black Cat, was also a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. His most recent books include Firebird, written by Misty Copeland, Jake Makes a World written by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, and My Pen written by himself.  The Kennedy Center has adapted three of Myers’ books to the stage for young audiences.

His sculptural work has been shown at PS1-MoMA, Contrasts Gallery in Shanghai and the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently Myers was included in the Prospect Biennial in New Orleans, where he and his collaborators, the Propeller Group, organized a funeral march that went from Saigon to the Lower Ninth Ward.

Cheyanne Williams is a New York-based theater artist. Previous design and technical collaborations include assistant set designer (Pay No Attention to the Girl, Target Margin Theater, and {mylingerieplay}, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); props designer (Big Green Theater Program and Cute Activist, Bushwick Starr); and technical director (Kaneza Schaal’s Jack & and CARTOGRAPHY). Recent performance work includes workshop performances of Kaneza Schaal’s CARTOGRAPHY at the New Victory Theater and Brooklyn College, as well as the East Coast premiere of up your aesthetic, a revised re-telling of the ancient Greek myths of the Amazons, at the DC Fringe Festival. Williams received a BA in theater from Wesleyan University.

Over the past decade, Charlese Antoinette has established herself as one of the most talented in the business. She has a unique talent of creating characters that are imaginative yet grounded in reality. With Charlese’s personal fashion influences ranging from 1969, the afro-futurism of the 70’s, Gianni Versace’s 90’s as well as her passion for travel and exploring new worlds. Charlese creates groundbreaking, vibrant period and contemporary costumes.

Charlese has costume designed 10 remarkable feature films over the last 10 years starting with Newlyweeds, which went on to win an Independent Spirit Award and premiered as part of 2013 Sundance NEXT. She then went on to design George Tillman’s Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete (with Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Hudson), which also premiered at Sundance in 2013. Charlese has had several films premiere at TriBeCa film fest including: Vincent n Roxxy (2015, starring Zoe Kravitz), Little Boxes (2015) and the Spike Lee-produced See You Yesterday (2019). Her stunning work has also been seen on TV shows including Macro/ Netflix Original Raising Dion (Michael B. Jordan), which was number one internationally, as well as Kenya Barris’s Netflix Original sketch comedy show, Astronomy Club. Charlese’s forthcoming work includes the highly anticipated Judas and the Black Messiah ( Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Martin Sheen and Jesse Plemmons). Charlese has worked on projects with Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, NBC, ABC, Fox, Showtime, Sony, HULU and Netflix.

Currently Charlese is launching Black Designer Database, created in 2019 and re-launching her lifestyle brand, Char Ant Gold. She is a thoughtful, imaginative and resilient creative, who is compelled to be transparent about her journey while consistently offering her resources to fellow aspiring costume designers. Charlese is repped by Endeavor and an active member of the Costume Designers Guild (CDG 892).

Learn more at CharleseAntoinette.com.

Pablo Santiago is a Mexican-American lighting designer. He is the winner of the Richard Sherwood Award and Stage Raw Award and a four-time Ovation Award nominee. Pablo is proud to have long standing collaborations with many great artists such as James Darrah, Jose Luis Valenzuela, Ellen Reid, Missy Mazzoli, Karen Zacarias, Bill Rouch, Patricia McGregor, Ted Hearne, Christopher Rountree, Francois-Pierre Couture, Adam Rigg, Adam Larsen and Yuval Sharon.

Pablo has designed for companies such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, LA Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Boston Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Opera Omaha, Center Theater Group Music Academy of The West, Broad Museum and Beth Morrison Projects. Some of the amazing venues he has worked at include Teatro Municipal Sao Paulo, the Goodman Theater, Disney Concert Hall, Davies Hall, Mark Taper Forum, Kennedy Center and Arena Stage in DC, La MaMa in NYC, Skirball Center, Paramount Theater, Huntington Theater and Majestic Theater in Boston, and BAM-Harvey Theater.

Recent highlights include The Fall of The House of Usher (feature film for Boston Lyric Opera); The Anonymous Lover (digital content for LA Opera); Pulitzer Prize-winner p r i s m (LA Opera, Sao Paulo, Prototype Festival), Macbeth and Mother Road (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage); Place (BAM-LA Philharmonic-Beth Morrison Projects), Proving Up (ONE Festival/Opera Omaha and Miller Theater); Valley of the Heart and Zoot Suit (Mark Taper Forum); Threepenny Opera, Norma (Boston Lyric Opera); Destiny of Desire (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage); War of the Worlds (Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Industry); Breaking the Waves (Opera Philadelphia and Prototype Festival); Pelleas et Melisande (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra); Flight, Pagliacci and Madama Butterfly (Opera Omaha); On the Town (San Francisco Symphony); Skeleton Crew and The Cake (Geffen Playhouse).

Pablo obtained a BA in Visual Arts at UCSD (Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society) and his MFA in Lighting Design at UCLA, where he obtained Magna Cum Laude honors and won the Cirque du Soleil Grant. Instagram: @pablosdesign

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)

Rodrick Dixon possesses a tenor voice of extraordinary range and versatility that has earned him the respect and attention of leading conductors, orchestras, and opera companies throughout North America.

Notable operatic engagements include appearances with LA Opera in the title role of Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf, conducted by James Conlon, and as Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhauser, Michigan Opera Theater as Tonio in The Daughter of the Regiment, Todi Music Festival as Lensky in Eugene Onegin and as Tonio, Portland Opera in the title role of The Tales of Hoffmann; Opera Columbus for the premiere of Vanqui by Leslie Savoy Burrs; Virginia Opera as Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess; Cincinnati Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto; and Opera Southwest in the title role of Rossini’s Otello.

On the concert stage, he is a regular guest of the Cincinnati May Festival, where he has performed in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Orff's Carmina Burana, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses both in Cincinnati and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Other notable appearances include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at the Sydney Arts Festival in Australia in the title role of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and directed by Peter Sellars, Ravinia Festival for The Bells and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Center as Sportin’ Life in Robert Russell Bennett’s suite of music from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Atlanta Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, Vail Music Festival as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Marin Alsop, The Longfellow Chorus for a program of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor which was recorded and included in a film about the composer, and the Choral Arts Society of Music as the Celebrant in Bernstein’s Mass. He returned to Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra as tenor soloist in Delius’ A Mass of Life and to the Cincinnati May Festival as featured soloist in a new work by Alvin Singleton. He has also appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center as tenor soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Hannibal Lukumbe’s One Land, One River, One People and with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Radio Italiana Torino (Italy) as Erik in The Flying Dutchman.

Engagements for the 2021/22 season include appearances as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Mozart Requiem with the Florida Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Greensboro Symphony and Richmond Symphony, and the title role in Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf for the Enescu Festival in Rumania.

Other orchestras with whom he has appeared include the Atlanta Symphony, Hollywood Bowl, Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Millennium Park; Elgin Symphony, Rackham Symphony Chorus and the Concordia Orchestra at Lincoln Center.

Learn more at TenorRodDixon.com.

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

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

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

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

In the 2021/22 season, Kristinn Sigmundsson joins the Enescu Festival as the Chamberlain in The Dwarf, the Royal Opera House Muscat as Monterone in Rigoletto, New National Theatre Tokyo for Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, and returns to the Bavarian State Opera for La Roche in Capriccio. He returned to Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie as Ghost in Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld, and joined Indiana University Opera for Gurnemanz in Parsifal. Mr. Sigmundsson also recently returned to Houston Grand Opera for the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Daland in The Flying Dutchman, to San Francisco Opera for Vodnik in Rusalka, Den Norske Opera for Dansker in Billy Budd, the Edinburgh International Festival for the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Atlanta Opera for Daland in The Flying Dutchman.

Other recent performances include returns to Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie for La Roche in Capriccio, Staatsoper Hamburg to reprise Melchthal in Guillaume Tell, Teatro Regio Torino for Sarastro in The Magic Flute and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Rocco in Fidelio. He also sang Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Sigmundsson recently joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Hunding in excerpts of Die Walküre, Staatsoper Hamburg for Melchthal in Guillaume Tell and the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, the Caramoor International Music Festival for Rocco in Fidelio, the Icelandic Opera for Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, the Grant Park Music Festival for Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust, and returned to the Cincinnati May Festival for Music Director James Conlon’s final season for Dvořák’s Stabat Mater. He also joined LA Opera for its trilogy of Beaumarchais operas as he sang Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Louis XVI in Corigliano’s 2017 Grammy-winning The Ghosts of Versailles, and Doctor Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro. He also recently sang King Philip in Don Carlo with the Icelandic Opera and returned to both the Ravinia Festival as Daland in The Flying Dutchman and the Cincinnati May Festival for Haydn’s Creation.

As one of the world’s most sought after basses, Mr. Sigmundsson has sung nearly his entire repertoire with the Opéra National de Paris. His performances at the Metropolitan Opera include Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Hunding in Die Walküre, Rocco in Fidelio, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette, and Vodnik in Rusalka. He has sung leading roles regularly with the Staatsoper Wien, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Semperoper Dresden, where his most recent performances include Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust. Other appearances include the Commendatore in Don Giovanni in Munich, Berlin and New York; Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, König Heinrich in Lohengrin and Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Berlin; Rocco in Fidelio in New York and Houston; Daland in The Flying Dutchman in San Francisco and Strasbourg; Fasolt in Das Rheingold in Houston; Creonte in Medea in Salzburg; Gurnemanz in Parsifal in Cologne and Florence; Zaccaria in Nabucco in Copenhagen and Beijing, King Heinrich in Lohengin in Madrid, San Fancisco, Los Angeles, and with the Bayerische Staatsoper both in Munich and on tour to Japan; King Marke in Tristan und Isolde in Santiago, Dallas, and Berlin; Hunding in Die Walküre in Naples, Venice and Cologne; Hermann in Tannhäuser in Geneva, Amsterdam, and Tokyo; Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust; La Cuisinière in The Love of Three Oranges in Florence; King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier in San Francisco; King Heinrich in Lohengrin and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Munich; Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio in Naples; the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro and Walter in Luisa Miller at the Cincinnati May Festival; and Sarastro in The Magic Flute in Houston, San Francisco, Toulouse, and Santiago.

His concert performances include collaborations with many of the world's leading conductors including James Levine, Riccardo Muti, James Conlon, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Charles Mackerras, Christoph von Dohnányi, Jeffrey Tate, Christoph Eschenbach, Ivor Bolton, and Marc Minkowski. He recently joined the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on tour at Avery Fisher Hall for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and sang Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Hamburger Symphoniker, and Dvořák’s Requiem with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale. Also with the Cincinnati May Festival, he sang Tchaikovsky’s Ode to Joy and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Among his discography are commercial recordings of Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute with Arnold Östman (Decca) and Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Deutsche Grammophon). With Frans Brueggen he has recorded both Bach’s St. John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion (Phillips). He has recorded Schumann's Faustszenen with Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi) and Fidelio with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis.

In the early part of his career he performed principally in his native Iceland before joining the Hessische Staatstheater in Wiesbaden. His initial training was as a biologist and he taught for a few years before becoming a singer, studying first at the Reykjavik Academy of Singing and then at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria.

Emily Magee is in great demand on the leading opera and concert stages of the world, earning her recognition as one of the most important voices of her generation. Her sumptuous, radiant voice and intelligent, attractive stage presence have won her acclaim in a wide variety of roles, particularly those of Richard Strauss and Wagner, alongside roles of Puccini, Verdi, Janaček, Britten and others. The American soprano has appeared on opera and concert stages throughout the world under the direction of such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Antonio Pappano, Franz Welser-Möst, Donald Runnicles, Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, Semyon Bychkov, and Christoph von Dohnanyi. In addition to performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala and the opera houses of Zürich, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Chicago and San Francisco, Emily has appeared at Europe's finest summer festivals including Salzburg, Bayreuth and Lucerne.

Critically acclaimed for her interpretation of Strauss's complex and wide ranging heroines, alongside those of Wagner and Puccini, Emily's celebrated portrayal of the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten has taken her to some of the world's most famed houses: La Scala, Tokyo, Hamburg, Zürich and, most recently, the Royal Opera House. It has become one of her signature roles, alongside Ariadne, which she has sung in Zürich, at the Salzburg Festival, at the Semperoper Dresden as well as the Bavarian State Opera. She has also triumphed in the roles of Elsa in Lohengrin, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and in further roles of Strauss, such as Salome, Arabella, the Countess in Capriccio, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Recent role debuts include the role of Leonore in Fidelio as well as the heroines of Tosca and The Girl of the Golden West. In recent years, she has also performed in a wide variety of other roles, including Ursula in Mathis der Maler, the title role in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, and as Janaček's Jenůfa.

Recent highlights include her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Foreign Princess in Rusalka, and a series of concerts of Strauss's Four Last Songs with the leading orchestras of the day.

EmilyMagee.com

Kathleen O’Mara graduated from the Juilliard School with a M.M. in 2020 and Westminster Choir College with her B.M. in 2018.

In the summer of 2023, she covered the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for both Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Palm Beach Opera, after previously performing Fiordiligi at the Juilliard School in 2019. Other roles include Zemire in André Grétry’s Zemire et Azor with Westminster Opera Theater. She has covered various roles including the First Lady in The Magic Flute with the CoOPERAtive Program, Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro with Music Academy of the West, the Governess in The Turn of the Screw, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Susan B. Anthony in VIrgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at Juilliard. She has participated in programs including the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Palm Beach Opera’s Apprentice Program, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy, and Music Academy of the West.

Omani-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny gained recognition in major competitions whilst still studying at Indiana University; she was awarded the Andre Bourbeau Best Canadian Artist award and the ICI Musique People’s Choice award at the 2022 Concours Musical International de Montreal competition and was the winner of the Western Canada District of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

She joined LA Opera’s prestigious Domingo-Colburn Stein’s Young Artist Program in the 2022/23 season, making her debut there to considerable acclaim in the role of Owen’s daughter in Omar, a world premiere by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. Johnny has already made several notable debuts in North America, including as Meg Page in Falstaff at the Aspen Music Festival alongside Bryn Terfel in the title role and conducted by Patrick Summers, as Cherubino in a new staging of The Marriage of Figaro at Opera San Jose and, at LA Opera, Mélisande in Impressions de Pelléas at The Ebell of Los Angeles, under James Conlon. She has appeared as Carmen in Arden Opera’s production of The Tragedy of Carmen, as Suzuki in concert performances of Madama Butterfly with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under conductor Jun Märkl and, with IU Opera Theatre during her studies there, as Rosina in The Barber of Seville and as the title roles in  both Handel’s Xerxes and Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea.

As part of the inaugural cast of The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, an inspirational ensemble piece created by Ted Huffman and Philip Venables from the seminal LGBTQ+ rights text by Larry Mitchell, Johnny performed at the 2023 editions of the Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bregenzer Festspiele and will be seen in the London premiere at the Southbank Centre in the 2023/24 season.

The current season’s commitments open with Deepa Johnny joining Opéra de Rouen Normandie in the title role of Carmen, presented in a staging by Romain Gilbert and conducted by Music Director Ben Glassberg, alongside roles in The Dwarf and La Traviata under James Conlon at LA Opera, and a debut with Portland Opera as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro. Concert appearances include Mozart’s Mass in C minor with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Alarcón, and Handel’s Messiah with Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Mathieu Lussier. Johnny made her Carnegie Hall debut last season at Renée Fleming’s SongStudio Masterclass, was a fellow of the renowned Ravinia Steans Vocal Institute presenting art song repertoire and recently performed with West Virginia Symphony Orchestra as part of their Sounds of the Seasons concerts, guest conducted by Luke Frazier from American Pops Orchestra.

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.  

Tiffany Townsend has been praised for her “powerhouse soprano and expressive presence” (Wall Street Journal) and “rich voice and interpretive talent” (Bachtrack).

In the 2022/23 season, in addition to her LA Opera appearances, Tiffany Townsend performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Other engagements of the season include the role of Idleness in the world premiere of Kate Soper's The Romance of the Rose with Long Beach Opera, the Verdi Requiem with the Bakersfield Symphony, and both Fauré’s Requiem and George Walker's Lilacs with the New Jersey Symphony.

In the summer of 2023, she reprised Lilacs with the National Orchestral Institute + Festival at Wolf Trap, and she also made her role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Wolf Trap Opera.

The 2021/22 season saw her return to Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artist Program as the featured soloist in George Walker's Lilacs, and a performance of Strauss' Four Last Songs with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra. She also made her Filene Artist debut with Wolf Trap Opera, where she performed Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the National Orchestral Institute.

In the 2020/21 season, she made her LA Opera and role debut as Léontine in The Anonymous Lover, as well as her Opera Grand Rapids and role debut as Katherine Tate in Douglas Pew's Penny. That same season, she received the 2021 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.

Ms. Townsend spent the summer of 2019 as an apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she covered Mimì in La Bohème. During the 2019/20 season, she was a member of Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artist Program, where she made her debut as Princess Ninetta in The Love for Three Oranges, before joining LA Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. She won the 2019 MONC-New Orleans District; at the Gulf Coast Region finals, she received an Encouragement Award.

Additional notable roles in her repertoire include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, the First Lady in The Magic Flute, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Brenda in Rene Orth's Empty the House, Magda in La Rondine, and the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia.

A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Ms. Townsend holds a professional studies certificate in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music, a master of music from the Juilliard School, and a bachelor of arts in music from Millsaps College.

Photo: Daniel Welch

In 2022, Madeleine Lyon finished her graduate studies at Rice University, Shepherd School of Music, where she previously obtained her Bachelor of music degree in 2019. In the 2021/22 season, she was seen as Zerlina in Don Giovanni for the grand opening of the Brockman Hall for Opera at Rice University. In 2020, she performed the title role in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges in a filmed production, part of the Shepherd School’s initiative to provide opera to the public during the pandemic, spearheaded by Miah Im. In her Rice University debut, she made her foray into new music as Taller Zegner in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up. She is also passionate about oratorio and concert work, and has been the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Mozart Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and selections from the Verdi Requiem. During her free time, she is also a skilled pianist and painter.

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.

Darko Tresnjak won the 2014 Tony Award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award for his direction of the Broadway musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. He won the Obie Award in 2015 for his direction of The Killer starring Michael Shannon. After playing two years on Broadway and a year in Germany, his production of Anastasia was presented in Europe and Japan, and toured the U.S. and Canada. From 2011 to 2019, he was the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage Company.

As a director of plays, musicals, and operas, he has directed at Joseph Papp Public Theater, Theater for a New Audience, the Old Globe, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Vineyard Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre Company, Goodspeed Musicals, Westport Country Playhouse, Metropolitan Opera and Santa Fe Opera.

Ralph Funicello has designed the scenery for over 300 productions of plays and operas throughout the world including the Broadway productions of Julius Caesar, Brooklyn Boy, Henry IV (Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Tony Award nominations), King Lear, QED, and Division Street, Off-Broadway productions including Saturn Returns, Ten Unknowns (Lortel Nomination), Pride’s Crossing, and Labor Day, New York City Opera’s La Rondine, San Diego Opera’s Don Quichotte, Murder in the Cathedral and LA Opera’s acclaimed productions of The Dwarf and The Broken Jug.

He is an Associate Artist at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and has designed for the American Conservatory Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, the South Coast Rep, the Seattle Rep, the Lincoln Center Theatre, the Manhattan Theatre Club, the Milwaukee Rep, the American Festival Theatre, the Arizona Theatre Company, the Berkeley Rep, the Denver Center Theatre Company, the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Intiman Theatre, the Huntington Theatre, Kansas City Rep, A Contemporary Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., the Theatre Royal Bath, Shakespeare Center LA, the Stratford Festival of Canada and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He has received the Merritt Award for Excellence In Design and Collaboration and awards from the Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle, the L.A. Drama Critics’ Circle, Dramalogue Magazine, Backstage West, and the United Stated Institute of Theatre Technology. His work has been exhibited at the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts in New York City, the University of San Diego, San Diego State University, Tiffany & Co. San Diego, the Chevron Gallery in San Francisco, the Prague Quadrennial, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, and the Exhibition of Stage Design in Beijing.

He holds the position of Powell Chair in Set Design at San Diego State University.

Linda Cho is a Tony Award-winning costume designer based in New York City.

She received the Tony Award and the Henry Hewes Design Award for the Broadway musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and she was nominated for a Tony, Outer Critic’s Circle and Drama Desk Award for the Broadway production of Anastasia. Additionally, she was part of Broadway’s first all-female creative team for Lifespan of a Fact.

She has worked extensively across the U.S. and internationally her work has been seen in Europe, Asia and South America.

Her work in ballet and opera can be seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, American Ballet Theater, and others.

She is the recipient of the Theatre Development Fund’s Irene Sharaff Young Master Award and the Ruth Morely Design Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and is currently serving on the Advisory Committee of the American Theatre Wing.

She attended the Paris American Academy to study fine arts and fashion, received a BA from McGill University in Montreal majoring in Psychology and received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Learn more at LindaCho.com.

In a career of over 20 years, David Weiner’s Broadway credits include Romeo and Juliet, Dead Accounts, Grace, Godspell, The Normal Heart, Reasons to be Pretty, Butley, Dinner at Eight (Lincoln Center), Betrayal (The Roundabout) and The Real Thing. He has also worked extensively off-Broadway and across the United States at regional theatres. His awards include Lucille Lortel Awards (Through a Glass Darkly, Rodney’s Wife); LA Ovation Award (Venice); Drama Desk nomination (Small Fire); American Theater Wing Hewes Design Award nominations (Reasons to be Pretty, This Beautiful City, Pumpgirl, The Overwhelming, The Seven.)

In addition to his theater career, he also designs exhibit lighting for museums and permanent installations.  He recently completed the 40,000-square foot Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on the capital square in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Learn more at DavidWeinerDesign.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)