Isabel Leonard and Pablo Sáinz-Villegas in Recital

Three-time Grammy Award winning artist Isabel Leonard has established herself as one of the most in demand performers as a star on the world’s leading stages and screens. The 2022/23 season saw Ms. Leonard’s house debut at Teatro alla Scala as Miranda in Thomas Adès’ The Tempest, as well as her house debut at Houston Grand Opera as Charlotte in Werther, conducted by Robert Spano. Continuing her long time collaboration with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director Stéphane Denève, she appeared as Marguerite in a concert performance of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. In the recital hall, Ms. Leonard partnered with renowned Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas for performances with Lincoln Center Presents the Metropolitan Opera at Alice Tully Hall, LA Opera at the Colburn School, San Diego Opera at the La Jolla Music Society, the Harris Theatre in Chicago, and the Conservatorìo de Música de Puerto Rico.

The 2021/22 season saw her return to the Metropolitan Opera in her role debut as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, a return to the role of Cherubino in the Richard Eyre production of The Marriage of Figaro, and in the title role in Laurent Pelly’s production of Cinderella. Ms. Leonard also made her debut in the title role of Carmen in both Francesca Zambello’s production at Washington National Opera, conducted by music director Evan Rogister, and in Santa Fe Opera’s production conducted by Harry Bicket. Ms. Leonard also appeared in Washington National Opera’s reopening gala, Come Home, as well as a concert commemorating the anniversary of September 11 with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Noseda. In recital, she appeared at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Connecticut.

Highlights of Ms. Leonard’s career include the title roles in Carmen, La Périchole, Cendrillon, Marnie, and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, both Zerlina and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Charlotte in Werther, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Costanza in Griselda, Musetta in La bohème, Sesto in Giulio Cesare, and Maria in West Side Story.

Ms. Leonard regularly appears on the stages of the world’s leading opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, LA Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, San Francisco Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Salzburg Festspiele, and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She regularly enjoys collaboration with esteemed conductors including Valery Gergiev, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézét-Seguin, Franz Welser-Möst, Plácido Domingo, Edward Gardner, James Levine, Edo de Waart, James Conlon, Marin Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Michele Mariotti, Harry Bicket, Andris Nelsons, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Orchestral highlights include appearances with Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony, among others.

Television and film credits include an appearance in the Rebecca Miller film She Came to Me, starring Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei, being featured on the season 43 finale of Sesame Street in Murray Monster’s “People in Your Neighborhood’ segment, scenes from Terrence McNally’s Master Class directed by Nicole Alexander, and as a regular host of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD broadcasts.

Ms. Leonard was named recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award and currently has three Grammy Awards for Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank on SFS Media, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on Decca, and The Tempest from The Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon. She currently resides in New York and sits on the board of trustees at Carnegie Hall and on the artistic advisory board of ArtSmart.

Learn more at IsabelLeonard.com

Praised as “the soul of the Spanish guitar”, Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has become a worldwide sensation, known as this generation’s great guitarist. With his “virtuosic playing characterized by irresistible exuberance” as described by The New York Times, his interpretations conjure the passion, playfulness, and drama of Rioja, his homeland’s rich musical heritage. He is known for his passionate, emotive and open-hearted playing, whether he is performing at intimate recital halls, or playing to an audience of over 85,000 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid.

Sáinz-Villegas was one of the few selected artists to participate at the 2018 Grammy’s classical event at Carnegie Hall in New York. His performance on a floating stage on the Amazon River was streamed worldwide to millions, and he performed in a special anniversary concert at Chile’s National Stadium. Sáinz-Villegas made his debut at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival under the baton of Carlos Kalmar at the Millennium Park to an audience of 11,000 people and accomplished summer tours with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the world premiere of Rounds, the first composition for guitar by Academy Award-winning composer John Williams.

Routinely drawing comparisons with legendary exponents of his instrument such as Andrés Segovia, Sáinz-Villegas has already appeared on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Known for a sound so rich and full that it does not need amplification, his concerto performances regularly inspire new invitations and re-engagements in more than 30 countries. He has played with the world’s top-level orchestras including the Pittsburgh, Bergen and Israel Philharmonics, as well as Cincinnati, Spanish National and Boston Symphonies. He made a series of important debuts under the baton of Frühbeck de Burgos, and has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with conductors including Juanjo Mena, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Carlos Kalmar, Gustavo Gimeno and Cristian Macelaru.

Sáinz-Villegas continuously searches for ways to communicate with young audiences and to inspire them with music. A born communicator, the guitarist explains: “Music is among things we cannot touch and that is what makes it most powerful”. Over the last decade, he has created projects that bring music beyond the performance halls, reaching more than 20,000 children and youth through volunteering his time, establishing music programs, visiting schools and creating unique community activities around the globe. His efforts have granted him invitations to play for the Spanish royal family and the Dalai Lama.

An active recording artist, Sáinz-Villegas is an exclusive SONY Classical recording artist. Billboard magazine named him “the global ambassador of Spanish guitar” after his solo album, Americano, which quickly made its debut to the top 15 on their charts under the PIAS | Harmonia Mundi USA label. Most recently he recorded the three Rodrigo concerti with the National Orchestra of Spain under the baton of Juanjo Mena, thereby becoming the first in more than 20 years to capture the Concierto de Aranjuez with the ensemble.

Born in La Rioja in northern Spain, Sáinz-Villegas was inspired to take guitar lessons at age six and gave his first public performance at just seven years old. Over the years, he accomplished an impressive collection of over 30 international awards, including the Segovia award which he won at age 15 and the coveted Gold Medal at the Inaugural Parkening International Guitar Competition.

Learn more at PabloSainzVillegas.com.