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.

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

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

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

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

He has been Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (2016–20); Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera (1995–2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989–2003), simultaneously leading the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1983–91).

Mr. Conlon has served as the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (2005–15), and is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival―the oldest choral festival in the United States―where he was Music Director for 37 years (1979–2016), marking one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals including the Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

He has been Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (2016–20); Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera (1995–2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989–2003), simultaneously leading the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1983–91).

Mr. Conlon has served as the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (2005–15), and is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival―the oldest choral festival in the United States―where he was Music Director for 37 years (1979–2016), marking one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals including the Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

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

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)