Don Giovanni

Grammy Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem, one of the most accomplished, in-demand singers of the moment, continues to captivate audiences worldwide with his “earnest, appealing baritone” (The New York Times). The “rock star of opera” (Opera Pulse) began his 2022/23 season with performances as the title role in Don Giovanni at Ravinia Festival, followed by Escamillo in Carmen with Canadian Opera Company and Opéra National de Paris, Marcello in La Bohème with Bayerische Staatsoper, and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro with LA Opera. Rounding out the season with a return to Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at San Francisco Opera, other highlights include Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Dallas Opera, and guest soloist appearances with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Classical Tahoe and San Francisco Opera.

Celebrated by Opera News as a “masterful musician” with an “instrument of striking finish, smooth and solid throughout its range,” Meachem’s recent performances include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Royal Opera House, Marcello in La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, and the title role in Nabucco at Oper im Steinbruch. Additionally, Meachem’s Teatro alla Scala debut in Massenet’s Thaïs was acclaimed as the “most impressive performance of the evening” (Opera Online), with his portrayal of Athanaël, alongside Marina Rebeka’s Thaïs, described as “possibly one of the great duos experienced at La Scala in recent decades” (Beckmesser).

When Covid struck and performances were canceled abruptly, Meachem was one of the first classical musicians to live stream a recital from the opera stage, just days after lockdown on March 23, 2020. In a recent profile with Opera News, Meachem revealed that, in March 2020, he felt at loose ends. With debut performances of Rodrigo in Don Carlos at Dallas Opera indefinitely postponed, he and his wife, pianist Irina Meachem, arranged a live-streamed program from the Winspear Opera House. The concert, recorded on smartphones with just two other people in the room, amassed more than 25,000 views on Instagram and Facebook, setting the standard for digital performances over the pandemic. While theaters were dark, Meachem continued to perform on the physical and digital stage, singing his “signature role for good reason” (Opera News) as Figaro in San Francisco Opera’s The Barber of Seville for an innovative “drive-in” experience. Meachem then filmed a movie version of Pagliacci as the romantic lead Silvio with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, set within their own opera house.

Named the winner of San Francisco Opera’s inaugural “Emerging Star of the Year” Award in 2016, other notable performances in Meachem’s American career include marking his 50th role debut as Athanaël in Thaïs (Minnesota Opera), Chorèbe in Les Troyens, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Valentin in Faust at Chicago Lyric Opera; General Rayevsky in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Silvio in Pagliacci, and Mercutio in Roméo and Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera; Don Giovanni with Chicago Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Cincinnati Opera;  Germont in La Traviata at Washington National Opera; The Barber of Seville at San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado, Houston Grand Opera and LA Opera, where he also gave his Grammy Award-winning performance of Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles.

A regular performer across Europe, Meachem has performed the title role in The Barber of Seville with the Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, and Den Norske Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne Festival and Semperoper Dresden; the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd at Opéra national de Paris; as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Royal Opera House; Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; the title role in Eugene Onegin with Komische Oper Berlin and Opéra national de Montpellier; Zurga in The Pearl Fishers at Bilbao Opera; Escamillo in Carmen with Teatro Regio di Torino; and with the Teatro Real de Madrid in the world premiere of José Maria Sánchez-Verdú's El Viaje a Simorgh, Frank/Fritz in Die Tote Stadt, as well as Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride.

Meachem’s first solo album, Shall We Gather, released in September 2021 under Rubicon Records and featuring his wife, Irina Meachem, at the piano, was praised by BBC Music Magazine as having “vibrant and committed performances,” with Meachem delivering “a heartbreakingly beautiful performance.” According to The New Yorker, the album of American songs is “a plea for togetherness in a divided country. Meachem’s voice—a substantial and propulsive lyric baritone with pillowy edges—records beautifully.”

In July 2020, the Meachems founded Perfect Day Music Foundation (PDMF). The foundation aims to represent inclusivity and diversity of people today by using classical music as a relevant medium to address current issues through a traditional art form. The Foundation’s annual competition, which utilizes social media in its application process to raise awareness for new compositions, centers around a yearly theme that highlights an important demographic of classical music.

Born in North Carolina, Lucas Meachem studied music at Appalachian State University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University before becoming an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera.

Learn more at LucasMeachem.com

Soprano Guanqun Yu is a regular guest at international opera houses in Europe and America. Her engagements in the 2021/22 season include the staged version of Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Micaela in Carmen at the Staatsoper Hamburg, her role debut as Elvira in Ernani in a new production (de Beer/Mazzola) of the opera at the Festspielhaus Bregenz, and again Verdi's Messa da Requiem with the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to the major Mozart roles such as Vitellia, Elettra, Contessa, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, Guanqun Yu's repertoire includes the Italian repertoire in particular. She has sung Leonora in Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera, at LA Opera and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra in Valencia, Hamburg and Frankfurt, Desdemona in Otello at the Palau de les Arts Valencia, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well as at the Hamburg State Opera, Mimì in La Bohème in a new production at the Zurich Opera House as well as at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and Liù in Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra de Paris, Staatsoper Hamburg, in Zurich, Cologne and at the Bregenz Festival.

Guanqun Yu is also familiar with the French repertoire singing Micaëla in Carmen and Mathilde in Guillaume Tell, a role which brought her a great personal triumph in a new production at Hamburg State Opera.

Her numerous engagements also led her to the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Semperoper Dresden. With Lucrezia in a concert performance of The Two Foscari, she celebrated her highly noticed debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2017.

Guanqun Yu has already worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Michele Mariotti and Cornelius Meister. In 2010 she made her debut in Vienna in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc under the baton of Bertrand de Billy. Numerous concert commitments have taken Guanqun Yu to Scandinavia and Germany.

Guanqun Yu is winner of the Belvedere singing competition and winner of the renowned Operalia competition. After studying in Shandong and Shanghai, she was a member of the opera studio at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Her interpretation of Lina in Verdi's Stiffelio was released on DVD in a production from Parma.

Learn more at GuanqunYu.com.

Multiple Grammy Award-winning Isabel Leonard continues to thrill audiences both in the opera house and on the concert stage. In repertoire that spans from Vivaldi to Mozart to Nico Muhly, she has graced the stages of the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Salzburg Festival, Bavarian State Opera, Carnegie Hall, Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera in The Barber of Seville (Rosina), La Cenerentola (Angelina), The Marriage of Figaro (Cherubino), Così fan tutte (Dorabella), Don Giovanni (Zerlina/Donna Elvira), La clemenza di Tito (Sesto), Werther (Charlotte), Dialogues des Carmélites (Blanche de la Force), Griselda (Costanza), La Bohème (Musetta), Giulio Cesare (Sesto), and the title roles in Carmen, La Périchole, Cendrillon, Marnie, and Der Rosenkavalier. She has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her time: 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 with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, among others.  

In the 2021/22 season, she returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Cendrillon and Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist), Washington National Opera for Come Home: A Celebration of Return and Carmen, and the Santa Fe Opera for Carmen. On the concert stage she will return to the National Symphony Orchestra for a 9/11 commemoration concert conducted by Giancarlo Noseda, University of Connecticut for a solo recital, and makes her Russian debut in a solo orchestral concert in the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory conducted by Marco Armiliato. 

Ms. Leonard is in constant demand as a recitalist and is on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Hall and the Artistic Advisory Board of ArtSmart.  She is a multiple Grammy Award winner, most recently for Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank on SFS Media (2021) for Best Classical Compendium, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on Decca (2016) and The Tempest from The Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon (2014), both Best Opera Recording. Television and film appearances include Sesame Street and host for The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD movie theater transmissions. Ms. Leonard is the recipient of the Richard Tucker Award and has lent her voice, in honor of her father who died from the disease, to the Prostate Cancer Foundation by filming a public service announcement (PSA). 

Learn more at IsabelLeonard.com.

The American-born Cuban and Colombian tenor Anthony León is a young up-and-comer who is quickly developing an international performing career. On October 30, 2022, he was the first place winner of Operalia, where he also won the zarzuela prize. For the 2022/23 season, his appearances include Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor and Spoletta in Tosca with LA Opera, where he is a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

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

Most recent honors include winning the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in the Los Angeles District in 2022 and receiving a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. Other accolades include being named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list and being awarded the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies among other prestigious awards.

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

Learn more at AnthonyLeonTenor.com.

Bass-baritone Craig Colclough initially studied as a cellist and eventually attended the University of Redlands in California. Before training with Wolf Trap Opera and Florida Grand Opera, he began his career appearing in several roles with LA Opera. The company awarded him the Eva and Marc Stern Artist Award during the 2020/21 season, celebrating artists with deep connections to LA Opera.

The 2022/23 season will feature a prominent return to Los Angeles, as he sings the title role in The Marriage of Figaro for the company’s new production, directed by filmmaker James Gray. He will return to the Atlanta Opera to make his role debut as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and reprise his acclaimed Monterone in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera.

Following his notable role debut as Alberich in Das Rheingold with the Tiroler Festspiele Erl during the summer of 2021, Mr. Colclough began the 2021/22 season with his debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing the title role in Macbeth in a new production directed by Sir David McVicar and conducted by Lyric’s Music Director, Enrique Mazzola. Elsewhere during the season, he made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut as Macbeth, and returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Telramund in David Alden’s production of Lohengrin, and to the Metropolitan Opera, to sing Monterone in Barlett Sher’s new production of Rigoletto. During the summer of 2022, he made a thrilling role debut with Opera Saratoga as Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, appearing opposite Broadway great Carolee Carmelo.

His recent engagements include his Metropolitan Opera debut in the fall of 2019, as the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth; Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Scarpia in Tosca and Jack Rance in The Girl of the Golden West with English National Opera, Scarpia for his debut with Canadian Opera Company, Peter in Hansel and Gretel for LA Opera and the title role in Don Pasquale with Minnesota Opera and Arizona Opera. A house favorite with Belgium’s Opera Vlaanderen, he has appeared with the company as Telramund, Kurwenal, Macbeth and the title role of Falstaff, in a production directed by Oscar-winning actor Christoph Waltz.

Known for his versatility, Craig Colclough has appeared as Peter Vogel in Korngold's Der Ring des Polykrates with the Dallas Opera; the Storyteller in John Adams’ A Flowering Tree with Opera Queensland in Australia; Hare in the world premiere of Burke and Hare with Boston Lyric Opera; Pistola in Falstaff with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Fra Melitone in La Forza del Destino with Oper Frankfurt and Doristo in L’arbore di Diana with Minnesota Opera.

He has collaborated with acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel for performances of Timur in Turandot with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Additional credits include the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, California Philharmonic, Capitol Records, Abbey Road Studios and the soundtrack of the film Rolled.

Learn more at CraigColclough.com.

The 2021/22 season marked her return to the Metropolitan Opera stage as Thibault in a new production of Don Carlos, under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and a reprisal of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro. In the summer of 2022, Ms. Zhang made a debut at the San Francisco Opera in Bright Sheng’s The Dream of the Red Chamber in the lead role of Dai Yu.

On the concert stage, Ms. Zhang was seen in Bach’s Coffee Cantata with Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and toured China in Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 with the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra and Darrell Ang. Other highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in Beijing at National Centre for the Performing Arts conducted by En Shao, and concerts with Xi’an and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. Previous concert appearances include Mozart’s “Exsultate, jubilate” with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Xian Zhang, Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra with Camerata Notturna and David Chan, as well as solo recitals at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium and Miami’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center with pianist Ken Noda.

In the 2020/21 season, Ms. Zhang was scheduled to perform as Gilda in Rigoletto with the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China, as well as an opera concert with the Manchester Music Festival.

During her second year in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Zhang made her debut appearances as the Bloody Child in Macbeth under Marco Armiliato and as Barbarina. Other engagements in the 2019/20 season include her European debut as Pamina in The Magic Flute at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera National Bordeaux and Guangzhau Opera House, and various roles in Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilèges with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

While attending the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, Ms. Zhang performed as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress. During her tenure in the Chautauqua Institute, she was seen as Pamina. Ms. Zhang has also performed the role of Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia (Asian premiere) with the Tianjin Grand Opera in China, as well as Marzelline in Fidelio with Harbin Symphony Orchestra. Additional roles performed include the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Despina in Così fan tutte, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette.

Ms. Zhang was the grand prize winner of the 2019 Verbier Festival “Prix Yves Paternot”, a finalist in the 2019 Queen Sonja International Music Competition, and took second place at the 2020 Opera Index Competition. Most recently, she won the audience prize at the 2020 Glyndebourne Opera Cup.

Ms. Zhang earned her master’s degree from the Mannes School of Music, where she was a recipient of the George and Elizabeth Award, and completed her bachelor’s degree at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Learn more at MeiguiZhang.com.

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

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 will join the Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Program at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he will sing the role of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and cover the role of the Lawyer in Porgy and Bess. 

Peixin Chen is recognized for his majestically resonant bass voice and for a keen dramatic instinct that he brings to a wide range of roles on the international opera stage. He has worked with an illustrious array of conductors and directors including Harry Bicket, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Giancarlo del Monaco, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, David Paul, Michel Plasson, David Pountney, James Robinson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Patrick Summers, Krzysztof Urbański, and Francesca Zambello.

Engagements for the 2021/22 season include The Magic Flute and Boris Godunov at the Metropolitan Opera, Turandot at Houston Grand Opera, and Aida at Cincinnati Opera.  Symphonic performances bring him to the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

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.

Kasper Holten is one of Scandinavia's most sought-after stage directors today and works all over the world. Kasper has directed more than 65 operas, plays, musicals and operettas. His productions have been staged in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Russia, Argentina, Australia, USA and Japan, including at world leading companies such as The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In 2010 he directed his first feature film.

He was appointed artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen at age 26, and successfully oversaw the company moving into a new grand opera house in Copenhagen. From 2011 to -2017 he was Director of Opera at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

He is chairman of the board of Danish Dance Theatre, member of the advisory board for the National Gallery for Denmark, and associate professor at Copenhagen Business School and is a sought-after motivational speaker. He has been vice president of Opera Europa for several years, and been on the Danish Arts Council for Music as well as the Danish Radio and TV Board. Kasper Holten was knighted by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark who also presented him with the rare medal Ingenio et Arti for artistic achievements.

Learn more at Holten.com.

Artist Es Devlin creates large-scale public art works and stage sculptures that combine light, music and language. The Imperial War Museum commission I Saw the World End (2020) invited viewers to engage simultaneously with opposing perspectives while the monumental 360-degree sculpture Memory Palace (2019) mapped shifts in human perspective over 73 millennia as a reminder that we have achieved profound alterations in our behavior and mindset in the past, and we can do so once again in response to the threat of extinction.

Her recent series of temporary forests drew on the Shakespearean tradition of the forest as a place of transformation in which characters enter in one state of mind and emerge having shifted their point of view. For Conference of the Trees at COP26, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, she installed 197 trees as protagonists bearing witness to the decisions 197 countries might make about the future of the planet. Forest for Change at Somerset House in London in June 2021 invited visitors to engage with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Her first large scale maze work, Mirrormaze (Peckham, London 2016), explored perforated cinema and memory and identity through reflective labyrinthine geometries. Her immense mirrored maze Forest of Us (2021) examines the striking visual symmetries between the structures within us that allow us to breathe and the structures around us that make breathing possible. Alongside work by James Turrell, it forms part of the inaugural exhibition at the new Superblue Miami arts center.

In Devlin's work, the viewer becomes a participant. She developed her deep understanding of the terms of audience engagement through two decades of collaborations in theater, designing The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre, London; NYC; LA); Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican; A Number, Girls and Boys, The Nether (Royal Court); Chimerica, The Hunt (Almeida); Faith Healer (Donmar). Her work in opera includes Don Giovanni, Salome, Les Troyens and Mahagonny at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Carmen at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Large scale productions include the London and Rio Olympic ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime shows with Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd. She has created some of the most renowned stage sculptures in collaborations with Beyonce, The Weeknd, Kanye West, U2, Jay Z, Florence and the Machine, Imogen Heap, Petshop Boys, Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish, seen by mass audiences in stadiums and arenas around the world.

Anja Vang Kragh has designed costumes for theater, ballet, dance and concerts throughout her native Denmark. She has worked for many years for Christian Dior. She has designed costumes for many opera productions including Pagliacci, Carmen. The Flying Dutchman, Cavalleria Rusticana and the musicals West Side Story and Cabaret in the opera houses of Copenhagen, Oslo, Vienna, Bregenz, Barcelona, the royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and others. For the Israeli Opera she designed costumes for Don Giovanni, Idomeneo and La Traviata.

His designs for leading opera houses include Rusalka (Sydney Opera House, Australian Green Room Award), The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen (English National Opera); Peter Pan (Welsh National Opera, Komische Oper Berlin); Mahagonny, Don Giovanni, Connectome, The Two Foscari, La Donna del Lago (Covent Garden); Carmen, Don Giovanni (Oslo); The Threepenny Opera, The Two Foscari, Béatrice et Bénédict (Theater an der Wien); Rinaldo (Chicago); I Puritani (Netherlands Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève) and productions for Opera North and Garsington Opera. Theater work includes Frankenstein (Olivier and Knight of Illumination awards); Miss Saigon, From Here to Eternity (West End); and productions for the National Theatre, RSC, Old Vic, Royal Court and Barbican. He won a second Knight of Illumination Award for his design of Sigur Ros’ world tour and also designed their 2016 world tour.

His engagements for 2020 include Alcina with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Aida for Houston Grand Opera and Uncle Vanya in London's West End.

(BrunoPoet.co.uk)

British video designer Luke Halls has produced video designs and animations for a wide variety of music, theater and dance performances. Opera work includes Don Giovanni (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Otello (Metropolitan Opera) and Carmen (Bregenz Festival Lake Stage).

Theatre work includes West Side Story (Broadway), Ugly Lies The Bone, The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre) and The Nether (Royal Court). Halls has worked prolifically for music artists, creating video designs and animation for tours by Adele, Beyoncé, Pet Shop Boys, U2 and Rihanna, among others.

Learn more at LukeHalls.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)

Danish choreographer Signe Fabricius is  well sought-after for her work within the fields of opera, musicals, theater and film. In opera, she has had engagements with Malmö Opera, Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Real in Madrid, Vienna State Opera, Finnish National Opera, and the Bregenz Festival. She frequently works at both the Royal Danish Theater and Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.

Her work in opera includes Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni and Die Meistersinger at the Royal Opera House in London, Tannhäuser and The Tales of Hoffmann in Copenhagen and The Flying Dutchman in Helsinki.