Rigoletto

Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey, the 2015 Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Award recipient, is in demand for the Verdi, Puccini and French repertoires in houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Operas, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Covent Garden and the Opernhaus Zürich.

In the 2019/20 season, Quinn Kelsey returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a new role, Miller in Luisa Miller, before reprising his celebrated Germont in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, joining the company as Marcello in Act I of La Bohème for their New Year’s Eve Gala, and returning to the Opernhaus Zürich for Guido di Monforte in a new Calixto Bieito production of I Vespri Siciliani. Future projects include debuts at the Vienna State Opera and Opera Philadelphia and returns to the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opernhaus Zürich, Santa Fe Opera and the Canadian Opera Company.

Last season, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for his celebrated Germont in the new production of La Traviata, along with Amonasro in Aida. He also returned to Zurich for the title role in Rigoletto and to Hawaii for more performances as Germont. He made debuts in Dallas as Ford in Falstaff and in Spain at the Peralada festival as Germont.

Quinn Kelsey won a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant (after winning a Sarah Tucker Study Grant) and was a finalist of Operalia in 2004. He was a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, now known as the Ryan Center, for three years. In 2003, he won a Scholarship from the Solti Foundation of Chicago. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Kelsey received his Bachelor’s of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa under John W. Mount.

QuinnKelsey.com

Rosa Feola came to international attention after winning multiple awards including second prize, the audience prize and the zarzuela prize at the Operalia in 2010. She was recently awarded the Premio Speciale of the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi.

Operatic roles include Corinna (Il Viaggio a Reims), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Gilda (Rigoletto), Norina (Don Pasquale), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Amina (La Sonnambula) to name just a few, performing at houses including Teatro alla Scala, the Metropolitan Opera New York, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Opernhaus Zürich, Bavarian State Opera, Ravenna Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro Regio Torino, Salzburg Festival and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Recent career highlights include a number of debuts, namely at the Royal Opera House in London in an Oliver Mears production of Rigoletto and as Liu in Turandot at the Opernhaus Zurich. She also returned to the Metropolitan Opera for performances of Rigoletto and Olga in Fedora.

Engagements for the 2023/24 season include appearances with Washington National Opera for Romeo and Juliet, Teatro di San Carlo for Liu in a new production of Turandot, Vienna State Opera for Don Pasquale and Opera Royal de Wallonie-Liège for I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

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. His repertoire spans from the comic parts of Donizetti, Mozart and Rossini to the strong and serious roles of Puccini, Verdi and Wagner. Peixin Chen has worked with an illustrious array of conductors and directors including Harry Bicket, James Conlon, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Lorin Maazel, Enrique Mazzola, Zubin Mehta, Giancarlo del Monaco, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Michel Plasson, David Pountney, James Robinson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Patrick Summers, Krzysztof Urbański and Francesca Zambello.

Performances of the 2022/23 season included Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, Fasolt in Das Rheingold at the Dallas Opera, a return engagement with Washington National Opera as Colline in La Bohème, and Philippe (cover) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the company’s Sir David McVicar new production premiere of the French, five act version of Verdi’s Don Carlos.

Last season he joined the Metropolitan Opera in productions of The Magic Flute and Boris Godunov, bowed as the King of Egypt in Aida for LA Opera and Cincinnati Opera, and appeared with his home company, Houston Grand Opera, as Timur in Turandot conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Eun Sun Kim. The bass’s concert scheduled included performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony and with Michael Stern leading the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of recent seasons include a European debut at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in a new production by Ivo van Hove, a Metropolitan Opera debut as Sarastro in The Magic Flute conducted by Harry Bicket and later performances as Masetto in Don Giovanni led by Cornelius Meister, and a return to Opera Philadelphia as Colline in La Bohème conducted by Corrado Rovaris. He has sung the Verdi Requiem with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Music Director Patrick Summers and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony.

Peixin Chen has sung Sparafucile in Rigoletto at Santa Fe Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Sarastro in The Magic Flute with Opera Philadelphia, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore at Washington National Opera, and the Patriarch of Moscow in Dvořák’s Dmitrij at the Bard Music Festival in a new production directed by Anne Bogart. With Houston Grand Opera, he has bowed as Doctor Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, Oroveso in Norma, the King of Egypt in Aida, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, and as Hunding in Die Walküre. As a member of the Merola Program under the auspices of San Francisco Opera, he appeared as Basilio in performances of The Barber of Seville.

The Marriage of Figaro has featured prominently in the bass’s career, assaying the title role in a new production by David Paul for Opera Saratoga and bowing as Bartolo at the Houston Grand Opera conducted by Harry Bicket in the company’s acclaimed production by Michael Grandage, at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, and in fully-staged performances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra led by Edo de Waart.

He is a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and a student of Dr. Stephen King.

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.  

Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 67 different operas and more than 455 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.

General and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera since 2013, Israeli born Tomer Zvulun is also one of leading stage director of his generation, earning consistent praise for his creative vision and innovative interpretations. His work has been presented by prestigious opera houses in Europe, South and Central America, Israel and the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Israeli Opera, and the festivals of Wexford, Glimmerglass and Wolf Trap, as well as leading educational institutes and universities such as the Juilliard School, Indiana University, Boston University.

Tomer spent seven seasons on the directing staff of the Metropolitan Opera where he directed revivals of Carmen and Tosca and was involved with more than a dozen new productions. He is a frequent guest director in companies such as Seattle Opera (Semele, La Boheme, Eugene Onegin, Lucia di Lammermoor), Dallas Opera (Das Rheingold, Rigoletto, Die Fledermaus, La Boheme), Houston Grand Opera (The Flying Dutchman, Rigoletto), Wexford Festival (Silent Night, Dinner at Eight), Cincinnati Opera (Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Flying Dutchman), Wolf Trap (Falstaff, Don Giovanni) and Israeli Opera (Dead Man Walking, Giulio Cesare) among others. His European premiere of Silent Night at the Wexford Festival received two Irish Times Awards and traveled from Ireland to Washington National Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival and the opera companies of Atlanta, Austin and Salt Lake City. 

Learn more at TomerZvulun.com.

Erhard Rom has designed settings for over 250 productions across the globe.  In 2015 he was named as a finalist in the Designer of the Year category for the International Opera Awards in London. His design work has frequently been displayed in the Prague Quadrennial International Design Exhibition and at the National Opera Center in Manhattan.  Originally from Seattle Washington, he now lives just outside of New York City and teaches design at Montclair State University in the Department of Theatre and Dance.

From a very early age he showed strong interests in both theatrical design and in music, which ultimately led him to pursue, first a degree in music, at the University of Washington and then an M.F.A. in design at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Following his graduation in 1992 he began working regularly for regional companies throughout the country. While the bulk of his work has been for opera (including 14 world premieres) he has designed extensively for theater companies as well, and brings a theatrical sensibility to his operatic work that is combined with a deep understanding of the music. 

His work has been seen at San Francisco Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Washington National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vancouver Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Minnesota Opera, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin, Fort Worth Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Colorado, Opéra de Montréal, Atlanta Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Boston and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, among many others. His many credits include productions of Susannah, The Marriage of Figaro, Lucia di Lammermoor and Nixon in China (San Francisco Opera); Don Giovanni, Silent Night and Samson and Delilah (Washington National Opera); Semele, Eugene Onegin and La Bohème (Seattle opera); Rigoletto (Houston Grand Opera); Jane Eyre, The Rape of Lucretia, Carmen, Faust and La Bohème (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis); Tosca, La Bohème, Sweeney Todd, Don Pasquale, Falstaff, Alcina, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Così fan tutte, Ariadne auf Naxos, Don Giovanni and The Rake’s Progress (Wolf Trap Opera); Valentino, Carmen,  Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Widow and Rusalka (Minnesota Opera). His theatrical work has been seen in places such as Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. His work in these venues includes productions of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ghosts, The Triumph of Love, The Weir, Inherit the Wind, Death of a Salesman, 12 Angry Men, Brighton Beach Memoir, The Whipping Man and The Illusion.

He has collaborated with many of the world’s leading directors of opera, including Francesca Zambello, Nicholas Muni, Michael Cavanagh, Tomer Zvulun, Thaddeus Strassberger, Leon Major, Colin Graham and Lillian Groag. His list of world premieres includes John Musto and Mark Campbell’s Volpone and The Inspector, both for Wolf Trap Opera, as well as Later the Same Evening for Maryland Opera Studio and the Manhattan School of Music. Other premieres include The Shining for Minnesota Opera and the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival production of A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck with music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner.  In 2014 he designed the European premiere of Kevin Puts recent opera, Silent Night.  The production was awarded two accolades at the 2015 Irish Times Theatre Awards Ceremony, including the audience choice award and best opera production of 2014.

Learn more at ErhardRom.com.

A graduate of Rutgers University, with degrees in both dance and psychology, Jessica Jahn danced professionally in New York City before beginning a career in design. She has had the opportunity to work with directors such as Tina Landau, Tommy Kail, Francesca Zambello, Kenny Leon, Tazewell Thompson, Leisel Tommy, Diane Paulus and Jessica Blank, as well as writers/composers Charles Fuller, Norah Ephron, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Kevin Puts, Jake Heggie, Steve Earle, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Campbell and Charles Busch.

Jessica’s interest and knowledge of movement is an underlying current in her design work. Along with this, her understanding and respect for the rehearsal process allows Jessica to work with each cast member as an individual with needs specific to themselves and their character.  Known for her work in the traditional repertoire, she is also dedicated to innovative work within her field. Jessica collaborated on one of the earliest performances of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In The Red and Brown Water, directed by Tina Landau. She designed Blue, written by Tazewell Thompson and composed by Jeanine Tesori, winner of the MCANA Award for Best New Opera, and worked with Jessica Blank, Eric Jensen and Steve Earle on The Public’s premiere of Coal Country. She was awarded both the Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk for her design of Charles Busch’s The Confession of Lily Dare.  

Jessica’s dedication to racial and social justice is based on her lived experience as a Black woman, and she approaches her work through the lens of equity. Currently, she is a chair of the steering committee on Opera America’s Women’s Opera Network (WON), serves on OA’s Racial Justice Opera Network (RJON) steering committee and the OA Board’s Membership Committee. Jessica was the inaugural chair to the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee at the Glimmerglass Festival, as well as the lead coordinator for their equity initiatives. She finds particular enthusiasm for her work with Turn the Spotlight, the Open Stage Project and Children of Promise NYC, organizations that provide mentorships and empower young people. Jessica has taught at both NYU and Rutgers University, and is an Adjunct Costume Design Professor with Brandeis University’s Theater Arts Department. She is currently working toward her master's in cultural anthropology at Hunter College.

Some of the projects that she has collaborated on include Gloria: A Life at the Daryl Roth Theatre, Die Mommie Die! at New World Stages (winner of the Lucille Lortel Award), Once On This Island at Papermill Playhouse, One Night... at the Cherry Lane, Life Is A Dream at Santa Fe Opera, Monodramas and Mose in Egitto at New York City Opera, The Crucible at the Glimmerglass Festival, West Side Story at Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Manchurian Candidate at Minnesota Opera, Dead Man Walking at Washington National Opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors at On Site Opera, Moby-Dick at Utah Opera, Snowy Day at Houston Grand Opera, Castor and Patience at Cincinnati Opera, as well as Norma at the Gran Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona and at the Canadian Opera Company. Upcoming projects include Orfeo ed Euridice at San Francisco Opera and Blue at the Nationale Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam.

Learn more at JessicaJahn.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)

Robert Wierzel has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theater, dance, opera, contemporary music and museums with companies throughout the country and abroad.

He has worked on productions with the opera companies of Paris-Garnier (Les Indes Galantes); Tokyo (the opera Chushingura); Toronto; Wexford Ireland, Kristiansand & Bergen, Norway; Folk Opera, Sweden; Dutch National; New York City Opera; Glimmerglass Festival (30 seasons); Atlanta; Seattle; Boston Lyric; Minnesota; Philadelphia, San Francisco; Houston; Washington National; Chicago Lyric; Opera Theatre of Chicago; Montreal; Vancouver; Florida Grand; Portland;  Colorado; Pittsburgh; Wolf Trap; San Diego; Virginia; Lyric Opera/Kansas City and Gotham Chamber Opera among others.

Since 1985, Robert has collaborated with choreographer and director Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (several Bessie Awards, along with productions at the Lyon Opera Ballet and Berlin Opera Ballet); and Walking The Line (w/Bill T. Jones) at the Louvre Museum, Paris.

His other dance collaborations include works with choreographers Liz Gerring; Sean Curran; Elizabeth Streb; Alexei Ratmansky/A.B.T;  Andrea Miller/Gallim Dance; Doug Varone; Heidi Latsky; Larry Goldhuber; Molissa Fenely; Donna Uchizono; Alonzo King; Charlie Moulton; Michael Tracy/Pilobolus Dance Theatre; Arthur Aviles and Margo Sappington.

His theater work has been seen on and off Broadway, including the play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, starring Audra McDonald; the musical Fela!  (Tony Award nomination) and at the Royal National Theatre of London, UK (directed by Bill T. Jones). Other productions include David Copperfield’s Broadway debut Dreams and Nightmares; Grace Jones’ Hurricane Show at the Hammerstein Ballroom NYC;  Savoy Theatre, London (Enigmatic Variations);  productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre (recently The Taming of the Shrew and Troilus and Cressida, 2016 Summer in Central Park); The Signature Theatre (Two Trains Running, Hot ‘n Throbbing); The Roundabout (Indian Ink, The Deep Blue Sea); Playwrights Horizons (Jack’s Holiday, Moe’s Lucky Seven); Mostly Mozart Festival (Il Re Pastore); BAM (La Traviata, Arjuna’s Dilemma, Il Matrimonio Segreto); The Acting Company (Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Fire) and the Lincoln Center Festival/American Songbook Series (Orpheus and Euridice choreographed by Doug Varone). In addition, he has collaborated with the composer Philip Glass (Hydrogen Jukebox and Les Enfants Térribles, which won him an American Theatre Wing Lighting Design Award).

His extensive regional theater work includes productions at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre Company; A.C.T. San Francisco; Berkley Rep; Williamstown Theatre Festival; Calgary Theatre Company. The Grand Theatre & Vancouver Playhouse, Canada; Center Stage-Baltimore; Arena Stage; Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Shakespeare Theatre DC; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre; Westport Country Playhouse; Goodman Theatre; The Guthrie; Mark Taper Forum; Geva Theatre; Actors Theatre/Louisville; Old Globe/San Diego; Laguna Playhouse; Yale Rep; Alley Theatre, Houston; Dallas Theatre Center among many others.

He is a creative partner at Spark Design Collaborative and a faculty member of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Design for Stage & Film in New York City.

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)