West Side Story

From: New York City, New York. LA Opera: La Traviata (2006, debut). As of the end of 2023/24 season, he had conducted 68 different operas and 469 performances with the company to date. He has been Music Director of the company since 2006 and will serve as in that position until the end of his 20th season in 2026, at which time he will become Conductor Laureate.

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.

He was previously 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). He 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 Wiener Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, 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 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.

From: Brooklyn, New York. LA Opera: Rigoletto (2025, debut).

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.

From: Glendive, Montana. LA Opera: He became Chorus Director in 2022, after working on over 75 productions as associate chorus director and/or assistant conductor. He is a coach for the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program.

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)