In 2016-17, his third season as the BSO's Ray and Maria Stata Music Director, Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in fourteen wide-ranging subscription programs at Symphony Hall, repeating three of them at New York's Carnegie Hall in late February/early March, followed by two concerts in Montreal and Toronto. In the summer of 2015, following his first season as music director, his contract with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was extended through the 2021-22 season. In addition, in 2017 he becomes Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, in which capacity he will also bring the BSO and GWO together for a unique multi-dimensional alliance. Following the 2015 Tanglewood season, Maestro Nelsons and the BSO undertook a twelve-concert, eight-city tour to major European capitals as well as the Lucerne, Salzburg, and Grafenegg festivals. A second European tour, to eight cities in Germany (including the BSO's first performance in Leipzig's famed Gewandhaus), Austria, and Luxembourg, took place in May 2016.

The fifteenth music director in the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons made his BSO debut at Carnegie Hall in March 2011 with Mahler's Symphony No. 9. He made his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, leading both the BSO and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as part of Tanglewood's 75th Anniversary Gala. His first CD with the BSO-live recordings of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2-was released in November 2014 on BSO Classics. In 2014-15, in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon, he and the BSO initiated a multi-year recording project entitled "Shostakovich Under Stalin's Shadow," to include live performances of Shostakovich's symphonies 5 through 10 and other works composed under the life-threatening shadow of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Released in July 2015, their first Shostakovich disc-the Symphony No. 10 and the Passacaglia from the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk-won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. May 2016 brought not only the second release in this series-a two-disc set including symphonies 5, 8, and 9 and excerpts from Shostakovich's 1932 incidental music for Hamlet-but also the extension of the collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon to encompass the composer's complete symphonies and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. More recently, this past August, their disc of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 won Gramophone Magazine's Orchestral Award.

From 2008 to 2015, Andris Nelsons was critically acclaimed as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In the next few seasons, he continues his collaborations with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. A regular guest at the Royal Opera House, Vienna State Opera, and Metropolitan Opera, he returned to the Bayreuth Festival in summer 2014 to conduct Wagner's Lohengrin, in a production directed by Hans Neuenfels, which he premiered at Bayreuth in 2010. Under a new, exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, Mr. Nelsons will record the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic and Bruckner symphonies with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. He was principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, from 2006 to 2009 and music director of the Latvian National Opera from 2003 to 2007. Mr. Nelsons is the subject of a 2013 DVD from Orfeo, a documentary film entitled "Andris Nelsons: Genius on Fire."

(September 2016)

Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time. In 2013, President Obama awarded her America's highest honor for an individual artist, the National Medal of Arts. Winner of the 2013 Best Classical Vocal Grammy Award, she has sung at momentous occasions around the world, from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to performances in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games. In 2014 she became the first classical singer ever to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. In 2012, in another historic first, she sang on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in the Diamond Jubilee Concert for HM Queen Elizabeth II. In 2009, Renée was featured in the televised We Are One: The Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial concert for President Obama. She has performed for the United States Supreme Court, and in 2014 she celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in a televised concert at the Brandenburg Gate. Another distinction was bestowed in 2008 when, breaking a precedent, Renée became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala.

On New Year's Eve, Renée appeared in the title role in a new production of The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera. In April, she made her Broadway theater debut in Living on Love, for which she was nominated for a Drama League Award. She has appeared in virtually all of the world's greatest opera houses and concert halls. Renée's recital schedule in recent years has spanned the globe, including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Quito, Bogota, Paris, Geneva, London, Vienna, Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Taipei.

Renée won her fourth Grammy Award for her album Poèmes. Recipient of 14 Grammy nominations to date, she has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to an album of indie rock covers, Dark Hope, the jazz album Haunted Heart and the movie soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, Renée has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo but also with Elton John, Sting, Lou Reed, Josh Groban, Joan Baez and even the Muppets.

Her recent opera dvds include Strauss's Arabella and Ariadne auf Naxos, and Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. Other recent DVD releases include Handel's Rodelinda, Massenet's Thaïs and Rossini's Armida, all three in the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series, and Verdi's La Traviata, filmed at London's Royal Opera House.

With a multimedia profile rare among contemporary opera singers, Renée has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series for movie theaters and television, and Live from Lincoln Center on PBS. She was the subject of an HBO Masterclass documentary, and has been a frequent guest on Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. In 2013, she joined with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to present American Voices, a concert and 3-day festival celebrating the best American singing in all genres. The festival was the subject of a Great Performances documentary on PBS in January.

Her book The Inner Voice was published by Viking Penguin in 2004, and released in paperback by Penguin the following year. An intimate account of her career and creative process, the book is now in its 12th US printing, and it is also published in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Russia. A Polish edition will be released this autumn.

Renée is a champion of new music and has performed works by a wide range of contemporary composers, including recent compositions by Anders Hillborg, Henri Dutilleux, Brad Mehldau, André Previn, and Wayne Shorter.

In 2010, Renée was named the first-ever creative consultant at Lyric Opera of Chicago. She is currently curating the creation of a world-premiere opera based on the best-seller Bel Canto for Lyric Opera's 2015-2016 season. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the Board of Sing for Hope, and the Artistic Advisory Board of the Polyphony Foundation. Among her awards are the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Honorary Membership in the Royal Academy of Music, Sweden's Polar Music Prize, and honorary doctorates from Duke University, Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University, the Eastman School of Music, and The Juilliard School. 

www.reneefleming.com

Erin Morley is one of today's most sought after coloratura sopranos. She has stepped into the international spotlight in recent years with a string of critically acclaimed appearances in the great opera houses of the world.

Ms. Morley has brought what the New York Times called the "silken clarity of her voice and the needlepoint precision" of her coloratura to the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper, the Opéra National de Paris, the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain, and the Santa Fe Opera. Renowned for her musicality and deft phrasing, she has also appeared as a soloist with America's premier symphony orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

The 2015-16 season takes Ms. Morley back to Munich (Fiakermilli in Arabella) and Paris (Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier), and will include debuts at the Minnesota Opera (Ariadne auf Naxos) and with Harry Bicket's renowned chamber group, The English Concert, in a European and North-American tour singing Angelica in Handel's Orlando with a final performance at Carnegie Hall.

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Morley has sung more than 70 performances at the Metropolitan Opera. She was hailed by critics as "a major success" when she stepped in last-minute to sing Sophie in an entire run of Der Rosenkavalier in the 2013-14 season. (She will return to the Met as Sophie in a new production alongside Elīna Garanča and Renee Fleming, with James Levine at the podium.) Met audiences also heard Ms. Morley's role debuts as Olympia (in Les Contes d'Hoffmann) in the 2014-15 season, and Sister Constance (in Dialogues des Carmélites) in 2013-14, among others.

Equally at home in chamber music, Ms. Morley has appeared with Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, in a recital tour with pianist Vlad Iftinca (Salt Lake City's Virtuoso Series and Carnegie's Weill Hall), and with pianist Ken Noda (in Webern's Four Songs) and James Levine and the Met Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie's Zankel Hall (in Satie's Socrate). 

In commercial recording, Ms. Morley can be seen as Sandrina (in La Finta Giardiniera) with conductor Emmanuelle Haïm in the Opéra de Lille production for Erato; as Woglinde (in Götterdämmerung) with conductor Fabio Luisi in the Metropolitan Opera's Grammy Award-winning Lepage Ring Cycle for Deutsche Grammophon; and can be heard as Marguerite de Valois (in Les Huguenots, live from Bard SummerScape), for the ASO label; in Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 3 "Espansiva" with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic for Da Capo Records; and as Sylvie in Gounod's opéra-comique La Colombe (to be released in November 2015) with Mark Elder and The Hallé Orchestra for the Opera Rara label.

The daughter of a violinist, Ms. Morley spent her early years studying violin and piano, and frequently collaborated with her mother. While obtaining her undergraduate voice degree from Eastman, she continued her piano studies, and accompanied singers in lessons and recitals. She went on to earn her Master of Music voice degree from The Juilliard School and her Artist Diploma from the Juilliard Opera Center in 2007, where she received the Florence & Paul DeRosa Prize. Ms. Morley won 1st Place in the Licia Albanese - Puccini Foundation Competition in 2006, 3rd Place in London's Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in 2009, and received the Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2013.

"Graham's mezzo-soprano is a voice without regrets, healthy, rounded, ineffably musical, and eager for a challenge." -New Yorker

Susan Graham, one of the world's foremost stars of opera and recital, is a compelling and versatile singing actress. Celebrated as an expert in French music, Graham has been honored by the French government with the title "Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur."

Highlights of Susan Graham's 2011-12 season include the Grammy-award winner's much-anticipated Canadian Opera Company debut as Iphigenia in Gluck's Iphigenia en Tauride. Graham also returns to the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Handel's Xerxes, and the Paris Opera for performances of Franz Lehár's popular operetta The Merry Widow. In January, she embarks on an American recital tour with her frequent collaborator, pianist Malcolm Martineau that culminates in her return to Carnegie Hall.

This past season, the "peerless American mezzo" (New York Observer) took on a number of favorite roles.  At Teatro Real Madrid and at her home company, New York's Metropolitan Opera, Graham stared opposite Plácido Domingo in the title role of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, on which she had already "put her own stamp" (Chicago Tribune).  At Houston Grand Opera, she reprised her "breath-stopping" (Independent, UK) portrayal of the Composer in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra, she sang Marguerite in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust.  In the 2009-2010 season, Susan Graham sang Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, and recorded the song cycle for the Symphony's own record label.  She returned to the Metropolitan Opera for a signature role - Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier - and she portrayed Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan on the West Coast.  Lyric Opera of Chicago welcomed her back for her first company performances in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust, which she performed during the 2008-09 season at the Met and in The Met: Live in HD.  With the Houston Grand Opera, she has also taken on the title role in Handel's Xerxes, singing the famous aria "Ombra mai fù." Graham closed out the 2009-10 season performing Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer with the New York Philharmonic under Sir Andrew Davis.

Graham is a leader in the international Christoph Gluck opera revival. She has sung the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride in a new production staged for her by the Metropolitan Opera, and at Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Chicago Tribune wrote, "Graham put her own stamp on the part, bringing both nobility and vibrant vocal beauty to her affecting performance."

At home and abroad, Susan Graham has sung leading roles from the 17th to 20th centuries in the great opera houses of the world, including Milan's La Scala, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Dresden's Semperoper, and the Salzburg Festival, and she has appeared with many of the world's leading conductors and orchestras.  Dubbed "America's favorite mezzo" by Gramophone magazine, Graham captivates audiences with her expressive voice, tall and graceful stature, and engaging acting ability in both comedy and tragedy.

Three years ago, her season finale was Handel's Ariodante with San Francisco Opera. In the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, "Susan Graham added one more entry to her long list of triumphs with the company, turning in a performance marked by nobility and technical bravura."

Graham created the part of Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking for San Francisco Opera, and created leading roles in two Metropolitan Opera world premieres: An American Tragedy by Tobias Picker and The Great Gatsby by John Harbison.

Three seasons ago, Graham expanded her distinguished discography with two recordings: Un frisson français with pianist Malcolm Martineau, a survey of a century of French song; and her interpretation of Berlioz's La mort de Cléopâtre, recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle and released by EMI Classics.  Earlier solo CDs include Poèmes de l'amour, with Ravel's Shéhérazade and Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer.  Her disc of Charles Ives songs with Pierre-Laurent Aimard won a Grammy, and she received both a Grammy nomination and France's Maria Callas award for her Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.  A New York Times review stated, "Ms. Graham … paints Dido as passionate from the start.  'When I am laid in earth' is as wrenching an account as you'll find on disc."

Her complete opera recordings range from Handel's Alcina and Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride to Barber's Vanessa and Heggie's Dead Man Walking. Graham's Dido in Les Troyens, recorded live for DVD at the Paris Châtelet, was praised by Gramophone as "moving and intense … strongly acted and magnificently sung."

Born in New Mexico and raised in Texas, Susan Graham studied at Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music, which awarded her an honorary Doctor of Music in 2008.  She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Schwabacher Award from San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program, as well as a Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.  Graham was Musical America's 2004 Vocalist of the Year, and in 2006 her hometown of Midland, Texas declared September 5 "Susan Graham Day" in perpetuity.

Baritone Alan Opie is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Santa Fe Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, English National Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has also sung at the Bayreuth Festival singing Beckmesser - a role also repeated in Berlin, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna and Turin. At ENO he was nominated for the 'Outstanding Achievement in Opera' Olivier Award for his performance of Falstaff.

His extensive concert work has included performances of Mendelssohn'sElijah  in San Francisco and Dallas; Walton's Belshazzar's Feast in Dallas, Denver and Carnegie Hall; Britten's War Requiem in Washington, Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony in Los Angeles, Elgar's The Kingdom with the Halle Orchestra; Elgar's Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Scottish National Symphony; King Olav with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra and the Apostlesat the Proms.

Alan Opie has recorded for CBS, EMI, Hyperion, Chandos, and Decca. Releases include "Alan Opie Sings Bel Canto Arias", Britten's Gloriana, Albert Herring, Peter Grimes  for which he received a Grammy Award, Death in Venice and The Rape of Lucretia; the title role in Dallapiccola's Ulisse; Tonioin I Pagliacci; Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor; Smirnov in Walton's The Bear,Carlo in Ernani, di Luna in Il Trovatore, the title role in Il Barbiere di Sivigliaand Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg under Sir Georg Solti for which he received his second Grammy award.

Recent performances include Balstrode with the London Philharmonic under Vladimir Jurowski, Accademia di Santa Cecilia under Sir Antonio Pappano and San Francisco under Michael Tilson Thomas as well as the title role inThe Death of Klinghoffer at the Metropolitan Opera.

He opened the 2015/16 season at the Metropolitan Opera with Die Fledermaus. Future engagements include a return to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and future productions at the MET.

Alan Opie received an OBE in the Queen's birthday honours in 2013.

THE GERMAN SOPRANO HAS DEVELOPED AN EXTRAORDINARY CAREER AS DRAMATIC SOPRANO.
 

EARLY IN HER CAREER SHE HAD HER DEBUTS WITH THE BAVARIAN STATE OPERA, THE BAYREUTH FESTIVAL AND THE LANDESTHEATER INNSBRUCK. THE SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATION WITH ARTISTS MANAGEMENT VIENNA BROUGHT  HER TO OPERAHOUSES SUCH AS VIENNA STATE OPERA, SALZBURG FESTIVAL, ROYAL OPERA HOUSE COVENT GARDEN, SEMPEROPER DRESDEN, STAATSOPER BERLIN, OPERA BASTILLE, SEATTLE OPERA, OPERA LYON, ESTONIAN NATIONAL OPERA, CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY TORONTO, KOMISCHE OPER BERLIN, STAATSOPER STUTTGART, FESTSPIELHAUS BADEN-BADEN AND THE GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL.
 

SHE COLLABORATED WITH CONDUCTORS SUCH AS ADAM FISCHER, CHRISTIAN THIELEMANN, GIUSEPPE SINOPOLI, PETER SCHNEIDER, ROBIN TICCIATI, KAZUSHI ONO, ZUBIN MEHTA, KENT NAGANO, HANS WALLAT, KIRILL PETRENKO, MARCELLO VIOTTI, SEMYON BYCHKOV AND LORIN MAAZEL.
 

IMPORTANT FUTURE ENGAGEMENTS INCLUDE A NEW PRODUCTION OF "HÄNSEL UND GRETEL" AT THE OPERA BASTILLE AND BRÜNNHILDE IN "SIEGFRIED" AND "GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG" AT THE STAATSOPER STUTTGART.

Opera News hailed that "Michelle Trainor gave one of the most satisfying performances of the evening...her voice is richer and more expressive than ever" for her portrayal of Brangain in Boston Lyric Opera's The Love Potion. The Musical Intelligencer has called her performance of Hagar's Lament "spellbinding and intense" and The Wall Street Journal stated that she "displayed a powerful, penetrating soprano as Brangain." Michelle performed with the Tuscia Opera Festival in Viterbo, Italy where she was praised by Filippo Tadonlini for her "intense and full‐bodied vocalism".

This season, along with her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut, she returns to the Boston Lyric Opera stage to sing the role of Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro. In past seasons she sang the role of Brangain in Martin's The Love Potion to much critical acclaim, a staged version of Schubert's early song Hagar's Lament as well as the Second Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Ms. Trainor also reprised the role of Tosca as well as Suor Angelica where she was hailed as a "standout".

As a Boston Lyric Opera Emerging Artist she has sung roles in their productions of Hansel and Gretel, Macbeth, The Inspector, The Magic Flute and The Love Potion. Michelle recorded the Schubert's Hagar's Lament on the BIS label with Boston Lyric Opera and is frequent performer in the BLO Signature Series at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She was most recently nominated by Arts Impulse for Best Female Performer in an Opera for her performance of Suor Angelica.

Michelle's awards include: Winner of Boston Lyric Opera's Shrestinian Award for Excellence, First Place Winner of the New Jersey Verismo Opera Competition, St. Botolph Club Grant Winner, First Place Winner of the Peter Elvins' Competition, First Place Winner of the New England Regional NATSAA, NATSAA National Finalist and Winner of the Berton Coffin Award.

Equally at home with concert repertoire, Ms. Trainor made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Mahler's Eighth Symphony. She has performed works such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Haydn's Missa in Augustiis, Vaughn Williams' A Sea Symphony and Nicholas White's Magnificat as well as Mozart's Requiem, Mass in C Minor, Solemn Vespers and his Missa Brevis in B Flat. She has performed at Boston's First Night, with Composers in Red Sneakers and she joined the stage of the Boston Ballet in their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream as the soprano soloist.

Jane Henschel was born in Wisconsin, studied at the University of Southern California and subsequently moved to Germany.

In concert she has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony and Philadelphia orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre de Radio France under Ozawa, Conlon, Maazel, Rattle, Janowski, Colin Davis, Andrew Davis and Schoenwandt. Her recordings include Krasa's "Verlobung im Traum" (Zagrosek for Decca), "The Rake's Progress" (Ozawa for Philips Classics),  Albeniz' "Merlin" with Domingo (Grammy Award, 2001) and "Henry Clifford" (both for Decca), Britten's "The Turn  of the Screw" (Daniel Harding for EMI/Virgin - Gramophone Award 2003) and Mahler's 8th Symphony for EMI with the CBSO and Rattle.

In opera, Jane Henschel has sung Baba the Turk at the Glyndebourne, Saito Kinen and Salzburg Festivals; Brangäne for Los Angeles Opera and Paris Opera;  Klytemnestra for San Francisco Opera,  the Principessa ("Suor Angelica") with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Chailly, "Dialogues des Carmélites" in Amsterdam; the Kostelnicka ("Jenufa") under Ozawa in Japan, Auntie ("Peter Grimes") with Rattle, and the Kabanicha ("Katya Kabanova") for the Salzburg Festival.

For The Royal Opera, Covent Garden she has sung Fricka and Waltraute under Haitink, Ulrica ("Un ballo in maschera") under Gatti, Klytemnestra under Thielemann and Sir Mark Elder, Mrs Grose ("The Turn of the Screw") under Colin Davis and Daniel Harding, and Erda in the new "Ring" under Pappano; at La Scala, Milan she has sung Herodias under Chung, Cassandre ("Les Troyens") under Colin Davis, and Waltraute under Muti. Her roles at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich include Herodias, Klytemnestra, Ulrica, Mistress Quickly and Ortrud; at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin Klytemnestra, Herodias and Ortrud; at the Vienna State Opera Klytemnestra, Mistress Quickly and Fricka; and Mistress Quickly for Los Angeles Opera under Nagano. It is the Amme (Die Frau ohne Schatten) which has become her signature role, one which she has sung in Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

Recent engagements include her return to the opera houses of London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and New York, as well as concerts with the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and Boston Symphony orchestras. Her engagements include the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, and her returns to the Vienna State Opera and Dresden Semperoper.

Born in Littleborough in Lancashire, Graham Clark studied with Bruce Boyce and began his operatic career with Scottish Opera in 1975. He was a Company Principal at ENO (1978-85).

He has performed with all of the leading UK opera houses and his extensive international career includes performances in Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin (Deutsche Oper, Deutsche Staatsoper), Bilbao, Biwako, Bonn, Brussels, Catania, Chicago, Dallas, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamamatsu, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Madrid (Teatro Real, Teatro de la Zarzuela), Matsumoto (Saito Kinen), Milan (La Scala), Munich, Nagoya, Nice, Paris (Opéra Bastille, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Palais Garnier), Rome, Salzburg, San Francisco, Stockholm, Tokyo, Toronto, Toulouse, Turin, Vancouver, Vienna (Staatsoper), Yokohama, Zurich and in particular at the Bayreuth Festival, where he has performed over a hundred  and twenty times and at The Metropolitan Opera, where he has performed 82 times. 

Graham Clark is especially associated with the works of Wagner and has performedLoge and Mime/Der Ring des Nibelungenover 275 times. His extensive repertoire includesMephistopheles/ Busoni'sDoktor Faust, for which he won an Olivier Award,Bégearssin the world premiere ofThe Ghosts of Versailles;Captain Vere/Billy Budd,Steva/Jenufa,Herodes/Salome,Hauptmann/Wozzeck,Gregor/The Makropulos Case,Prinz, KammerdienerandMarquis/LuluandTanzmeister/Ariadne auf Naxos. He made his acting début as Socrates inThe Trial of Socrates, Plato's Apologyat the Grand Théâtre, Luxembourg in 2011.

In concert, Graham Clark has performed at venues and festivals all over the globe including in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bamberg, Berlin, Brussels, Canaries, Chicago, Cologne, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, London (Proms), Lucerne, Milan, Paris, Rome, Tel Aviv and Washington.

He has recorded extensively with the BBC, BMG, Challenge Classics, Chandos, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Erato, Etcetera, EuroArts, Oehms Classics, Opera Rara, Opus Arte, Philips, Profil, Sony, Teldec, The Met New York, United Artists, Warner 

Classics and WizArt.  DVDs includeDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg,Der fliegende Holländer,Der Ring des Nibelungen(Bayreuther Festspiele); TheGhosts of Versailles,Wozzeck(The Metropolitan Opera, New York);Der Ring des Nibelungen, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Khovanshchina(Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona);Der Ring des Nibelungen(De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam);The Makropulos Case(Canadian Opera, Toronto);Wozzeck(Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin);The Rake's Progress(Glyndebourne Festival Opera) andThe Trial of Socrates(Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg).

Recent and future operatic engagements includeWozzeck,Metanoia,LuluandDie Meistersinger von Nürnbergfor Berlin Staatsoper, Reimann'sLearandMakropoulos Casefor Oper Frankfurt, Schreker'sDer Schatzgräber/De Nederlandse Opera,Der Traum ein Leben/Theater Bonn,Capricciofor Paris Opera,Hänsel und Gretel/Northern Ireland Opera,Falstaff/Glyndebourne,La Fanciulla del West/English National Opera, a new commission by Iain BellIn parenthesisfor WNO andCapriccioandTristan und Isoldefor Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  Concert engagements include a concert performance ofMelot/Tristanund Isolde with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Seville andFalstaffwith the CBSO.

Graham Clark has received three nominations, including an EMMY, for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Opera.  He was awarded the Sir Laurence Olivier Award for his performance ofMephistophelesat English National Opera in 1986, the Sir Reginald Goodall Memorial Award by the Wagner Society, London in 2001 and the Sherwin Award by The Wagner Society of Southern California in 2009.

www.grahamclark.org

As the Associated Press observes, Stephen Costello is "a prodigiously gifted singer whose voice makes an immediate impact." The Philadelphia-born tenor quickly established a reputation as a "first-class talent" (Opera News) after coming to national attention in 2007, when, aged 26, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut on the company's season-opening night. Two years later Costello won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, and he has since appeared at many of the world's most important opera houses and music festivals, including London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Deutsche Oper Berlin; the Vienna State Opera; the Lyric Opera of Chicago; San Francisco Opera; Washington National Opera; and the Salzburg Festival. In 2010 he created the role of Greenhorn (Ishmael) in the Dallas Opera's celebrated world-premiere production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby-Dick, prompting Opera magazine to hail him as "a tenor of ineffable sensitivity" and "unfailing elegance in singing."

Costello's 2015/16 season includes Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Lord Anna Bolenafor The Metropolitan Opera, The Duke Rigoletto for Teatro Real Madrid, Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon at Dallas Opera, and Edgardo in a new production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Royal Opera House. Costello will also make his Santa Fe Opera debut in the title role of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, sing Verdi Requiem with Boston Philharmonic, and sing Nemorino in a new staging of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Vienna State Opera.

Last season Costello sung Alfredo in La traviata and Camille in The Merry Widow for The Metropolitan Opera, Alfredo for the Vienna State Opera, title role Roméo et Juliette at Austin Lyric Opera and concert performances of Traviata with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Other recent highlights include Greenhorn Moby-Dick with Washington National Opera, his Houston Grand Opera debut as the Duka in Rigoletto, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich debut as Rodolfo in La boheme, and his return to the Vienna State Opera as Percy in Anna Bolena and Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, the latter also being his second Washington National Opera engagement. Costello also sang Alfredo in La traviata at London's Royal Opera House and San Francisco Opera, and for a gala concert celebrating Richard Tucker's centennial at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.  

Costello made his professional debut in 2005 with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall. The following year brought his European debut, as Nemorino with Opéra National de Bordeaux, and his first appearances at the Dallas Opera and Fort Worth Opera, as Puccini's Rodolfo. Noteworthy subsequent debuts have included the Salzburg Festival, as Cassio in Otello; Covent Garden, as Carlo in Linda di Chamounix; Lyric Opera of Chicago, as Camille in The Merry Widow; San Diego Opera and Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, both in the title role of Roméo et Juliette; the Glyndebourne Festival, as Nemorino; and the Vienna State Opera and Berlin State Opera, both as Rodolfo in La bohème. At San Diego Opera, Costello made role debuts as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier and in the title role of Faust, besides opening the company's 2012-13 season with his first appearances as Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du regiment.

At the Dallas Opera, Costello played the tenor lead in each of Donizetti's three Tudor operas, before reprising Lord Percy opposite Anna Netrebko for his second opening-night performance at the Met, in the company's premiere presentation of Anna Bolena. He and Netrebko appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose to discuss the new production, which was transmitted worldwide in the Met's Live in HD series. For his Los Angeles Opera debut, Costello portrayed Rodolfo in La bohème; for his first appearances at Washington National Opera, he resumed the role of Greenhorn in Heggie/Scheer's Moby-Dick; and for his Houston Grand Opera debut, he scored glowing reviews as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. In spring 2014, he undertook the male lead in La traviata, both for the historic first live webcast of a complete opera from London's Royal Opera House, and in a San Francisco Opera production that was simulcast to thousands in AT&T Park, home of baseball's San Francisco Giants.

Costello's performance as Cassio in Verdi's Otello, under Riccardo Muti's leadership at the Salzburg Festival, was released on DVD in 2010 (Major/Naxos), and his Covent Garden debut in Linda di Chamounix was issued on CD a year later (Opera Rara). His star turn in San Francisco Opera's Moby-Dick, televised nationwide on PBS's Great Performances, was released on DVD in 2013 (SFO) and named an "Editor's Choice" by Gramophone. Similarly, his appearance alongside Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, and other operatic luminaries in 2013's centennial Richard Tucker Gala was broadcast on PBS'sLive from Lincoln Center and subsequently issued on DVD. The same year saw the release of here/after: songs of lost voices (Pentatone), featuring the tenor's world premiere recording of Jake Heggie's Friendly Persuasions: Homage to Poulenc.

Besides winning the 2009 Richard Tucker Award, Stephen Costello has previously received other grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, as well as taking First Prize in the 2006 George London Foundation Awards Competition, First Prize and Audience Prize in the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and First Prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition. A native of Philadelphia, he is a graduate of the city's famed Academy of Vocal Arts.

David Cangelosi has firmly established himself as an artist who combines both excellent singing with winning characterizations. He is highly acclaimed by major opera companies and symphony orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. In 2004, Mr. Cangelosi made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Mime in Das Rheingold, conducted by James Levine, and has returned in recent seasons with principal roles in Andrea Chenier, Il Tabarro, and Tales of Hoffmann. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 2014/2015 for performances of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. Other roles at the Metropolitan include Basilio (Marriage of Figaro), Goro (Madame Butterfly), and Spoletta (Tosca). He will reprise his signature role of Mime for Washington National Opera's production of The Ring in 2015/2016, and continues a performance/recording project of the same with the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2015 and 2017. He recently performed his role debut of the 'Witch' in Hansel and Gretel in the summer of 2015, and made his company debut with Houston Grand Opera (Tosca/Eugene Onegin) to open their 2015/2016 season. He will enjoy return engagements with the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Dallas Opera in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Mr. Cangelosi's recent performances include, Mime in Francesca Zambello's internationally acclaimed "American" Ring Cycle with San Francisco Opera; Shuisky (Boris Godunov), Goro (Butterfly), and Montostatos (Magic Flute) with Dallas Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, respectively; Nick (Fanciulla), Spalanzani (Hoffman), and Spoletta (Tosca) for the Lyric Opera Chicago; and 'The Four Servants' (Hoffmann) with the Santa Fe Opera. In 2012, Mr. Cangelosi made his debut with the Canadian Opera Company reprising the role of Spoletta in Tosca; and returned in 2012/2013 for performances of Die Fledermaus,  which he also reprised at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2014. Additional recent performances in 2014/2015 included Salome with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Cunning Little Vixen  with the Cleveland Orchestra. He was also engaged in August 2014 at the Saito-Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan; and returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago for Toscain early 2015.

A long-time veteran of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mr. Cangelosi made his debut in Salome in 1996. Engagements with the home company have included his signature role of Mime (Siegfried 2004) (Ring Cycle2005), Madame Butterfly, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Zauberflöte, Carmen (Dancairo), Turandot, and Boris Godunov. Mr. Cangelosi continues this close association with roles that include Dr. Caius (Falstaff), Guillot (Manon), Goro (Madame Butterfly), Beppe (Il Pagliacci), Little Bat (Susannah), Tobias (Sweeney Todd), and Guillot (Manon). Recent productions with LOC include Die Meistersinger, Madame Butterlfy, and Tosca.

Cangelosi made his debut at the Spoleto Festival (U.S.A.) singing the roles of the Noctambulist/Pape des Fous in Louise, and performed as a featured soloist for their Intermezzi Recital Series. Recent recital/concert performances include The Montgomery Symphony, Davis Concert Hall (UAF) with Opera Fairbanks, and the PACC Concert series in Boston. Other recent performances include Pang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Santa Fe Opera, Valzacchi with the San Francisco Opera, Dr. Caius with Los Angeles Opera, and Monostatos with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Hollywood Bowl) and Santa Fe Opera.

Career highlights include, Il Pagliacci (Beppe) with Placido Domingo and the Washington Opera (telecast on the PBS "Live from Kennedy Center" series), his Carnegie Hall debut with the Cleveland Orchestra as Torquemada in Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (under the baton of Pierre Boulez), Monostatos and Basilio with the Paris Opera (Bastille/Garnier), and Pedrillo with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Additionally Mr. Cangelosi recorded the Sword Forging Scene from Siegfried with Placido Domingo for the CD "Domingo/Scenes from the Ring" with EMI Classics. In 2000, he completed the CD/Film project of Tosca and made his screen debut at the2001 Venice Film Festival.

Other engagements include, Bob Boles (Peter Grimes), Bardolpho (Falstaff), Don Juan (Don Quichotte), and Tybalt (Romeo et Juliette) for the Washington Opera; Sellem (The Rakes Progress) for San Francisco Opera; Cassio (Otello) with Nashville Opera; Goro with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The Magician in Menotti's The Consul with Berkshire Opera (available on CD), Jacquino (Fidelio) with the Cincinnati Symphony, Pang with the Columbus Symphony, Prunier (La Rondine) with the Boston Lyric Opera, and First Jew (Salome) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood under Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Cangelosi also serves as the Artistic/Program Director of the Vann Vocal Institute in Montgomery, Alabama; and actively travels the country as a recitalist, symphonic guest-artist, competition adjudicator, and Master Class instructor for aspiring vocalists.