Alan Gilbert

The 2016–17 season marks Alan Gilbert’s eighth and final season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. The first native New Yorker to hold the post, he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of pride for the city and country. The Financial Times called him “the imaginative maestro-impresario in residence.”

Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic have forged artistic partnerships, introducing the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence — held in the 2016–17 season by Esa-Pekka Salonen and violinist Leonidas Kavakos, respectively — as well as Artist-in-Association, currently held by pianist Inon Barnatan, who inaugurated the role in the 2014–15 season; an annual festival, which this season is Beloved Friend — Tchaikovsky and His World, featuring Russian-born Semyon Bychkov conducting works by Tchaikovsky as well as composers he was influenced by and whom he influenced; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music by a wide range of contemporary and modern composers. During his tenure the Philharmonic launched the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. These include the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership and collaborations with Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic also launched a five-year partnership with the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan.

Alan Gilbert concludes his final season as Music Director with four programs that reflect signature themes of his tenure, featuring works that hold particular meaning for him and musicians with whom he has formed close relationships. These include a pairing of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw; Wagner’s complete Das Rheingold in concert; the New York Premiere of Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing alongside Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos in Brahms’s Violin Concerto and the New York Premiere of Aeriality by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, the second Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor introduced during Alan Gilbert’s tenure; and an exploration of how music can effect positive change in the world. Other 2016–17 season highlights include four World Premieres; Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, as part of the New York Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary celebrations; Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah; the World Premiere presentation of Gershwin’s score to Manhattan, performed live to the film; Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre; a concert with friends celebrating his 50th birthday; works by John Adams marking the composer’s 70th birthday; and the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. As part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, he will lead the Orchestra in its third annual performance residency through the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership, and will lead the Philharmonic and Academy Festival Orchestra together in Santa Barbara through the partnership with Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West.

Last season’s Philharmonic highlights included R. Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben to welcome newly appointed Concertmaster Frank Huang; Carnegie Hall’s 125th anniversary Opening Night Gala; premieres by William Bolcom, Franck Krawczyk, Magnus Lindberg, and Marc Neikrug; works by Sibelius in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth; as well as Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and an all-Mozart program. He also co-curated the second NY PHIL BIENNIAL — during which he conducted works by Boulez and Stucky, in tribute to the late composers, as well as premieres by William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Per Nørgård, the second recipient of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music at the New York Philharmonic, an honor introduced during Alan Gilbert’s tenure. The Music Director also performed violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time alongside Philharmonic principals and Mr. Barnatan. Under the New York Philharmonic Global Academy he led the Orchestra in its second performance residency in Shanghai and made his second appearance conducting the Music Academy of the West’s Academy Festival Orchestra.

Previous high points among Mr. Gilbert’s Philharmonic appearances include critically celebrated staged productions such as Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (2010) and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (2011), both cited as the top cultural events of their respective years; Philharmonic 360 at Park Avenue Armory (2012), the acclaimed spatial music program featuring Stockhausen’s Gruppen; A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky (2013, and later presented in movie theaters internationally); a staged production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson that was broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center, earning Mr. Gilbert an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction (2014); and the U.S. Premiere of a staging of Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (2015). Other highlights include the first two editions of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL; World Premieres of works by Christopher Rouse, Magnus Lindberg, Peter Eötvös , and composers featured on CONTACT!; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey, performed live to the film; Mahler’s Second Symphony, Resurrection, on A Concert for New York on September 10; the Verdi Requiem; the conclusion of The Nielsen Project, the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos; Mr. Gilbert’s Philharmonic debut as violin soloist in J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins; six concerts at Carnegie Hall; and ten tours around the world. In August 2015 he led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in the U.S. Stage Premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, co-presented by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center, the inaugural production of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras nationally and internationally, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. He has appeared at The Metropolitan, Los Angeles, Zurich, Royal Swedish, and Santa Fe opera companies. This season Mr. Gilbert returns to the foremost European orchestras, records Beethoven’s complete piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Inon Barnatan, and conducts Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, his first time leading a staged opera there.

In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he is also the first holder of Juilliard’s William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2008 leading John Adams’s Doctor Atomic; the DVD and Blu-ray of this production received the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Renée Fleming’s Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. Earlier releases garnered Grammy Award nominations and top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. He received his second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction for Sinatra: Voice for a Century, broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center in 2015. Mr. Gilbert conducted Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles on a recent album recorded live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Alan Gilbert studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and Juilliard and was assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra (1995–97). He received Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Curtis in May 2010 and from Westminster Choir College in May 2016, and in December 2011 he received Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.” In 2014 he was elected to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in 2015 he received a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy and was named Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2016 he received New York University’s Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City in recognition of his leadership in making New York one of the world’s great centers for music and the arts.

Relive the magic of the combination of Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic through video, audio, and photos.

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Louisa Muller

In recent seasons Louisa Muller (director) has made directing debuts at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opera Queensland, and Atlanta Opera. She earned critical acclaim for new productions of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, both for Wolf Trap Opera. She is in her ninth season on the directing staff of The Metropolitan Opera, where she has directed revivals of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This season she directs a new production of Puccini’s Tosca with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap Opera, returns to The Met to direct Don Giovanni and assist Robert Lepage on Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, serves as associate director for Bizet’s Carmen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and works with young singers at Rice University, London’s National Opera Studio, and the Scuola di Belcanto Urbania.

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David C. Woolard

Costume designer David C. Woolard received Tony Award nominations for Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show and The Who’s Tommy. He has designed more than 20 shows on Broadway and more than 200 shows around the world. Highlights include musicals such as Bernstein’s West Side Story and Adler and Ross’s Damn Yankees, as well as operas such as Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain and Joby Talbot’s Everest. In addition to his Tony nominations, Mr. Woolard has won a Drama Desk Award and the Henry Hewes Design Awards, and was nominated for an Olivier Award.

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Eric Owens

Bass-baritone Eric Owens launched the 2016–17 season with his role debut as Wotan in David Pountney’s new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He sings a trio of operas at The Metropolitan Opera: the house’s premiere of Kaijo Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka under Mark Elder, and a revival of Mozart’s Idomeneo conducted by James Levine. Other highlights include recitals with Susanna Phillips at Carnegie Hall and Lawrence Brownlee at Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Metropolitan Opera’s 50th anniversary at Lincoln Center gala, and, for the third time, he joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute to present an interactive recital for incarcerated youth with Riccardo Muti and Joyce DiDonato. He rounds out his season singing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or at Santa Fe Opera.

Mr. Owens collaborates regularly with Muti, Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alan Gilbert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Andrew Davis, Osmo Vänskä, and Donald Runnicles. In addition to performing with leading opera companies in Europe and North America, he has appeared with orchestras including the New York, Berlin, and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras; Chicago, Boston, Toronto, Bavarian Radio, Atlanta, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Swedish Radio symphony orchestras; and the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras. Mr. Owens is featured on several recordings including excerpts from Richard Strauss operas (Telarc) and John Adams’s A Flowering Tree (Nonesuch Records) and Doctor Atomic (Sony).

A Philadelphia native, Eric Owens began studying piano at age six, and at eleven began formal oboe training under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis Rosenblatt of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied voice while an undergraduate atTempleUniversity and as a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently studies withArmen Boyajian. He serves on the boards of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services.

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Jamie Barton

Recently honored with the 2017 Beverly Sills Artist Award by The Metropolitan Opera, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton (Fricka) is also the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award, both Main and Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, and the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

This season, Ms. Barton released her debut solo album, All Who Wander, featuring songs by Mahler, Dvořák, and Sibelius. She returned to The Metropolitan Opera as Fenena in Verdi’s Nabucco and Jezibaba in a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka, both simulcast in cinemas worldwide, and to Houston Grand Opera as Waltraute / Second Norn in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. She will make her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut this summer as Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo.

The winner of the 2014 International Opera Award in the Young Singer category and the 2014 Marian Anderson Award, Ms. Barton has recently appeared as Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma at The Met, Los Angeles Opera, and San Francisco Opera; Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at The Met and Lyric Opera of Chicago; Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre at Houston Grand Opera; Waltraute / Second Norn at Washington National Opera; Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Oper Frankfurt; and Fenena at Seattle Opera and Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Ms. Barton’s concert engagements include recent debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as well as returns to the Toronto and Iceland symphony orchestras. Ms. Barton premiered Jake Heggie’s The Work at Hand at Carnegie Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and will return to New York next season for the World Premiere of Iain Bell’s Of You, commissioned by Carnegie Hall. Other 2017–18 engagements include debuts with Madrid’s Teatro Real, London Symphony Orchestra, and Taiwan’s National Taichung Theater, as well as returns to Houston and New York as Adalgisa, to Washington, D.C. as Princess Eboli, and to San Francisco for Wagner’s Ring Cycle. 

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Christopher Purves

Highlights of Christopher Purves’s (Alberich) 2016–17 season include the title role in Richard Jones’s new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for English National Opera; The Protector in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin for Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the title role in Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Saul at the Adelaide Festival; and Alberich in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung for Houston Grand Opera. Recent highlights include Written on Skin led by Alan Gilbert at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart festival as well as on tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; his debut at the Opéra national de Paris in Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron; Alberich in Götterdämmerung at the Bavarian Staatsoper and in Wagner’s Siegfried with Canadian Opera Company and Houston Grand Opera; his return to Glyndebourne Festival Opera as the Gamekeeper in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen; the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at Opera North; Golaud in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at Welsh National Opera; and the title role in Saul for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Other operatic highlights include appearances at Royal Opera, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Salzburg Festival, Berlin Staatsoper, and Netherlands Opera.

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Russell Thomas

In the 2016–17 season, tenor Russell Thomas (Loge) returns to The Metropolitan Opera to sing Ismaele in Verdi’s Nabucco; Canadian Opera Company and Lyric Opera of Chicago as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma; and Los Angeles Opera as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. He also makes his debut at the Salzburg Festival singing the title role in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. Concert highlights this season include performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Detroit and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Future engagements include debuts with the Bavarian Staatsoper, Washington National Opera, and Netherlands Opera, and returns to San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company, and Oper Frankfurt. Mr. Thomas’s role debuts last season included Turiddu in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana with Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role of a new production of Verdi’s Stiffelio with Oper Frankfurt, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen with Canadian Opera Company, and Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio with Cincinnati Opera. He made his Los Angeles Opera debut as Pollione in Norma and reprised his portrayal of Lazarus in John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary in Strasbourg.

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Kelley O'Connor

Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor’s (Erda) 2016–17 season includes her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in a program of Brahms, Purcell, and Stravinsky with Thomas Adès, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Matthias Pintscher and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic and with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Louis Langrée and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ms. O’Connor also joins Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic for Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. In recital, the California native returns to Collaborative Arts Institute Chicago in songs of Debussy, Massenet, Chausson, and Canteloube; joins Louis Langrée, as pianist, for recital programs in Cincinnati featuring songs of Brahms and Ravel; and is accompanied by her frequent collaborator, Donald Runnicles, at the Grand Teton Music Festival in works by Brahms and Bernstein.

Kelley O’Connor has won acclaim for her performances of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar in her debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano, which led to a Grammy Award–winning recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Her discography also includes Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. 

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Morris Robinson

Morris Robinson (Fasolt), a graduate of The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002 in Beethoven’s Fidelio. He has since appeared there as Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Verdi’s Il trovatore, and in productions of Verdi’s Aida and Nabucco, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and Richard Strauss’s Salome. He has also appeared at San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Dallas Opera, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. His many roles include Osmin in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Ramfis in Aida, Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Timur in Puccini’s Turandot, and Fasolt in Wagner’s Das Rheingold.

A prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson recently made his BBC Proms debut in a televised performance of the Verdi Requiem. He has also appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall and with the Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Met Chamber orchestras; the Chicago, Boston, Montreal, and São Paulo symphony orchestras; and at the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen festivals. In recital he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This season, Mr. Robinson made his debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala in the title role of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and returned to The Met for The Magic Flute and Aida, and to Los Angeles Opera in The Abduction from the Seraglio. Upcoming engagements include returns to Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals.

Mr. Robinson’s first album, Going Home, was released by Decca.

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Stephen Milling

Danish bass Stephen Milling (Fafner) made his critically acclaimed debut at the 2015 Bayreuth Festival as Hagen in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung led by Kirill Petrenko. Mr. Milling has been acclaimed for his performances as Gurnemanz in Wagner’s Parsifal, which he has performed at the Vienna Staatsoper under Simon Rattle, at the Salzburg Festival under Christian Thielemann, and on DVD for Deutsche Grammophone. His other Wagnerian highlights include Hunding in Die Walküre at The Metropolitan Opera; Fasolt in Das Rheingold at the BBC; King Marke in Tristan und Isolde at the Berlin Staatsoper, Vienna Staatsoper, and with the Los Angeles and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras; Daland in The Flying Dutchman at the Bavarian Staatsoper; and both Landgraf in Tannhäuser and Viet Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Mr. Milling’s recent performances include Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos at San Francisco Opera and Opera National du Rhin, Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Padre Guardiano in Verdi’s La forza del destino at Palau de les Artes in Valencia, Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater at Opéra national de Paris, Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto at The Met, and Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Royal Opera and the Vienna Staatsoper.

Trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Stephen Milling joined the Royal Danish Opera in 1994. His debuts at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as Don Fernando in Fidelio and as Fasolt and Hunding in Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle launched his international career.

Stephen Milling made his Berlin Philharmonic debut in the Verdi Requiem led by Mariss Jansons. His recordings include Les Troyens with the London Symphony Orchestra, led by Colin Davis, and DVDs of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, staged by La Fura dels Baus in Valencia, and The Copenhagen Ring, Tannhäuser, and Maskarade with Kasper Holten at the Royal Danish Opera.

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Rachel Willis-Sørensen

Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen (Freia) won First Prizes at the 2014 Operalia competition in Los Angeles and at the 2011 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, and she was a winner of the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She holds both bachelor and master of music degrees from Brigham Young University and is a recent alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

She was a member of the ensemble at the Dresden Semperoper, where she sang the title role in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Vitellia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Diemut in Richard Strauss’s Feuersnot, Rosalinde in J. Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, and Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème.

Recent roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at The Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, and Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Houston Grand Opera; Gutrune in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung at Royal Opera; Eva in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at San Francisco Opera; Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin with Deutsche Oper Berlin; and Donna Anna at the Vienna Staatsoper. This season she sings Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Eva at Royal Opera, and Elsa at Zurich Opera.

Ms. Willis-Sørensen’s recent concert performances include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with the Dresden Staatskapelle; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl; Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Dresden Festival; and Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz in concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

This season’s concert engagements include the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and R. Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Leonora in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

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Brian Jagde

In the 2016–17 season American tenor Brian Jagde (Froh) makes his role debuts as Radamès in Verdi’s Aida, at San Francisco Opera, and Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, at Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He also sang Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo and Washington National Opera, and in summer 2017 he makes his debuts at Madrid’s Teatro Real as Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth and at Oper Stuttgart as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. He and soprano Joyce El-Khoury performed as part of the first Mondavi Center–hosted concert at the new Anne E. Pitzer Center in Davis, California. Next season he returns to San Francisco Opera as Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot and to Deutsche Opera Berlin as Cavaradossi in Tosca and in Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane and makes his Zurich Opera debut as Cavaradossi and Seattle Opera debut as Radamès.

Mr. Jagde’s previous engagements include debuts at The Metropolitan Opera as Count Elemer in Richard Strauss’s Arabella and Royal Opera as Pinkerton; Don José in Bizet’s Carmen at San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro San Carlo, and Opéra de Limoges; Cavaradossi at Santa Fe Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème with Ópera de Bellas Artes; Ismaele in Verdi’s Nabucco at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia; and the Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka at Houston Grand Opera and Opera San Antonio. He was also seen as Bacchus in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos at Minnesota Opera and Palm Beach Opera; Pinkerton at San Francisco Opera; Matteo in Arabella with Minnesota Opera; Rodolfo with the Munich Philharmonic and at the Castleton Festival; and Narraboth at Santa Fe Opera and Opera San Antonio. Mr. Jagde made his European debut as Massenet’s Werther and as Macduff in Macbeth at Poland’s Teatr Wielki Opera Poznan.

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Christian Van Horn

This season, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn (Donner) returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Bizet’s Carmen and Bizet’s Les Troyens, The Metropolitan Opera as Colline in Puccini’s La bohème, and Dallas Opera for Bellini’s Norma, and made his debuts with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Symphony, and at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre.

Mr. Van Horn has appeared in concert at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle, at Carnegie Hall in a concert programmed by the Emerson String Quartet as part of its Perspective Series, and in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony, and the opening concerts of the Bard Music Festival. Mr. Van Horn has also appeared at San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Bavarian Staatsoper, Rome Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Netherlands Opera, and at the Salzburg and Munich Festivals.

He recorded the title role in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for Sony Classical, and recently appeared in The Met’s HD broadcast of Verdi’s Falstaff.

Christian Van Horn received his master’s degree in music from Yale University and is a graduate of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His numerous honors include winning at the 2003 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a 2003 Sarah Tucker Study Grant, First Place at the 2002 MacAllister Competition Collegiate Division, a prize in the 2002 Liederkranz Foundation Vocal Competition, and the Richman Award from Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

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Peter Bronder

Born in England to German-Austrian parents, tenor Peter Bronder (Mime) began his career as principal tenor at Glyndebourne and Welsh National Opera. He made his American debut as Mime in Wagner’s Siegfried with The Cleveland Orchestra, followed by his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2005.

He has also appeared as Mime at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Berlin Staatsoper, Municipal Theatre of São Paulo, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Palermo’s Teatro Massimo. He has appeared as Loge in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Edinburgh International Festival, Oper Stuttgart, and the Ruhrtriennale Festival.

His other signature roles include Herod in Richard Strauss’s Salome, which he has performed in Milan, Madrid, Frankfurt, São Paulo, and Hong Kong; at the Bolshoi; and earlier this season with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. He sang the title roles in Wagner’s Rienzi in Frankfurt, Britten’s Peter Grimes in Bielefeld, Pfitzner’s Palestrina in Frankfurt and Zurich, and Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg in Frankfurt, Seville, and Lisbon. He has appeared as Erik in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in Rouen and Paris, as Shuisky in Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov in Turin, and as Luzio in Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot in Frankfurt and Madrid.

Mr. Bronder is a regular guest at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where roles have included Arturo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Cassio in Verdi’s Otello, Pedrillo in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Andres in Berg’s Wozzeck, Selem in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, First Jew in Salome, and Trabuco in Verdi’s La forza del destino. In 2016–17 he returned to the Royal Opera as Yarushkin in Shostakovich’s The Nose.

Peter Bronder’s recent roles also include the Moneylender in Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hauptmann in Wozzeck at Oper Frankfurt. Other notable credits include the Bregenz Festival, Bavarian Staatsoper, La Monnaie, and San Francisco Opera.

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Jennifer Zetlan

This season Jennifer Zetlan (Woglinde) ended a run in Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Bartlett Sher on Broadway, makes her European debut with the Stuttgart Staatstheater in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, and creates the title role in the World Premiere of Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre with the Center for Contemporary Opera, to be recorded by Naxos next season. She sings the soprano solos in Bruckner’s Te Deum and Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall and on tour in Montevideo, Uruguay (in her South American debut). She also performs at Carnegie Hall as a celebrated alumna of Mannes College of Music in its Centennial Celebration concert, and performs in recital with pianists David Shimoni and composer Ricky Ian Gordon. In the summer she appears as Laurey in Charlottesville Opera’s new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!

Ms. Zetlan has been featured in the premieres of numerous American operas including Ned Rorem’sOur Town, Matt Aucoin’s Crossing, Steven Stucky and Jeremy Denk’s The Classical Style, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star, Nico Muhly’s Two Boys and Dark Sisters, Daron Hagen’s Amelia, and David Diamond’s Six Arias from The Noblest Game. Other contemporary works include Purcell/Kaija Saariaho’s The Tempest Songbook, Ligeti’s Requiem, Osvaldo Golijov’s 3 Songs for Soprano, John Tavener’s Requiem, and Richard Ayres’s No. 42, In The Alps with Alarm Will Sound.

Ms. Zetlan has performed in concert with the New York Philharmonic; the Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Omaha, Baltimore symphony orchestras; and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, and the National Chorale. She has been heard at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, Musica Sacra, Alarm Will Sound, American Symphony Orchestra, MasterVoices (formerly Collegiate Chorale), and the New York Youth Symphony.

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Jennifer Johnson Cano

Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano (Wellgunde) received a 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and a 2014 George London Award. She joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera in 2008, and made her Met debut in the 2009–10 season. As First Prize winner of the 2009 Young Concert Artist International Auditions, she made recital debuts with her husband, pianist Christopher Cano, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

Ms. Cano has appeared with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Utah symphony orchestras; and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others, working with conductors such as James Levine, Manfred Honeck, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Andrew Davis.

This season, Ms. Cano bows as Emilia in Verdi’s Otello at The Metropolitan Opera, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Arizona Opera, and Orfeo with Des Moines Opera. Her orchestral engagements include the Verdi Requiem with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with The Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Minnesota Orchestra and Kansas City Symphony, and Enrique Granados’s Dante and Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the Monterey Symphony.

Ms. Cano makes her recital debut at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performing Brahms’s Two Songs, appears at Houston Da Camera Society with pianist Thomas Sauer and cellist Colin Carr, and performs with Christopher Cano at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City and for Electric Earth Concerts in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Her summer festival appearances have included title roles in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Saratoga Opera and Bizet’s Carmen at the Savannah Voice Festival, and a recital at Boston’s Outside the Box Festival.

In 2014 Jennifer Johnson Cano released her debut recital recording, Unaffected: Live from the Savannah Voice Festival.

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Tamara Mumford

This season mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford (Flosshilde) returned to The Metropolitan Opera for the new production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin and appeared in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston, San Francisco, and Simón Bolívar symphony orchestras on tour in Europe. This summer she returns to the Britt and Tanglewood Festivals. Next season she returns to The Met for Mozart’s The Magic Flute and appears in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestra and at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

A graduate of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Mumford made her Met debut as Laura in Verdi’s Luisa Miller and has since appeared with the company in more than 140 performances. Other recent opera engagements have included Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira and Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at the Caramoor Festival; Tchaikovsky’s Iolante at Dallas Opera; Henze’s Phaedra, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, and the World Premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s Yardbird at Opera Philadelphia; Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Glimmerglass Festival; and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Glyndebourne Festival and BBC Proms.

Also an active concert performer, Ms. Mumford has appeared at Carnegie Hall with James Levine and the Met Chamber Orchestra. She has also appeared with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the World Premiere tour of John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary, and on a U.S. and European tour of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Other concert engagements include appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Grand Teton, and Bravo! Vail festivals. In recital she has been presented in New York by both the Marilyn Horne Foundation and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

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