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    Jennifer Rivera

    USA

    Two time Grammy nominee Jennifer Rivera has performed leading roles with opera companies on five continents including the Berlin Staatsoper, the Teatro Regio di Torino, and the Dallas Opera among many others. She was selected as the “Debut Artist of the Year” at the New York City Opera and won a Helpmann Award (Australia’s Tony Award) in 2015. She has created leading roles in three world premieres and her discography includes recordings of Agrippina, Il Ritorno D’Ulisse, L’Olimpiade and the soon to be released Becoming Santa Claus. Jennifer has been writing  popular essays for the Huffington Post Arts and Culture section since 2012. In the beginning of 2017 she transitioned to a full-time arts administrator, and was named Assistant Director of Development at Long Beach Opera where she is tasked with major gift fundraising.

    Kristian Roberts

    Kristian Roberts
    Kristian Roberts

    Kristian Roberts is the Director of Education at The Dallas Opera. In this capacity, she leads the company’s education and community engagement efforts, overseeing fourteen distinct programs and a team of performing and teaching artists. In addition to her fourteen years with TDO’s Education Department, Ms. Roberts has performed on the mainstage as a member of The Dallas Opera Chorus and is co-host for the company’s outdoor simulcasts and community engagement events. Her latest endeavor is co-hosting a virtual series on TDO Network, Taking the Stage with Kristian and Quo. She is also a member of the Advisory Board and Arts Council for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and serves on OPERA America’s Racial Justice Opera Network teering committee to enrich the art form and industry through increased diversity and equitable practices. Ms. Roberts holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Southern Methodist University, with additional studies in music history, and a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Baylor University.

    Emmanuel Villaume

    The Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director

    “Emmanuel Villaume’s conducting is intense, passionate, and detailed, yet always considerate of the singers…”—The Guardian (London)

    Emmanuel Villaume
    Emmanuel Villaume

    French conductor Emmanuel Villaume has served The Dallas Opera (TDO) as its Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director for more than a decade. Since assuming this position in 2013, he has led dozens of performances of both beloved classics and newer works with the company at the Winspear Opera House, including the world premiere of the TDO-commissioned and critically acclaimed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in 2023, Elektra, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Hansel & Gretel, Rigoletto, Das Rheingold, The Magic Flute, The Golden Cockerel, Moby-Dick, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Le nozze di Figaro, Carmen and more, as well as the company premieres of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Der Ring des Polykrates, and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.

    In addition, he serves on the artistic faculty for TDO’s annual Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors, and often leads the People’s Choice and other annual concert performances with The Dallas Opera Orchestra. He will conduct Orpheus and Eurydice in the 2024/25 season.

    Recognized for his equally insightful and dramatic interpretations, Maestro Villaume has also served as Music Director of the PKF-Prague Philharmonia since 2015, and he regularly guest conducts with leading opera companies worldwide, such as the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Paris Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, the Mariinsky Opera, and Venice’s Teatro La Fenice in Europe, and the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco, LA, St. Louis and Santa Fe operas in the U.S.  Widely regarded as one of today’s premier interpreters of 19th- and 20th-Century French repertoire, he is also known for the Italian operas of Bellini, Verdi, Puccini, and Menotti.

    In symphonic repertoire, Villaume has led some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in Europe, the Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Munich Radio Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Further afield, Villaume has led performances in Australia with the Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane symphony orchestras, as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Japan, China National Opera Orchestra (the latter for the 2008 Olympic Games), and the Royal Opera House Muscat. He has recorded regularly for major labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Warner classics.

    Emmanuel Villaume is the past Music Director of Spoleto Festival USA (2001-2010) and former Chief Conductor of both the Slovenian (2008-2013) and Slovak Philharmonic (2009-2016). He studied music at the Conservatoire in his hometown of Strasbourg, France. He continued his education at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving degrees in literature, philosophy, and musicology, before his appointment as Dramaturg of Strasbourg’s Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg at the age of 21. Maestro Villaume resides in Paris, Los Angeles, and Dallas.

     

    Updated May 2024

    Image: Kyle Flubacker

    Sarah Williams

    Sarah Williams is the New Works Administrator at Opera Philadelphia. A savvy producer, she commissions, develops, and explores new works of the highest artistic aesthetic for the national and international stage by presenting innovative programming. Williams identifies extraordinary artists, both established and emerging, to create their most imaginative and inspired work that propels the genre forward. OPERA magazine describes her work, in large terms as “expanding on the traditional demographics of opera’s creators and practitioners as well as its audiences.” Sarah serves as a Board Member for the American Composers Forum. She is a member of New Opera Dialogues, an international platform for opera creators and producers, most recently meeting in Germany. She also serves on the Artistic Advisory Board of Young Women Composers Camp.

    Lidiya Yankovskaya

    USA

    Lidiya Yankovskaya’s recent work as a symphonic and opera conductor has been hailed as “superb,” “expert,” and “coax[ing] every possible expressive note from the instrumentalists.” Currently, Ms. Yankovskaya serves as Music Director of Harvard University’s Lowell House Opera, Artistic Director of Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Music Director with Commonwealth Lyric Theater. She also works regularly with Gotham Chamber Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera, and New York Lyric Opera. Last summer, Ms. Yankovskaya served as a conducting fellow under renowned conductor Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival, where she had the privilege of assisting Maestro Maazel and filled in for him regularly in rehearsal and performance. Recent productions have received multiple awards ranging from The American Prize to the National Opera Association Award. In addition to her work as a conductor, Lidiya is a pianist and coach, recently serving as Music Director for Opera Boston’s education tours. Presently, she is working as a Russian Diction Coach and occasional rehearsal conductor for Tanglewood Festival Chorus (the chorus of the Boston Symphony).

    2015 Hart Institute Concert Performance Selections