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Tenor
Juan Diego Flórez was born in Lima in 1973 and began singing and playing Peruvian folk music and pop music at a very young age. At 17, he enrolled in Lima’s National Conservatory of Music and three years later won a scholarship to continue his vocal studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
In 1996, he made his professional debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, stepping in on short notice to sing the lead tenor role of Corradino in Matilde di Shabran. Despite the short preparation time, his debut proved hugely successful and marked the start of a stellar career. His expressive voice and astonishing agility made him an overnight sensation and
led to his debut later that year, at the age of 23, at the season opening of Teatro alla Scala conducted by Riccardo Muti. Since then, he has appeared at every major international opera house under the world’s leading conductors.
At the beginning of his career, he received renown for his performances of the bel canto repertoire, and later, his renditions of the French Romantic heroes earned him great acclaim from the public and critics. His most recent role debuts include Raoul de Nangis in Les Huguenots at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia in concert
performances at the Salzburg Festival and in a staged production at the Bavarian State Opera, Hoffmann in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Ricciardo in Ricciardo e Zoraide at the Rossini Opera Festival, Alfredo in La traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, Des Grieux in Manon at the Vienna State Opera, Rodolfo in La bohème at the Royal
Opera House, and the title role in Faust at the Vienna State Opera.
Mr. Flórez has recorded numerous solo albums, as well as complete operas on CD and DVD. His recent releases include a disc of Mozart arias in 2017 and Bésame mucho, an album of Latin American songs, in 2018. He has been recognized by the BBC as one of the finest tenors of all time and has received many honors and awards, including Peru’s highest distinction, the Gran Cruz de la Orden El Sol. The Austrian government named him Kammersänger in 2012.
In 2011, Mr. Flórez founded Sinfonía por el Perú, an inclusive social project that operates orchestras and choirs throughout Peru to help the most vulnerable children and adolescents through music. In recognition of the foundation’s work, he was named a
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and received the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award.
Soprano
"Her voice with its pure, incisive and delicate timbre radiates tenderness in the middle register, while she floats her golden high register to the limits of audibility ." - Le Monde
Praised for her vocal beauty, seamless technique, and abundant musicality, Nadine Sierra is being hailed as one of the most promising, young talents in opera today. She was named the Richard Tucker Award Winner in 2017 and was awarded the 2018 Beverly Sills Artist Award by the Metropolitan Opera. Having made a string of successful debuts at the Met, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra national de Paris, and Staatsoper Berlin, she has become a fixture at many of the top houses around the world. In 2018, Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music labels released her debut album, There’s a Place for Us, followed by a second album, Made For Opera, in 2022.
In the 2022/23 season, Sierra appear as Violetta (La traviata) at Metropolitan Opera, Gilda (Rigoletto) at Teatro di San Carlo and at the Staatsoper Berlin, Manon at Gran Teatre del Liceu. Moreover, she makes her role debuts as Amina (La sonnambula) and Liù (Turandot) at Teatro Real. On the concert platform, she sings Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ein deutsches Requiem at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as concerts and recitals in San Francisco, Prague, Paris and Budapest.
Sierra’s most recent seasons included the roles of Violetta at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Lucia at Metropolitan Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Teatro di San Carlo and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Gilda at Paris Opera and Teatro alla Scala, Adina (L'elisir d'amore) at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Gilda under the baton of Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Berlin, where she also appeared as Nannetta (Falstaff) and Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier); Susanna and Gilda at the Metropolitan Opera, Manon and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at the Opéra national de Bordeaux. Concert appearances included appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Antonio Pappano. She also performed in recital at Palm Beach Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève and in Kansas City (Harriman-Jewell Series), and she joined Andrea Bocelli in a tour across the States.
Other notable engagements from past seasons include the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro La Fenice, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Flavia (Eliogabalo), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Norina (Don Pasquale) at Opéra National de Paris, Zerlina and Ilia (Idomeneo) at the Metropolitan Opera, Juliette, Lucia, Musetta, Pamina and Contessa at San Francisco Opera. In 2016, she and Leo Nucci made headlines after her house debut in Rigoletto at Teatro alla Scala when, on opening night, they were prompted by the audience to encore the duet, breaking a La Scala tradition dating back to Toscanini. Among many of her concert appearances ranging from Carnegie Hall, Arena di Verona, Musikverein in Vienna, Tanglewood and Ravinia music festivals, Dallas Opera, Park Avenue Armory in NYCm, the soprano also had the privilege and honor of performing twice at the U.S. Supreme Court for the Honorable Justices.
Throughout Ms. Sierra’s young career, she has taken home several awards and is the youngest winner to date for both the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as recounted by Nick Romeo in his book Driven: Six Incredible Musical Journeys (2011), a chapter of which is devoted to Sierra’s Grand Finals triumph. She also took home first prizes in 2010 at the George London Competition, Gerda Lissner International Competition, and Loren Zachary Competition, and was a recipient of a Richard Tucker Music Foundation Study Grant. In 2013, she placed first at the Neue Stimmen, Caballé, and Veronica Dunne International Singing Competitions, and won a Richard Tucker Music Foundation Career Grant.
Ms. Sierra fell in love with opera at a young age, after watching a VHS of La bohème, and began voice lessons at the age of six in her home state of Florida. Although she made her professional debut as a teenager with the Palm Beach Opera, she decided to continue studying, and received her bachelor’s degree from Mannes College the New School for Music. Following graduation, she went on to participate in the Adler Fellowship Program at the San Francisco Opera, forming a lasting relationship with the company.
She has been featured in Vogue, Nylon, Bon Appetite, Opera News, on the cover of Classical Singer magazine, and numerous international TV and print media. She maintains an active presence on social media, where she interacts with her followers by answering messages, comments and questions on a daily basis.
Vincenzo was born in New Jersey, USA, of Italian-American parents and began piano studies at the age of five. He graduated from Manhattan School of Music and worked as assistant conductor with the New Jersey State Opera.
He continued his studies in Italy and in 1980, joined the musical staff of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as coach and pianist, assisting conductor’s Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Giannandrea Gavazzeni and Carlos Kleiber, among others.
Mr. Scalera has participated in many important music festivals, including Edinburgh, Martina Franca, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Les Choregies d’Orange, Carinthischer Sommer Ossiach, Salzburger Festspiele, and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.
Accompanying such celebrated singers as Carlo Bergonzi, Andrea Bocelli, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras ,Juan Diego Florez, Leyla Gencer, Vittorio Grigolo , Sumi Jo, Raina Kabaivanska, Katia Ricciarelli, , Renata Scotto, Cesare Siepi, Lucia Valentini Terrani, , etc., he has been heard in all the major music centers of the world.
His discography includes these recitals: Sumi Jo “La Promessa”, Renata Scotto in the “Complete Songs of Verdi”, “Carlo Bergonzi in Concerto”, Carlo Bergonzi in the “Art of Bel Canto-Canzone”, “The Comeback Concerts of José Carreras”. Mr Scalera has three recitals on Video with José Carreras, “In Vienna”, “In Concert”, and “Comeback Concert in Spain”.
Documenting his extensive collaboration with Carlo Bergonzi is a video concert entitled “Bergonzi Celebrates Gigli”, the program they performed together in a highly acclaimed 1985 Carnegie Hall recital.
As harpsichordist, he recorded the soundtrack of the video of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” under the direction of Claudio Abbado, and the world premiere recording of Rossini’s “Il Viaggio a Reims”, also with Abbado.
Mr. Scalera is a Steinway Artist and is currently on the staff of Milan’s Accademia d’Arti e Mestieri of Teatro alla Scala. This year he accompanied Sondra Radvanovsky and Piotr Beczala in “Met Opera Stars live in concert” in streaming, and can be heard in the newly released CD with Anita Rachvelishvili for Sony titled “Elegie”.
