Maestro Valéry Ryvkin recently returned from Germany, where he made his triumphant European conducting debut leading Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans at Theater Erfurt in Thuringia.  Maestro Ryvkin is currently Artistic Director of the Greensboro Opera.  A frequent guest at many of the country’s leading opera houses, Maestro Ryvkin has conducted at the San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Fresno Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and many others.  In September 2009, Maestro Ryvkin conducted Opera Santa Barbara's world premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s first opera, Séance on a Wet Afternoon.  In the spring of 2010, Maestro Rvykin returned to Europe for performances and masterclasses as Music Director of the Sisak International Music Festival in Croatia.

Soprano Patricia Racette continues to set the standard in works both classic and new.

Ms. Racette maintains strong relationships with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera (where she is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program and a former Adler Fellow), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera. Seen regularly at these houses, her many roles have included the title roles in Jenůfa, Luisa Miller, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, and Kátya Kabanová; all three lead soprano roles in Il Trittico, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Nedda in Pagliacci, Marguerite in Faust, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, Alice in Falstaff, Mathilde in Guillaume Tell, and Margherita in Boito’s Mefistofele.

Ms. Racette has also appeared at the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, Opera National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Opera di Genova, Bayerische Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera, Welsh National Opera, and the Saito Kinen Festival.

Her most recent performances of Madama Butterfly and Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera were seen in HD in movie theaters across the world, with the broadcast of Madama Butterfly being one of the most successful broadcasts in the history of the Metropolitan Opera’s The Met: Live in HD series.

A supporter of new works by today’s leading composers, Ms. Racette most recently created the role of Leslie Crosbie in the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s The Letter at the Santa Fe Opera. Other world premieres have included the role of Roberta Alden in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera, the title role in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline at the Santa Fe Opera (subsequently broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances), and the role of Love Simpson in Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree at the Houston Grand Opera.

On the concert platform, Ms Racette has appeared with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Dusseldorfer Philharmoniker, and the Cologne Philharmonic. She also recorded Zemlinsky’s Der Traumgorge with James Conlon and the Cologne Philharmonic.

This season, Ms. Racette returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore, Opera Australia and the Royal Opera House as the title role in Madama Butterfly, the Los Angeles Opera as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw, and the Washington National Opera as the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride.

Born and raised in New Hampshire, Ms. Racette studied jazz and music education at North Texas State University. She is winner of the prestigious 1998 Richard Tucker award.

Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack has been acclaimed for her “caramel timbre, flickering vibrato, and crisp articulation” (Opernwelt) as she “hurls fast notes like a Teresa Berganza or a Frederica von Stade.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

The operas of Rossini will figure prominently in Daniela Mack’s 2010 – 2011 season. She opens the season in a role for which she has already garnered much critical acclaim: Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Pittsburgh Opera. She will make her role debut and house debut as Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri at Opéra National de Bordeaux and Florentine Opera. She will then sing Angelina in La Cenerentola at Opera Colorado. Concert performances include Handel’s Messiah with the Calgary Philharmonic, Falla’s El amor brujo with the Boca Raton Philharmonic, and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She will also be a soloist in a Valentine’s Day Gala for Opéra Louisiane with tenor Alek Shrader. Future seasons will see Ms. Mack at the San Francisco Opera and English National Opera.

In the 2009 – 2010 season, Ms. Mack returned to the San Francisco Opera for her final year in the Adler Fellowship Program where she was seen as Siebel in Faust. Previous appearances at San Francisco Opera have included Idamante in Idomeneo and Lucienne in Die tote Stadt for her house debut. She made her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, a role that she also sang with Opera Omaha. In addition, she was the mezzo-soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Recent notable engagements include her debuts with Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Tamiri in Il re pastore and with Opera Cleveland as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In 2007, Ms. Mack performed the title role of La Cenerentola as a member of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera. She was also a featured artist in the Plácido Domingo Gala Concert – A Night for New Orleans with New Orleans Opera and made her West Coast recital debut as part of San Francisco Opera’s Schwabacher Debut Recital Series.