Producing opera would be impossible without world-class pianists to accompany rehearsals, recitals, galas, and more.
Tristan Cano
Tristan Cano is one of the most diverse presences in the entire world of opera, where his body of work ranges from singing entire operatic roles such as Don Bartolo, Don Pasquale, Fiesco, and Filipo, as well as acting in the Off-Broadway play Tchaikovsky, (as the lead, middle-aged Tchaikovsky) to performing regularly as an opera/cocktail pianist at various fine New York City restaurants, the famous Woolworth building, Serafina Restaurant for Cafe Taci, and Aquamarina (Uptown) to name a few.
His main goal is to coach and conduct operas, and comes to Morelia having been mentored by greats like Pier Miranda Ferraro, Francisco Casanova, Marcello Garofalo, son of Carlo Giorgio, friend of Pietro Mascangi's, and his conducting teacher Thomas Bo, a descendent of Maestro Anton Coppola via Gianpaolo Braccali. He also has an ongoing mentorship with the renowned pupil of Antonino Votto, Aldalberto Tonini of Milano, and formerly of La Scala, and the Giuseppe Verdi conservatory.
Tristan specializes in Italian operatic repertoire, and focuses on helping singers with vocal and linguistic efficiency. It is a language-first approach that stresses efficient consonants in support of the vowel. He comes to Morelia for the first time to work on Don Giovanni, an opera with which he has 20 years of experience, as his family runs Valley Lyric Opera, a Sharpsville, Pennsylvania-based opera company out of the Pierce Opera House.
Rodrigo Ilizaliturri
Winner of 2014 Municipal Youth Award awarded by the Municipality of Saltillo, he has a Bachelor's degree in Music from the Autonomous University of Coahuila (UAdeC) and a Master's degree in Musical Performance from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He has taken courses, classes and workshops with professors Beania Salcedo (UANL), Sergio Ruiz (Texas), Monique Rasetti (UNAM), Elda Nelly Treviño (Monterrey), Gerardo González (ESMDM/UAdeC), Jo Greenaway (Toronto), Enza Ferrari (Scala), Danielle Orlando (AVA, Curtis), Ayrat Kazhaev (Bolshoi theater Moscow), Howard Watkins (Metropolitan Opera NY) and Edith Ruiz (UNAM).
He has performed in various academic and artistic activities in 15 states of the Mexican Republic and in cities such as Athens, Austin, Paris, Arezzo, Bogotá, Varna, New York, Bologna, Belgrade and Philadelphia. In 2018 he made his conducting debut with the OSEA Nuevo León in the “Folklor Sinfónico” concert sponsored by Total Play, at the San Pedro Auditorium, in Monterrey. He was pianist at the UAdeC Opera Workshop as well as the Sinaloa Opera Workshop TAOS and has collaborated with the Compañía Opera de México, Ópera de Coahuila, Nadieshda Paris, CONARTE-Ópera de Nuevo León, Ópera del Noreste, Ópera de San Luis , Opera Hispánica of New York and Tec de Monterrey. He has participated in the programs of Opera San Luis, Oberlin in Italy-Arezzo, MIAL Varna in Bulgaria, Bologna International Opera Academy and ISOFOS Serbia.
He has been collaborative pianist in Die Zauberöte, Elisir d'amore, La Bohème, Tosca, Suor Angelica, Don Pasquale, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, Werther, Luisa Fernanda, Don Giovanni, La Scala di Seta, Il Signor Bruschino, Häensel und Gretel, La occassione fa il Iadro, Rigoletto, El amor brujo, Le Nozze di Figaro, The telephone, Gianni Schicchi, il Barbiere de Siviglia, Così fan tutte and Carmen.
He has worked with Arturo Rodríguez, Alfredo Ibarra, Héctor Sosa, Mónica Belinda Garza, Misha Vaylon, Ivet Pérez, Rafael Blázquez, Yvonne Garza, Oscar Martínez, Linus Lerner, Oswaldo Martín del Campo, Yonatan Cna'an, Guido Maria Guida, Jorge Armando Casanova, Horacio Franco, Armando Piña, Julio Saldaña, Luis Ledesma, Ludek Golat, Libuse Santorisova, José Arean, Oziel Garza, Rocío Tamez, Juan del Bosco, Jorge Parodi, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, James Bagwell, Felipe Tristán, Dolora Zajick , Ragnar Conde, David Robinson, Guenko Guechev, Marija Jelič, Vladimir Allen, Deyan Proshev and Stefanos Koroneos.
He is pianist coach at the Ópera Estudio del Noroeste OPEN, is member of the cultural department of the Autonomous University of the West (UAdeO) and is faculty of the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, Monterrey Opera Academy, and the International Festival of Sacred Music of Monterrey FIMVS.
Nika Jonicenoka
Piano soloist with the OSIDEM, organ soloist, projects for the rescue of Baroque Mexican music, Professor of Music History at UDEM, dance accompanist pianist in Aguascalientes, Morelia, and Private Schools of the English System of the London Royal Dance School Ballet, 3rd Place in the First International Organ Competition "Víctor Urban." Winner of the scholarship for performers from FONCA, and Coach for opera singers and instrumentalists, studying Basso Continuo and Harpsichord with Maestro Federico del Sordo, Jesper Christensen, and Doménico Bartolucci.
Sebastián Márquez Loaiza
Mexican artist Sebastián Márquez has succeeded in many areas in his short, but complete career. He has been receiving musical education since aged three, specializing in piano performance. He continues to develop and learn new skills, such as painting, composition and singing. He believes that his task as an artist is to preserve and share Mexico´s incredible art legacy.
Sebastián has performed many times in different places of Morelia, including the Ocampo Theatre with members of the Michoacán Symphony Orchestra, performing with Maestro Antonio Romero Gutierrez, violinist, for the Festival de Música de Morelia Miguel Bernal Jiménez, along with many piano solo performances and choir recitals in many theaters in the city.
Along with his musical labor, Sebastián is a Junior High School student who keeps doing his best to become the next great Mexican musician. He is convinced that strong preparation helps build a great future, which is the reason why he keeps attending classes, courses, masterclasses and other sources and projects to keep learning and discovering about the magical world of music.
Sebastián Márquez has supported the ISOFOM project since 2022, when he first discovered the festival. With ISOFOM Sebastián has been collaborating in different areas, from promoting events to singing in the choir and to imagine, design and build this year's magical scenography.
Bernardo Ramírez Ponce
Bernardo Ramírez Ponce was born in the city of Morelia, Michoacán on October 17, 2000, being the first-born in his family. At the age of 8 he showed his interest in music and began his piano studies, at the age of 13 he also showed a clear interest in composition, experimenting with the musical tools he had at the time, at the same time he started taking lessons from Alexander Pashkov. At the age of 14, he began his musical and piano performance studies at “Conservatorio de las Rosas” with Alexander Pashkov also as his mentor.
In parallel with his preparation for a degree, he has attended courses abroad, mainly in Spain. During his professional preparation he also had the opportunity to grow his composition skills, thanks to the advice of his teacher.
In 2019 he was invited by film director Juan Pablo Arroyo to participate in his feature film “Almas Rotas” with three of his compositions that would be part of its soundtrack, as well as advising the main actor when recording the piano scenes. In 2022 he performed together with the soprano Rosario Dávila at the “Teatro Obrero” in the city of Zamora Michoacán, performing classical repertoire along with works by the Venezuelan composer Reynaldo Hahn. In November of the same year he was invited, along with the violinist Farid Nava and the mezzo-soprano Frida García, to participate in the “Tomás Luis de Victoria” Music Festival in the city of Ávila, Spain, representing the city of Morelia, where he had the opportunity to premiere one of his own vocal works, which was very well received.
He has participated as a soloist with the Conservatorio de las Rosas Orchestra and also the Universidad Michoacana chamber orchestra performing Bach´s keyboard concerto no. 4 BWV 1055, Haydn piano concerto no.4, and Eclogue op.10 by Gerald Finzi.
In May 2023 he presented his graduation concert, and in July of that same year, he performed at the “Casa Museo López Portillo” together with the Spanish cellist Pol Mendoza Partida, performing Spanish and German repertoire, as well as his own compositions. He has written pieces for different ensembles such as piano, guitar, flute and string quartet, string quartet, choral ensemble and lied, and he currently resides in the city of his birth, Morelia, Michoacán.