Artistic Team

Luis Ledesma

Artistic Director

Baritone Luis Ledesma has established a reputation as a "rich and well controlled baritone (Opera News). He frequently portrays the heroes and villains of Puccini, Verdi and the bel canto masters as well as roles in recent new works in Spanish including Florencia en el Amazonas and El pasado nunca se termina. His operatic and concert career has advanced in Europe, the United States and South America and includes theaters such as Teatro alla Scala (Luisa Fernanda), the Liceu in Barcelona (Alphonse in La favorite, Riccardo in I puritani and Marcello in La bohème), Klangbogen Festival in Vienna (Leoncavallo's La bohème), Wexford Festival (Don Pasquale),  Teatro Municipal de Santiago (Escamillo), Semperoper in Dresden (Marcello), several roles for Köln Oper (including Don Carlo and Germont),  Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires (Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia), Bellas Artes in Mexico City (Marcello, Germont, and Escamillo ), Macau Festival (Sharpless),  Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos (Marcello), Graz Oper (Escamillo), L’opera de Montreal (Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West), Manitoba Opera (Escamillo), Opera Lyra Ottawa (Tonio), the Philadelphia Orchestra (Marcello in a concert version of La boheme and Beethoven Nine) and the Savonlinna Opera Festival (Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and Escamillo), Bucharest National Opera (Scarpia) and Hungarian State Opera (Alfio and Tonio).

In the United States, Mr. Ledesma has sung with many companies, including Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Diego Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Washington Opera, New York City Opera, Arizona Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Atlanta Opera, Santa Barbara Opera, Anchorage Opera, Santo Domingo, Madison Opera, Nashville Opera, Portland Opera, Indianapolis and Connecticut Opera, Opera Pacific, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Carolina, Memphis Opera, San Antonio Opera, New Jersey Opera, Minnesota Opera, Florentine Opera, and Hawaii Opera. He also sang two tours with Andrea Bocelli, performing in famous venues such as Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl, Hard Rock Café in Hollywood, Florida, and the Auditorio Nacional Mexico City.

Mr. Ledesma made his Carnegie Hall debut in the Faure Requiem and returned for Dvorak’s Te Deum. He has sung Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Mann Music Center with The Philadelphia Orchestra and with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.  He has performed a variety of orchestral repertoire including Mozart's Coronation Mass, Orff's Carmina Burana with the  Louisville Orchestra, a series of Christmas concerts in Hannover with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and a Verdi concert presented in Die Alte Opera Frankfurt. He also performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the Filarmonica de Jalisco and Gala concerts with Tampa Opera and with Festival Cultural Zacatecas, and a solo with Festival Classique des Hautes-Laurentides in Mont-Tremblant, Canada. His concert performances include La bohème (Marcello) at the Vail Festival and the Mann Music Center with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah in Spain with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Asturias.

Danielle Orlando

Musical Director

Danielle Orlando is an accompanist to international opera singers and a vocal coach and artistic consultant to prestigious musical organizations throughout the world. She has appeared with esteemed singers in such venues as the Phillips Collection, Théatre du Châtelet, and Carnegie Hall; and for the United States Supreme Court, the Schubert Club, Vocal Arts D.C., Music at the Morgan Library, Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and many many more. She also appears in the documentary The Audition. Ms. Orlando has performed recitals for the Harriman-Jewell Series and has appeared at the Florida Opera and Astoria Music festivals, Festival Castell de Peralada (Spain), and Festival International Hautes-Laurentides (Canada).

Ms. Orlando served as accompanist, judge, and artistic coordinator for the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competitions and worked with Gian Carlo Menotti at the Festival dei Due Mondi for nine seasons. She was the artistic administrator and head of music staff for the Opera Company of Philadelphia and has served on the music staffs of the Metropolitan, Washington National, and San Francisco operas; Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; Dresden Semperoper; and Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Ms. Orlando is a guest judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a guest coach for the Domingo-Cafritz and Palm Beach young artist programs. Recent residencies include Curtis Summerfest, the University of Tennessee—Knoxville, and the Peking University Academy of Opera in Beijing. She lead master classes at  the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in Summer 2018.

Ms. Orlando holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University, where she studied with Harvey Wedeen and Lambert Orkis. She also studied at the Eastman School of Music with David Burge. Ms. Orlando joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1986, and is also master coach at the Academy of Vocal Arts.

Allen Gomez

Conductor, L'elisir d'amore
Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Maestro Allen Gómez began his music studies a four years of age at the Cabañas Cultural Institute, where he learnt to play all the baroque flutes.

Medium professional in music (4 years) with specialty in Transverse Flute under the tutelage of Christanne Nazzi, and a Bachelor's degree in music (4 years) with a specialty in singing, under the tutelage of Enrique Suárez Mason and Flavio Becerra.

He has taken personal courses with great directors and workshops direction at Juilliard School, and obtained a scholarship to study a postgraduate degree (1 year) in the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona, studying singing with Enric Serra and Orchestral Direction with Antoni Ros Marbá and Manel Maldivieso.

Teaching and University Experience
Eighteen years of experience at the Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara, where he has obtained various awards for his work of excellence being among the three best teachers in the entire Mexican Republic in its area. In charge of linking the University to the professional world of Music, creating spaces for coexistence of great singers and musicians interacting with the students.

Scholarships and Albums
Winner of scholarships as a performer from the State Council for the Culture and the Arts (CECA), the University of Guadalajara, and the State fund for culture and the arts. (FECA). He has created more than ten albums as a singer and director, being “De Pulmón al Alma” the most recent with the collaboration of musicians from all over the world, including The Camerata from Buenos Aires and The Mariachi Vargas,

Director and Producer experience
The Magic Flute (Mozart), La Traviata (Verdi), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Menotti), Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni), Carmen (Bizet), Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), The Elixir of Love (Donizetti), Carmina Burana (Orff), Messiah (Handel), Requiem (Mozart), Stabat Mater (Rossini), The Creole Mass (Ramírez), The Merry Widow (Lehar), La Verbena de la paloma (Breton), Cats (Weber), Aida (Elton John), West Side Story (Bernstein), among many others.

Premieres
In each concert season he regularly premieres works by Mexican composers. He has also premiered work in the Opera Music World such as The King was Born (Gonzalez Moya) premiere in Mexico of Pilgrimage Tales (Armienta), Legacy to Fray Antonio Alcalde (work of his authorship). He has worked on several occasions with the INBA Fine Arts Opera Orchestra and Opera from Bellas Artes Choir. 

Artistic Director Experience
He has been the Director and Founder of the Chamber Orchestra from Zapopan since 2016. Regularly invited to guest conduct at various orchestras from Mexico and abroad such as Sinaloa Orchestra of the Arts, Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata de Coahuila, Zacatecas Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the National Conservatory of Music, University Orchestra of Guadalajara, and the Serbian National Orchestra, among others.

He has participated at Festivals in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, North America, Russia, Switzerland, Austria and Spain, Serbia, directing and singing Mexican music.

In 2016 he debuted in San José California with the Opera Rio de Mujeres (Armienta) conducting the Orchestra and the company of Opera Cultura, in the United States of America. 

He has directed great singers such as Plácido Domingo, Arturo Chacón, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Veronica Villaroel, Amelia Font, Ainhoa ​​Arteta, Sumi Jo, among many others.

He has composed music for theater (Títeres de cachiporra de García Lorca) and Cinema (Agápimu by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo); Songs from Lecumberri (Luis Gonzalez de Alba) “Mayor the “musical” cycle of Lied from Lorca and is currently composing the Opera “José Clemente Orozco the Man of Fire”.

He was Plácido Domingo’s first Musical Director in the closing concert of the First International Zarzuela Festival for the world in 2019 and 2021.

He was Founder and Artistic Director of the Opera Studio Beckmann and of the International Mexican Viceregal Music Festival, and a regular guest at the International encounter of Mariachis in the Orchestra Galas.

Juan Vazquéz

Conductor, Cosi fan tutte
Maestro Vazquéz was born in La Piedad, Michoacán, in Mexico. He began studying piano at an early age with Saúl Heredia, in his hometown. He later moved to the city of Morelia, and continued his musical education at the Las Rosas Conservatory, where he began studying composition with Jorge David García. He has a law degree, obtained in 2016 at the Escuela Libre de Derecho, where he graduated with three honorable mentions. After obtaining that degree, he continued studying composition with Antonieta Lozano and Andrea Chamizo.

In 2020 he returned to Morelia and founded the Tzintzuni Philharmonic Orchestra. He worked as chief conductor of this orchestra for almost four years. He also served as President of the board of directors of the “Allende 637” Cultural Center, a place dedicated to the promotion of the arts, humanities and culture. As a guest conductor he has conducted the Michoacán Symphony Orchestra, the Sonora Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zacatecas State Chamber Orchestra, the Zacatecas City Camerata, the Oaxaca Camerata and the Mexico City Chamber Orchestra. In 2023 he was also invited as Artistic Director at the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, for the complete performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute. 

In 2021 he won first prize in the  “Arturo Márquez” National Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition. His music has been performed by different ensembles and in various festivals, such as the UNAM 2020 International Piano Festival, various editions of the Alfonso Ortiz Tirado Festival, the FESTMUS in Castellón, Spain and the MUSICMEXICO 2024 Symposium, in El Paso, Texas. In 2024 he won the “Creation and knowledge towards the future” scholarship, Support for Culture and Art Professionals for Postgraduate Studies Abroad (AFPE) 2024, granted by the Mexican Federal Ministry of Culture, in coordination with CONAHCYT. He was also a recipient of the 2024-2025 Hendricks Scholarship for studies at the University of Oregon. 

He is currently studying a master's degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Oregon, under the tutelage of David Jacobs, conducting the University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra on several occasions. He also serves as assistant conductor with the Oregon Mozart Players and the Eugene Symphony Orchestra.

Yoali Daniela Serrano

Stage Director, L'elisir d'amore
An artist and stage director who graduated from the Russian Institute of Theatre in Mexico City and from The Academy of the Science of Acting and Directing in London, England. She was the first Mexican accepted into the program, where she studied acting and directing. She has also pursued studies in stage directing, playwriting, art history, and theater history at institutions such as The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, The London Drama School, Central Saint Martin’s School of Art, Uruguay’s National Institute of Performing Arts, and the National Center for Theatre Research, Documentation and Information (CITRU) in Mexico.

She has enriched her artistic training by taking numerous workshops and artistic residencies with renowned stage directors such as Eugenio Barba (Italy), Reinhard Bichsel (Switzerland), Philip Bulcock (UK), Matthias Gehrt (Germany), Dominique Gerrard (UK), Javier Hernández-Simón (Spain), Miguel Issa (Venezuela), Evgenii Kazachkov (Russia), Fernanda del Monte (Mexico), Mary Roscoe (UK), Boris Schoemann (France), Mike Sherman (UK), Alberto Villarreal (Mexico), among others. She has worked as a stage director, playwright, and producer in around thirty theatrical productions and operas. Alongside her career as a stage director, she is also a teacher and researcher. Her work focuses on the study of consciousness, interrelating various fields of study such as science, psychology, spirituality, and art.

She is the founder and director of the company Caudal Producciones A.C., with which she has produced and directed more than twenty artistic projects. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and is enrolled in the Training Program in Buddhist Psychology and Philosophy under the academic direction of Damchö Diana Finnegan. She was a recipient of the FONCA Young Creators program (2021–2022) in the field of stage direction.

 

Raquel Winnica Young

Stage Director, Così fan tutte
Raquel Winnica Young is an Argentinean-American singer and stage director. Raquel specializes in Spanish and Latin-American baroque music as well as chamber music and chamber ópera. Her career has taken her to concert halls throughout the Americas and Europe. In the US, she has appeared in concert with Chatham Baroque, Quantum Theatre, The Newberry Consort, The Rose Ensemble, Chicago Chorale, Kentucky Opera, The Minot (ND) Symphony, Atlanta Baroque, Apollo’s Fire and Les Délices.

Recent performances as a guest of Chatham Baroque include Handel’s Messiah, Alegría, a performance of Spanish and Latin American Baroque music, and Hope Across the Centuries in collaboration with Violins of Hope. Ms. Winnica Young joined the Spanish ensemble Los Músicos de su Alteza to participate in the 2024 International Renaissance and Baroque Festival "Misiones de Chiquitos" in Bolivia. Ms.Winnica's artistic interests have moved beyond her classical singer career. Following her Argentinean roots, she created the ensemble TierrAdentro, crossing musical frontiers of folklore, art song and improvisation.

Ms.Winnica's diverse interests of expression are taking her into a world of teaching, sharing her experience with young singers; performing, directing, and creating new works with artistic collaborators.