Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to the Times, DiDonato has soared to the top of the industry both as a performer and a fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and Mozart, as well as through her wide-ranging, acclaimed discography. She is also widely acclaimed for the bel canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti.
DiDonato's 2020-21 season began with performances of her baroque-inspired program My Favourite Things with Il Pomo d’Oro in Bayreuth and Valencia, as well as a breathtaking recital for the Met Stars Live in Concert series. Further season highlights include performances of her Songplay program with Craig Terry in Oviedo, Madrid and Barcelona, and Werther in concert under Donald Runnicles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. This year, DiDonato is also delighted to be an Artist Ambassador in partnership with the classical music streaming service, Primephonic.
DiDonato was Carnegie Hall’s 19/20 Perspectives Artist with appearances including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Muti and Schubert’s Winterreise in recital with Nézet-Séguin. The season also held the final tour of her album In War & Peace with Il Pomo d’Oro to South America culminating in Washington DC, and a tour with the Orchestre Métropolitain under Nézet-Séguin.
In opera, DiDonato's recent roles include Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera and in a new production at the Royal Opera House, Didon Les Troyens at the Vienna State Opera; Sesto, Cendrillon and Adalgisa Norma at the Metropolitan Opera, Agrippina in concert with Il Pomo d’Oro under Maxim Emelyanchev; Sister Helen Dead Man Walking at the Teatro Real Madrid and London’s Barbican Centre; Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera and Royal Opera House, and Charlotte Werther at the Royal Opera.
Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, Joyce has held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other concert highlights include the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra USA under Sir Antonio Pappano.
An exclusive recording artist with Erato/Warner Classics, DiDonato’s award-winning discography includes Les Troyens which in 2018 won the Recording (Complete Opera) category at the International Opera Awards, the Opera Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards and Gramophone’s Recording of the Year. An extensive recording artist, other recent albums include Songplay, In War & Peace which won the 2017 Best Recital Gramophone Award, Stella di Napoli, her Grammy-Award-winning Diva Divo and Drama Queens. Other honors include the Gramophone Artist of the Year and Recital of the Year awards, and an induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Denis Vélez, soprano
First-year Ryan Opera Center soprano Denis Vélez, from Puebla, Mexico, holds a bachelor’s degree in operatic singing from Mexico’s Superior School of Music. She was a national winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In Mexico’s most important platform for rising talent, the National Singing Contest Carlo Morelli (where internationally renowned Mexican singers such as Ramón Vargas, Rolando Villazón and Javier Camarena have been previous winners), her performance earned her the First Prize, the French Opera Award and the Francisco Araiza Special Award. Vélez has participated in master classes with Mexican tenors Francisco Araiza and Ramón Vargas and American tenor Michael Sylvester. Her repertoire includes the Countess and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Adina in The Elixir of Love, and Mimì in La bohème. For the past two seasons, Vélez has been an active member of Mexico’s National Opera Chorus at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes.
In December 2020, Vélez appears in the Ryan Opera Center's virtual concert, Pasión Latina.
Lunga Eric Hallam, tenor
First-year Ryan Opera Center tenor Lunga Eric Hallam, born and raised in Khayelitsha, South Africa, founded a nonprofit organization called Phenomenal Opera Voices the same year he enrolled at the University of Cape Town College of Music where he received his diploma and postgraduate (with honors) degrees in music training.
Recent engagements as a Young Artist at Cape Town Opera include Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Roberto in Maria Stuarda, as well as Ramiro in Cinderella at Cape Town Conservatory. He also was featured as part of the 2017 Harare International Festival of the Arts (Zimbabwe).
Hallam competed as a semifinalist in the 2019 Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition and the 2019 Voice of South Africa International Singing Competition.
In July 2020, the tenor appeared in the Ryan Opera Center’s Lawrence Brownlee and Friends: The Next Chapter virtual concert.
Craig Terry, series artistic director and pianist
American pianist Craig Terry has an international performance career and recently won a GRAMMY Award for “Best Classical Solo Vocal Album” for the recording he made with Joyce DiDonato, “Songplay.”
He has served as the Jannotta Family Endowed Chair music director of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center since 2013, after having previously spent 11 seasons with the company as an assistant conductor. Before coming to Lyric, he was an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
Terry has performed extensively with such esteemed artists such as Jamie Barton, Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Brian Jagde, Joseph Kaiser, Quinn Kelsey, Kate Lindsey, Ana María Martínez, Susanna Phillips, Luca Pisaroni, and Patricia Racette, among others. He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchester, and the Pro Arte String Quartet. Terry's discography includes “Diva on Detour” with Patricia Racette, “As Long As There Are Songs” with Stephanie Blythe, and “Chanson d’Avril” with Nicole Cabell.
Kenneth Olsen, cello
Kenneth Olsen became Assistant Principal Cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2005. Prior to his appointment with the CSO, he received his Bachelor's of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Richard Aaron and furthered his studies at The Juilliard School as a student of Joel Krosnick. Ken grew up in Albany, NY where he was a pupil of Luis Garcia Renart of Bard College.
Outside of the CSO he is heavily involved in both chamber and solo pursuits. Ken is a founding member of ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), a critically-acclaimed, conductor-less chamber orchestra comprised of some of today’s most vibrant and gifted young string players -- soloists, chamber musicians, and members of major American orchestras. He is also a founding member of the Chicago-based Civitas Ensemble, as well as the cellist of the Lincoln String Quartet, made of up musicians from the CSO.
About the Ryan Opera Center
The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center is Lyric's preeminent artist-development program that nurtures the talents of some of the most promising operatic singers and pianists of each generation. The program’s Ensemble members earn their coveted spot by successfully auditioning among more than 400 artists worldwide. Its alumni are among the dominant names in opera today. Donor generosity ensures continued unparalleled training, performance experience, and professional readiness of Ensemble members. This highly competitive program, established in 1974, is honored to enjoy the support of acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming as Advisor, along with full-time staff Director Dan Novak, Music Director Craig Terry, and Director of Vocal Studies Julia Faulkner. For more information, visit lyricopera.org/ryanoperacenter.
