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Aleksandra Melaniuk is a Britten-Pears Young Artist and a Salonen Conducting Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn School, in partnership with the San Francisco Symphony. Recent highlights include her subscription concert debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, appearances with the San Francisco Symphony in the SoundBox series, and her participation in the Ojai Music Festival. During the 2025/26 season, she made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Symphonies for Youth series. Her work as a cover conductor has included collaborations with leading international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre de Paris, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony, working alongside conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen and Simone Young. Aleksandra has also participated in the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, conducting dedicated concerts featuring works by Mieczysław Weinberg.
Beginning in the 2025/26 season, Nicholas Sharma joins the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as TSO RBC Resident Conductor and Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has led performances with orchestras across North America, earning recognition for his versatility and musical artistry. Recent highlights include débuts with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eugene Symphony, as well as roles as Assistant Conductor of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of its Youth Orchestra for the 2024/25 season. He has taken part in masterclasses and festivals with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, the Aspen Music Festival and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, working with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Stéphane Denève, Neeme Järvi, Robert Spano, Nicholas McGegan, Mark Stringer and Boris Brott. A native of Toronto, he trained as a violinist and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Oregon.
Celia Llácer completed her Master’s degree in conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), studying with Johannes Schlaefli and Christoph-Mathias Mueller. She has conducted orchestras including the Dallas Opera Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Göttinger Symphonieorchester, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra and Schweizer Jugend-Sinfonie-Orchester.
In the 2025/27 season, she serves as Assistant Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Thomas Søndergård. Previous engagements include collaborations with the Schweizer Jugend-Sinfonie-Orchester and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège under Gergely Madaras in the 2023/24 season and her tenure as Chief Conductor of the Junges Kammerorchester Ostschweiz in 2024/25.
In 2024, she conducted the Gstaad Festival Orchestra as part of the Gstaad Conducting Academy. She was selected for the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute at the Dallas Opera in 2023 and appeared at the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Orchestra.
Dr Manuela Filippa obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre and she is currently Maître Assistante (Assistant Professor) at the University of Geneva. Her work aims to advance an embodied and integrative science of emotion, bridging brain, physiology, and behavior at the origins of intersubjectivity. She studies neural and physiological systems as dynamic, interacting processes, with a particular focus on music and affective prosody as privileged paradigms for understanding human connection. She has authored more than 100 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and has written popular science books for educators, parents, and children.
Soprano Emily Rocha is a Second Prize winner of the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition and a current member of the COC Ensemble Studio. In spring 2027, she performs Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at the COC. Her 2025/26 season also includes appearances as Countess Ceprano (Rigoletto) and covering Gilda, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) and Sophie (Werther). In summer 2025, she joined the National Ballet of Canada as soprano soloist in Anna Karenina, sang Laurie Moss (The Tender Land) with Toronto City Opera and the title role in The Merry Widow with Highlands Opera Studio. She made her COC mainstage debut as Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) last season. Recent concert highlights include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra as Concerto Competition winner. A 2024 Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellow, she holds an Honours BMus and MMus in Opera from the University of Toronto.
Polish baritone David Roy joins the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden for the 2025/26 season, appearing as Marullo (Rigoletto), Erster Priester (Die Zauberflöte), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly) and Mr Martin in Chailly’s The Bald Soprano. He debuts at Oper Wuppertal as Landgraf Rudolf (Der Wald) and with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Carmina Burana. In 2026 he sings Germont (La traviata) at the Verbier Festival under James Gaffigan.
Recent highlights include Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at the Royal Swedish Opera, Marco (Gianni Schicchi) in Bolzano and Germont in Bydgoszcz. He has appeared with the Polish Royal Opera as Figaro and Taddeo (L’italiana in Algeri), and performed Amonasro (Aida) and Masetto (Don Giovanni).
A graduate of Hannover University and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, he is a prizewinner at several international competitions such as the Bogdan Paprocki’s Polish National Vocal Competion or The Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition.
Tenor Michael McDermott is a third-place winner of Houston Grand Opera’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Artists and first-prize winner in the Schmidt Vocal Competition and the NOA’s Carolyn Bailey Argento Competition.
In the 2025/26 season, he makes his house and South American debut at Teatro Municipal de Santiago as Rodolfo in La bohème. He also returns to Houston Grand Opera as a third-year Butler Studio artist, appearing in Il trittico (Young Lover) and Of Mice and Men (Carlson).
Recent highlights include Rodolfo in La bohème with Houston Grand Opera, Nicias in Thaïs at Spoleto Festival USA, and his concert debut with the Kansas City Symphony in Handel’s Messiah. In summer 2025, he joins the Apprentice Program for Singers at The Santa Fe Opera. He made his international debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow conducted by John Wilson.
He holds a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School and pursued graduate studies at Rice University.
Munich-based South Korean soprano Seonwoo Lee has been acclaimed for her artistry, with Opera Canada praising her “phenomenal control” and Opera News describing her as “a lyric soprano of extraordinary focus and clarity”.
A recent graduate of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opernstudio, her roles there included Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, Frasquita in Carmen, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Amanda in Le Grand Macabre, the title role in Matsukaze, the High Priestess in Aida and the First Flowermaiden in Parsifal. In the 2025/26 season, she returns to the company as Minette in Henze’s The English Cat and creates the role of the First Courtier in the world premiere of Brett Dean’s Of One Blood. She also made her role and house debut as Gilda in Rigoletto at the Royal Danish Opera.
She holds an Artist Diploma from the Royal College of Music, a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University.
Uzbekistani bass Jasurbek Khaydarov graduated from the Gnessin Academy of Music in 2023 and joined the Bolshoi Theatre’s Young Opera Artists Program in 2022.
He is the recipient of the Emerging Voice Prize at the 22nd Concorso Lirico Internazionale Ottavio Ziino and the Young Talent Prize at the 57th International Vocal Competition. He recently made his UK debut at Wigmore Hall in a recital of Russian songs with pianist Iain Burnside.
Following his participation in the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project, he joins the Dutch National Opera Studio through the 2025/26 season. His recent roles include Colline (La bohème) at the Tiroler Festspiele, the Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly) at the Baden-Baden Osterfestspiele and with the Berlin Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko, as well as Shelkalov (Boris Godunov) and Mozart’s Requiem in Amsterdam. Future engagements include Lodovico (Otello) and Alidoro (La Cenerentola).