Francisco Araiza was named Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera in 1988 and he has been a permanent member of the Zurich Opera House since 1977. He studied voice with Irma Gonzalez in the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica and german repertory with Erika Kubacsek. He took masterclasses with Richard Holm and Erik Werba at the Munich Musikhochschule after winning the ARD-Voice Competition in 1974. Highlights of this unusual career were: to be chosen by Herbert von Karajan to record The Magic Flute with him and to debut at his Salzburg Festival in 1980, singing Belmonte under the baton of Karl Böhm in the same year in Munich, his big success with the surprising role debut as Des Grieux in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Manon in Vienna in 1983, celebrating the Mozart Anniversary Year 1991 with productions of The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera New York and Titus at the Salzburg Festival and finally his significant role debuts in the Wagner repertory: Lohengrin in 1990 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice(with Christan Thielemann conducting) and Walter von Stolzing in 1993(produced by Otto Schenk and conducted by James Levine). In July 2011 on the occasion of his 40 years of International Career as a singer he was honoured by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura y la Compania Nacional de Opera CONACULTA in Mexico City with the Gold Medal of Fine Arts. From 2007 till 2009 he was Artistic Director of the International Hugo Wolf Akademie in Stuttgart and founded then the Association Neue Meister der Liedkunst which focuses on the promotion of the german Lied with young singers.

Choi Hans graduated Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea in 1983. He continued his studies at the Verdi Conservatory and La Scala Theater in Milan, Italy. He also attended Osimo and Carlo Bergonzi Adademy during 1984-88. His vocal coaches include Carlo Bergonzi and Igor Chicachov. Prof. Choi earned the first prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Pavarotti Competition, and the D’Angelo Young Artist Competition in the United States and the Verdi Competition in Busseto, Italy. He has performed with many major opera companies including New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Philadelphia Opera. Choi Hans is particularly praised for his portrayal of Rigoletto which has become his signature role. Other roles for which Hans is well-known are Renato <Un ballo in maschera>, Don Carlo <Ernani>, and Germont <La Traviata>. In addition to his operatic triumphs, Choi Hans has performed numerous concerts, oratorios, and song recitals including Carnegie Hall debut in 1992 and has appeared with internationally acclaimed symphony orchestras. Prof. Choi is now teaching at the Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, Korea.

Gregory Henkel has a master’s degree in music from DePaul University in Chicago and graduated summa cum laude from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey; he has also studied at the Juilliard School and New England Conservatory of Music. Before embarking upon a professional career in music, Greg served for several years in project management with Morgan Stanley in New York, NY. He joined San Francisco Opera as Director of Artistic Administration beginning in 2008. A native New Yorker, Greg joined San Francisco Opera directly from his position as Artistic Planning Manager with Los Angeles Opera, where he worked directly with Plácido Domingo and James Conlon on casting, concert programming and other areas of artistic planning. Prior to working with the Los Angeles Opera, Greg was Associate Artistic Administrator at Lyric Opera of Chicago after serving as a member of the administration of Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Greg has served as a guest judge at the Metropolitan Opera’s Grand Finals Concert and has been a frequent judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions throughout the US. He has also judged international voice competitions such as the Concorso Lirico Giovanni Martinelli-Aureliano Pertile in Montagnana and the Concorso Lirico Ottavio Ziino in Rome.

Ichihara Taro studied at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music and also went further to post-graduate studies at the same school. In 1981, he went to Italy to study with Georgio Favaretto at Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome. He then had the title role in Massenet’s <Werther> with Nikikai Company and made his opera debut in Tokyo. Ichihara’s overseas debut was in 1982 when he sang the role of ‘Calaf’ in Puccini’s <Turandot> at Teatro San Carlos in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1984, Ichihara appeared at Salzburg Festival to sing the role of Malcolm in Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’ with conductor Riccardo Chailly. He was the first ever Japanese singer to appear at this prestigious festival. Since then, Ichihara’s overseas activities included seven consecutive season title roles in <Un Ballo in Maschera>, <Rigoletto>, <Lucia>, <Tosca>, <Rosenkavalier> at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and many invitations including those from Chicago Lyric Opera, Scala in Milan, Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, Teatro Regio di Torino, Hamburg Staatsoper in Germany, Staatsoper in Cologne, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Nice, Summer Festival at Orange, and Teatro Colon in Argentina. In 2003 Ichihara appeared in NHK Music Festival, performing Verdi’s Requiem with Riccardo Chailly/Orchestra e Coro Sinfonico di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. Having performed with many prestigious conductors such as the late Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, and Lorin Maazel, Ichihara continues to attract much attention for his experienced authentic bel canto voice and his beautiful expressions that he creates.

Christoph Meyer studied from 1981-1985 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, where he graduated in Theatre Studies and Musicology. His first steady engagement was at the Nationaltheater Mannheim as staff producer(1985-1989), followed by an engagement to Cologne Opera(1990-1995) as staff producer and, from 1993 onwards, as Head of the Artistic Administration Office. From 1995-2000 Christoph Meyer worked as Director of Artistic Production at the Gran Teatro Del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain. From 2004-2006 he was Opera Director at Basel Theatre, Switzerland. Simultaneously he worked on the preparation of his new position as General Director at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg, which he took over in 2009. During his career Christoph Meyer has worked on different opera productions at various international opera houses, e.g. Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, Opéra Bastille Paris, Leipzig Opera, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Opéra Montpellier and Tokyo. Christoph Meyer is a member of CPDO(Chambre Professionell des Directeurs d’Opéra), Paris since 2004. He is frequently invited as a jury member to international singing competitions like the Belvedere Competition Vienna(2001-2012) and Competizione dell’Opera Dresden(2004-2009). Since May 2011 he holds a honorary professorship of the Robert Schumann-Musikhochschule Düsseldorf.

Gerard Mortier was born on 25 November 1943 in Ghent(Belgium). He attended a Jesuit school, and after his secondary education, continued to study law and communication. He chose a career in the arts and became Director of the Flanders Festival. Gerard Mortier spent most of the seventies in Germany. In chronological order, he was Artistic Director at the opera in Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Frankfurt. After that, he worked for a short time as a technical adviser in setting up the programme of the Paris Opera. In 1981, Gerard Mortier was appointed General Manager at the Monnaie Opera House in Brussels. He reformed the opera house with innovative adaptations of the repertoire, and the introduction of new works, as well as recruiting new performers. After his second term, in 1992, Mortier took over the running of the Salzburger Festspiele. He received heavy criticism as well as praise for his radical and sometimes provocative transformation of the once so traditional opera festival. In 2001, Mortier was invited to develop and lead the Ruhrtriennale during 2002-2004, which brought to North Rhine Westphalia an effervescent mixture of dance, opera, symphonies and theatre. At the end of 2001, he became the General Director of the Paris Opera. He is the General Director of the Teatro Real de Madrid since 2010. Gerard Mortier holds two honorary Doctorates from the universities of Antwerp and Salzburg and was invited as “fellow” of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin in 2001-2002. He taught political and social history of theatre in Ghent(Belgium) and Leiden(Netherlands).

Soprano Park Jungwon, a native of Korea, is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music at Hanyang University in Korea while working toward her Master’s Degree at Juilliard. In addition to concert performances as part of Columbia Artist’s Bel Canto Trio tour of the West Coast in 1990, Ms. Park was invited to Paris’ Opera Comique to sing the role of Leila in The Pearl Fishers. Ms. Park’s huge success as Leila did not go unnoticed. While still in performances of this work, the prestigious Opera de Paris Bastille invited her to remain in Paris to sing in their production of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. In 1991, she returned to Miami, this time for Nannetta in Falstaff, and made her debut with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis singing Ismene in Mitridate. In 1990, she made her debut with the Greater Miami Opera, as Ilia in Idomeneo, and then returned to Korea for a series of concerts and for performances of Adina in L`Elisir d’Amore. She has appeared at the Spoleto Festivals in both Italy and the United States and with Atlanta Opera in Ariadne auf Naxos. In Korea, she has performed with the National Opera Company of Seoul and Korean Symphony Orchestra. Presently she is a professor in Music Department at Hanyang University.

Zhu Ailan, lyric soprano, debuted with the National Reisopera in the Netherlands as Cio-Cio-San. A recipient of many awards, she was a finalist in Opera Company of Philadelphia’s Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition, and winner of the SAI Competition in Chautauqua and the Liederkranz Competition in New York. She is one of America’s most sought after interpreters of the lyric repertoire, with notable appearances as: Cio-Cio-San in Madam Butterfly for the Royal Albert Hall in London, L’ Opera de Quebec, L’ Opera de Montreal, Vancouver Opera, Connecticut Opera, Orlando Opera, Opera Carolina, Austin Lyric Opera, and San Antonio Symphony; Marguerite in Faust for Atlanta Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Connecticut Opera, and Virginia Opera; Mimi in La Boheme for Vancouver Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Pacific, Michigan Opera Theater and Virgina Opera; Micaela in Carmen for the Connecticut Opera, Orlando Opera, and San Diego Opera; Liu in Turandot for Austin Lyric Opera and San Diego Opera; Maddalena in Andrea Chenier for the Austin Lyric Opera, Desdemona in Otello for the Connecticut Opera, and Austin Lyric Opera, Leila in Les Pecheurs des Perles for the Minnesota Opera, Opera Pacific, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Dayton Opera; Violetta in La Traviata for Austin Lyric Opera and Boston Lyric Opera; Gilda in Rigoletto for Austin Lyric Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City; The Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro for Vancouver Opera and Connecticut Opera, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte for two seasons at the Glyndebourne Festival, and Knoxville Opera. Last season, she returned to the San Diego Opera as Liu, the Orlando Opera as Nedda.