Susanna Phillips

Recipient of the 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, soprano Susanna Phillips frequently appears at the Metropolitan Opera, this past season starring as Clémence in Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin and Musetta in La Bohème, a role she will reprise next season. Other performances with the company include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, among others. She has sung with the Zurich Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Oper Frankfurt, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Music of the Baroque, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and she has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Operalia, the MacAllister Awards, and the George London Foundation. She is a co-founder of Twickenham Fest in Huntsville, Alabama, and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School.

Elizabeth DeShong

Since her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 as Suzy in La Rondine, mezzo- soprano Elizabeth DeShong has appeared with the company in more than 50 performances, including Hermia in The Enchanted Island and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and the Wardrobe Mistress/Schoolboy/Page in Lulu, among others. She appears regularly at the Glyndebourne Festival, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera, Opera National de Bordeaux, Canadian Opera Company, and Aix-en- Provence Festival, as well as with the Baltimore Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony. She received Washington National Opera’s “Artist of the Year” award in 2010 and next season will return to the Met as Arsace in Rossini’s Semiramide, which will be broadcast Live in HD.

Petr Nekoranec

Tenor Petr Nekoranec recently completed his first year in the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. He spent two seasons as a member of the opera studio at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, where he sang the title roles of Albert Herring and Le Comte Ory and Fabrizio in Martin?’s Mirandolina. He was also heard on the main stage as Parpignol in La Bohème, Albazar in Il Turco in Italia, the Animal Vendor in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Officer in Ariadne auf Naxos. Previously, he sang Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Nuovo in Torino and Vašek in The Bartered Bride at Prague’s National Theater. His concert repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass. Mr. Nekoranec earned his Diploma in Classical Voice from the Pardubice Conservatory, Czech Republic.

Dan Saunders 

Dan Saunders has performed in recital with Jessye Norman, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Tatiana Troyanos, and Thomas Allen; and with violinist Eugen Fodor. More recently, has appeared with Danielle de Niese, Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn, and Gerald Finley. He has also performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Paris’s Bastille Opera, San Francisco Opera, and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as at the Salzburg, Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Santa Fe festivals. He joined the Met’s music staff in 1985 and has been heard on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and as a pianist on the Met’s international radio broadcasts and web streams.