Luis Ledesma

Voice Instructor

Mexican 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 Koeln 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 bohème and Beethoven Nine) and
the Savonlinna Opera Festival (Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and Escamillo), Bucharest National Opera (Scarpia) and Hungarian StateOpera (Alfio and Tonio).

Following performances as Macbeth for Syracuse Opera and Sharpless with Pacific Symphony and Opera Omaha, most recently Mr. Ledesma performed Scarpia in Tosca for Opera Colorado and the title role of Gianni Schicchi for On Site Opera in New York. He looks forward to singing Piazzola’s Maria de Buenos Aires for Kentucky Opera in the fall.

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 recital 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.

Mr. Ledesma is on the voice faculty of the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, as well as having served on the voice faculties of the Curtis Institute and the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development program. He has been building teaching affiliations internationally for over a decade and is currently the Artistic Director of ISOFOM, a prominent international summer festival in Morelia, Mexico. Through his efforts many young singers have been introduced to prestigious institutions throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Many of Mr. Ledesma’s students now perform internationally and have been winning prizes in prominent competitions worldwide. Mr. Ledesma was artist in residence for Oberlin in Italy where he also taught the emerging artists. He continues to give master classes around the world which already includes teaching for Bologna International Opera Academy, University of Peking and Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, International Summer Opera Festival of Serbia in Belgrade, Universidad de Santo Domingo, Lafayette University, Baldwin Wallace University, and L’Opera de Montreal. In Mexico he has worked with singers at the University of Sonora, Conservatorio Nacional de Mexico, Escuela Superior de Music in Monterrey, Universidad de Puebla, Universidad de Monterrey, Universidad Michoacana in Morelia, and San Pedro de Cholula.