Holiday Pops in the Heartland

Taichi Fukumura is a rising Japanese-American conductor acclaimed for his dynamic stage presence and musical finesse. He is the Second Prize Winner of The Mahler Competition 2023 and a four-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award 2021-2024.

Fukumura was recently named Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, following two guest conducting appearances as part of an extensive international search. He begins his role in the 2024-2025 season as the fifth music director in the orchestra’s history.

Other highlights include his guest conducting debut with the Bamberg Symphony, and his return to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as guest conductor after leading the orchestra in over 110 concerts as Assistant Conductor appointed by Music Director Robert Spano. Fukumura is also Music Director Finalist of the Eugene Symphony, Delaware Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and will guest conduct each during the 2024-2025 season. Additionally, he returned to the Aspen Music Festivaland School as guest assistant conductor for the opening week of summer 2024. Other guest assisting engagements include collaborations with Barbara Hannigan and the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland, as well as Dima Slobodeniouk and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Past engagements include guest conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky L’Histoire du Soldat. He was also invited by the Berlin Philharmonic as one of 10 assistant conductor candidates for Kirill Petrenko in 2021, and guest assisted the Houston Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Fukumura served as the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta where he previously received mentorship from Music Director Mei-Ann Chen as a Freeman Conducting Fellow. Additionally, he worked closely with the Chicago Philharmonic as cover conductor. 

Equally adept in opera conducting, Fukumura conducted full productions of Britten Turn of the Screw and Mozart Don Giovanni at the Northwestern University Opera Theatre and led rehearsals of Puccini La Boheme with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, the only youth orchestra in the country to present annual opera productions.

Born in Tokyo, Taichi Fukumura grew up in Boston and began music studies at age three on the violin. Professionally trained on the instrument, he received a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Boston University, studying with Peter Zazofsky. Fukumura received both his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University, studying with Victor Yampolsky. Additional conducting studies include Aspen Music Festival and Pierre Monteux School and Festival.

Peruvian & Mexican American Soprano Vanessa Becerra’s 24/25 season is highlighted by her return to LA Opera for Ainadamar (Nuria). Additional engagements include her house and titular role debut in Paër’s Leonora at Chicago Opera Theater, debuts at UC Davis in Don Pasquale (Norina), Berkshire Opera Festival in La traviata (Violetta) and Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera in Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna). On the concert stage, Vanessa debuts with Madison Symphony Orchestra as a guest soloist for their holiday concert, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for their Spanish Journey program on tour, and the Boise Philharmonic as the Soprano Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem.

Last season, Vanessa was a featured soloist at Fort Worth Opera’s annual gala, debuted with Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera in Die Fledermaus (Adele) and returned to Opera Omaha for Don Pasquale (Norina), Minnesota Opera for L'elisir d'amore (Adina), Arizona Opera for Don Giovanni (Zerlina), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Galileo Galilei (Maria Celeste/Eos). On the concert stage she debuted with The Phoenix Symphony for Messiah.

In the 22/23 season, she made debuts with Florida Grand Opera for El matrimonio secreto (Carolina), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Così fan tutte (Despina) along with returns to Minnesota Opera for La fille du régiment (Marie), Opera Omaha for Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna), and Houston Grand Opera for El Milagro del Recuerdo (La Mujer). On the concert stage, she debuted with the newly formed San Antonio Philharmonic.

Vanessa has made debuts at The Metropolitan Opera in Cendrillon (Noémie), Boston Lyric Opera in Roméo et Juliette (Juliette), Intermountain Opera Bozeman in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Austin Opera in Fidelio (Marzelline), Opera Parallèle in La Belle et la Bête (Belle), Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of El Milagro del Recuerdo (La mujer), Washington National Opera in Don Giovanni (Zerlina), and Arizona Opera for the feature length film adaptation and world premiere of The Copper Queen (Julia Lowell). She also has debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in Die Zauberflöte (Papagena), San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas in Candide (Paquette), Lyric Opera of Chicago in Fellow Travelers (Miss Lightfoot), Opera Delaware and Baltimore Concert Opera in Werther (Sophie), Opera Omaha in Medea (Glauce), and Atlanta Opera in Sweeney Todd (Johanna).

Vanessa recently returned to Opera San José for the title role in Il segreto di Susanna by Wolf-Ferrari, following her success at Opera San Jose as the title role in Alma Deutscher's Cinderella (featured internationally on Medici.tv) conducted by Jane Glover. Additional recent appearances include Washington National Opera for Sankaram’s Rise (Alicia Hernández), part of the world premiere tetralogy Written in Stone and Francesca Zambello’s West Side Story (Maria) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Glimmerglass Festival, and Atlanta Opera. In concert, she debuted with Minnesota Opera for Ópera Afuera, St. Croix Valley Opera for a concert of popular arias entitled Opera on the River, and returned to Fort Worth Opera for Entre Amigos.

Ms. Becerra is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera. During her time with LAO, she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro (Barbarina), Die Zauberflöte (Papagena), La traviata (Annina), Gossip 2 in the GRAMMY Award-winning recording of Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and as a featured soloist in a concert with bass-baritone Erwin Schrott. Vanessa enjoys a long relationship with The Glimmerglass Festival where she has been seen in Oklahoma! (Laurey), La bohème (Musetta), and in their Young Artist performances of The Magic Flute (Pamina). Other training programs include Wolf Trap Opera Company, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Seagle Music Colony. She received her master’s degree from The Boston Conservatory, her bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in her hometown of Fort Worth, TX and is a graduate of the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts.

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