Holiday Pops in the Heartland

Taichi Fukumura is the Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra (ISO) and the current Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra appointed by Franz Welser-Möst. A rising Japanese American conductor acclaimed for his dynamic stage presence and musical finesse, Fukumura is the Second Prize Winner of The Mahler Competition 2023, and a four-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.

Recent and upcoming international engagements include guest conducting debuts with the Bamberg Symphony and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. Fukumura will lead concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra this season as part of his new position, including a collaboration with Itzhak Perlman on tour in Miami. He also returned to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as guest conductor, where he previously conducted over 110 concerts as an Assistant Conductor appointed by Robert Spano. Other recent guest debuts include the Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Delaware Symphony, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic.

As the Music Director of the Illinois Symphony, Fukumura has led an ongoing initiative to broaden the repertoire of the orchestra. Focusing on well-balanced, impactful programming, he has highlighted the work of living composers including Brian Raphael Nabors, Christopher Theofanidis, Stacy Garrop, and Gala Flagello. The 2025/26 season includes the world premiere of a new work by Michelle Isaac, commissioned by the ISO.

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. He also returned to the Aspen Music Festival as guest assistant conductor following a summer as a conducting fellow and was invited by Barbara Hannigan to assist at the Munich Philharmonic and the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland.

Born in Tokyo, Taichi Fukumura spent his childhood in Boston and began music studies at age three on the violin. He holds a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Boston University, and both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University under the mentorship of Victor Yampolsky. He is a recipient of the Concert Artists Guild Richard S. Weinert Award. Fukumura is fluent in both English and Japanese.

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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