Visions & Vitality

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.

Praised for her “silvery, ethereal-sounding ophie” by Opera magazine and “lovely vocal  delicacy” in The Telegraph, Madison Leonard returns to Dallas Opera as Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice and Garsington Opera as Adina in L’elisir d’amore in the 2024-25 season. She also sings her first performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Colburn Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Last season, she sang her first performances of Musetta in La bohème with Atlanta Opera and returned to Garsington Opera in as Giulietta di Kelbar in Un giorno di regno, Utah Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro as well as returned to Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Opera San Antonio. On the concert stage she sang Handel’s Messiah with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Florida Orchestra for Fauré’s Requiem.
 

She made an acclaimed role and company debut as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier with Garsington Opera. She maintains a close relationship with Seattle Opera at which she has sung previous performances of Gilda in Rigoletto and Chrisann Brennan in The [R]evolution of Steve Jobs as well as Adina in L’elisir d’amore and Frasquita in Carmen. She has sung Gilda in Rigoletto with Dallas Opera and Austin Opera—her performance at the latter was named one of the Top Ten Joys in Dance and Classical Music by the Austin Chronicle. She has sung further performances of Chrisann Brennan in Bates’ The [R]evolution of Steve Jobs with Austin Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Leïla in Les pêcheurs des perles with Austin Opera; Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Central City Opera; Marie in La fille du régiment and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Utah Opera; and Despina in Così fan tutte with Palm Beach Opera. She also joined the Sacramento Philharmonic for  excerpts of Lucia di Lammermoor. Her first performances of Marzelline in Fidelio with North Carolina Opera fell prey to the COVID-19 pandemic, as did her first Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with North Carolina Opera.

With Wolf Trap Opera, she debuted Ilia in Idomeneo and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette following previous performances as Madeline in Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher and the Daughter in Glass’ The Juniper Tree. She is a former Cafritz Young Artist of Washington National Opera, at which she sang Morgana in Alcina, the High Priestess in Aida, the Rose in Portman’s The Little Prince, and Little Zegner Sister in Mazzoli’s Proving Up. Other recent highlights for the soprano include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Inland Northwest Opera, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Opera Idaho, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Amarillo Opera.

On the concert stage, she has twice joined the National Symphony Orchestra: her debut with Gianandrea Noseda conducting Stravinsky’s Pulcinella as part of the SHIFT Festival followed by an immediate return soloist in Vaughan William’s Symphony No. 3 (A Pastoral Symphony) under the baton of Sir Mark Elder. She is a frequent guest of the Florida Orchestra and has joined institution for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Creation, further performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, and a concert of opera favorites. She sang her first performances Fauré’s Requiem with the Apollo Orchestra in Washington, D.C., joined the New York Festival of Song for a program of music from the British Isles at Caramoor and Merkin Hall in New York City, and offered a solo recital at Washington Adventist University.

Ms. Leonard is a 2018 winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, at which she sang arias from Rigoletto and Hänsel und Gretel with Bertrand de Billy conducting. She is a previous first place winner of the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. Additionally, she received the Women’s Voice Fellowship from the Luminarts Cultural Foundation and scholarships from the Lynn Harvey Foundation and the Musicians Club of Women. The soprano earned her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and her Bachelor of Arts from Pepperdine University. She is a former participant of the Merola Opera Program in association with San Francisco Opera at which she sang Monica in Menotti’s The   Medium and a former young artist of Des Moines Metro Opera.