Xóchitl Hernández interviews Mercedes Juan Musotto, opera conductor/director, professor, and pianist.

BY XÓCHITL HERNÁNDEZ
EL NUEVO SOL

Episode 1 of season 1’s first female MOC is opera conductor/director, professor, and pianist Mercedes Juan Musotto. Tune in to hear Mercedes talk about her life in Argentina and move to the United States, her journey as a musician, and her career as an opera director at California State University Northridge, Santa Monica College, and Center Stage Opera. Listen to also hear Mercedes give great advice and career tips for women in music, conductors, Latinas, how to combat machismo and so much more!

Winner of the 2012 Solti Foundation Award, and the 2011 Mozarteum Argentino, Mercedes Juan Musotto, pianist and conductor, is a native of Argentina. She began her piano lessons at the National University of Cuyo’s School of Music and graduated from the National University of La Plata as a Bachelor of Music in Orchestral Conducting. She furthered her studies at the Teatro Colón Art College, where she received a Master of Music degree in Opera Conducting. She holds a Master in Orchestral Conducting from California State University Northridge. From 2008 to 2012 she worked as a coach, pianist, and Assistant Conductor for the opera season at the Teatro Argentino in La Plata, Buenos Aires, as well as an accompanist at the Teatro Argentino’s Opera Studio. She has extensive experience as a pianist, performing in and around Argentina, Italy and Canada. She has worked alongside international Conductors such as Dante Anzolini, Rodolfo Fischer, Stefan Lano, Carlos Vieu, among others. She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and she is currently Opera Music Director at the Opera Program in Santa Monica College, Opera Music Director at California State University Northridge and Opera Music Director, Conductor and Chorus Master with Center Stage Opera. Whether you are a Latina, musician, aspiring conductor, or even non-musician, you won’t want to miss this episode! For the next 45 minutes, I dive deep into the life of Mercedes and how it shaped the career she has today. Listen and learn as she addresses being a woman conductor, machismo (and what that is), tips to being an effective leader, and what it means to be a servant to music.

Be sure to check out Mercedes conducting her next operas which will be Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini and Don Giovanni o sia Il Convitato di Pietra by Giuseppe Gazzaniga at California State University Northridge on March 26-29, Faust by Charles Gounod January 25-26 at the Madrid Theatre in Sherman Oaks, and The Tales of Hoffman by Jaques Offenbach May 8-9 at Santa Monica College. I will also leave more information and links to tickets in the description.

Features music clips from Mercedes conducting the opera Serse by George F. Handel and “The Can-Can” from the opera Orpheus in the Underworld by Jaques Offenbach.

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Mercedes will be conducting:
Suor Angelica by Puccini and Don Giovanni o sia Il Convitato di Pietra by Giuseppe Gazzaniga at California State University Northridge on March 26-29
www.facebook.com/CSUN-Opera-982258528633306/

Faust by Charles Gounod January 25-26 at the Madrid Theatre in Sherman Oaks,
losangeles.eventful.com/events/gounod…1-133055643-5
www.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=1152485

The Tales of Hoffman by Jaques Offenbach May 8-9 at Santa Monica College.
www.smc.edu/ACG/Marketing/Event…/Pages/Tickets.aspx

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