BOARD OF DIRECTORS & ADVISORS

Gabriel Manro

Multiple Grammy Award winning baritone Gabriel Manro has been called “a new kind of baritone: not lyric, not helden, not Kavalier, not Bariton-Martin — none of those. Rather, he’s a knock-down baritone.” --San Francisco Classical Voice. Indeed, Manro regularly sings dramatic baritone roles such as Don Carlo di Vargas (La forza del destino), Andrei Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov), and Tonio (I Pagliacci). Opera News describes Manro as “Gifted with a striking, sinister baritone that remains strong, even and sonorous throughout the range, he tears into Verdi's music with a vengeance.” -- Opera News.

Mr. Manro made his professional operatic debut as Third Inmate in Jake Heggie's ground-breaking opera Dead Man Walking for Opera Pacific with Frederica von Stade. Manro has created roles in numerous contemporary and world-premiere operas and musicals: Muscovite Trader in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (premiere audio recording-Pentatone Music: Grammy--Best Opera Recording), the Mousling in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin, the Computer in Los Angeles Opera’s The Fly by film composer Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings Trilogy) directed by David Cronenberg; The Chauffeur in Opera Santa Barbara’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell); Angry Voter in Los Angeles Opera’s Il Postino (Sony Classical DVD); and the Commentator in the Opera Las Vegas West Coast Premiere of Derrick Wang’s wildly popular Scalia/Ginsburg. Manro created the role of President Lincoln in Golden Gate Opera's world-premiere Civil War Epic: Lincoln and Booth. Off-Broadway, Mr. Manro led the original cast of Center for Contemporary Opera’s production of Oration by Line Tjørnhøj. On television, Manro appeared as Joel Lynch and Father Jackson in the European premiere live telecast of William Mayer’s: A Death in the Family at the Hungarian National Theater and Opéra Grand D’Avignon which was voted “audience favorite” by TBS Network viewers.  Manro played Jafar in Walt Disney Company’s original stage production of Aladdin directed by Francesca Zambello.

Mr. Manro made his European operatic debut as Doctor Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia) with Corfu Opera in Greece. His extensive repertoire and engagements have also included the roles of Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle), Count Almaviva, Bartolo, Antonio (Le nozze di Figaro), Guglielmo, Don Alfonso (Cosí fan tutte), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Die Sprecher, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Belcore (L'elisir d'amore), Frédéric (Lakme), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Schaunard, Coline, Marcello (La bohème), Valentin (Faust), Dandini, Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Escamillo (Carmen), Scarpia (Tosca), Don Pizarro (Fidelio), and Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring). Equally at home in Musical Theater, he has performed numerous roles including Curly (Oklahoma!), Tony (The Most Happy Fella), Abner (Li'l Abner), Schroeder (You're a Good Man Charlie Brown), Lank Sanders (Girl Crazy), Mr. Brownlow (Oliver!), Harrison Howell (Kiss Me Kate), the Governor (Man of La Mancha), and Emile de Becque (South Pacific).  Mr. Manro is a proud citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and resides in Los Angeles with his screenwriter/opera directing wife, Justine Prado, and his beautiful children, Mays and Bernadette. 2023 highlights include Manro’s performances as Alfio in the Berlin Philharmonie's production of Cavalleria Rusticana.