Patrick Summers, Conductor

Patrick Summers is the Artistic & Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera. Last season, he conducted the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s It’s A Wonderful Life at San Francisco Opera and led the Renée Fleming 25th Anniversary Concert & Gala at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He was recently appointed as co-artistic director of Aspen Music School’s redesigned opera program, Aspen Opera Theater and VocalArts, alongside Renee Fleming, after years of appearing in concert with the Aspen Festival Orchestra and Aspen Philharmonic. Highlights of his 2019-20 season include the Israeli premiere of Jake Heggie/Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking with the Israeli Opera, and Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain.

A leading proponent for contemporary American opera and music generally, Maestro Summers has fostered and given more than twenty world premieres, collaborating with many of today’s most prominent and performed composers, among them Carlisle Floyd, Christopher Theofanidis, and Philip Glass. Summers conducts a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to bel canto to German Romantic, and he has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Rome Opera, Welsh National Opera, Norwegian Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opéra national du Rhin, and Opera Australia. Patrick Summers served as Principal Guest Conductor of the San Francisco Opera from 2009-2016.