Baritone Nicholas LaGesse is a current Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist at Boston Lyric Opera. Previous career highlights include Guglielmo in Così Fan Tutte with the North Shore Music Festival, covering Morales in Carmen with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance program, as well as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, the title role in Don Giovanni, and Danilo in The Merry Widow, all with Pacific Opera Project. A frequent performer of contemporary opera, he works regularly with recent MacArthur Grant recipient Yuval Sharon and his experimental opera company, The Industry. Mr. LaGesse helped create the role of Jameson in The Industry’s multi-location production of Hopscotch, as well as creating the role of Federzoni in composer Andy Akiho’s operatic adaption of Bertolt Brecht’s play Galileo. He has been honored as a finalist in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, the winner of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Competition and was a Bella Voce award recipient in the Bel Canto Foundation Competition. For more information, visit www.nicholaslagesse.com.