Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Music Director and Principal Guest Conductor for San Francisco Opera, Patrick Summers has led a vast repertory for the Company, including Ariodante; Samson et Dalila; Iphigénie en Tauride; Il Trittico; Xerxes; the world premieres of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1998), Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (2000), and Christopher Theofanidis and Donna Di Novelli’s Heart of a Soldier (2011); also the West Coast premiere of Heggie’s Three Decembers (2008). Summers has twice received Merola Opera Program’s Otto Guth Award and was named its “Distinguished Alumnus” in 2001. The maestro has led an array of productions at the Metropolitan Opera, including La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Così fan tutte, I Puritani, and Rodelinda, as well as Madama Butterfly and Salome, which were both broadcast live in HD to movie theaters around the world. Last season he conducted Iphigénie en Tauride and Lucia di Lammermoor with that company. Summers is also a regular guest with the world’s preeminent opera companies, including Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Welsh National Opera, the Dallas Opera, Opera Australia, Seattle Opera, Lisbon Opera, Bordeaux Opera, and the Bregenz Festival, among many others. His other recent world premieres include Previn’s Brief Encounter at Houston Grand Opera and Paul Moravec’s The Letter at the Santa Fe Opera. Summers has overseen many of Houston Grand Opera’s important artistic advances, including the formation of its own orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. During his tenure, he has supervised and conducted seven world premieres as well as many seminal opera works not previously mounted by the company. The Indiana University graduate was named Stolichnaya’s “Artist of the Year” in 1998.