Pablo Sáinz-Villegas & Isabel Leonard

Celebrate the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s 70th anniversary season at our Opening Night concert.  This intimate evening pairs Grammy Award-winner Isabel Leonard, the glamorous mezzo-soprano who has dazzled opera lovers at the great houses worldwide, with Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, praised by Billboard as “the soul of the Spanish guitar,” in a recital featuring popular arias and beloved songs.

Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has become a worldwide sensation known as this generation’s great guitarist. He has been acclaimed by the international press as the successor of Andrés Segovia and an ambassador of Spanish culture in the world. As a passionate promoter of the development of new repertoire, he has made numerous world premieres including the first composition for guitar by five-time Academy Award-winner John Williams.

Isabel Leonard is an award-winning mezzo-soprano who has performed leading roles in every major opera house in the world including The Met Opera, La Scala, and Vienna State Opera; as well as in concert on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Festival and The Kennedy Center.  She was named recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award and currently has three Grammy Awards for Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank on SFS Media, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on Decca, and The Tempest from The Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon.