Meet Our New Head of Music and Director of the Arizona Opera Studio

We are so excited to announce our new Head of Music and Director for the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio, Christopher Cano.

Cano is an Arizona native, holding a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in in Piano Performance from the University of Arizona. An accomplished musician, Cano has been the recipient of the Green Valley Scholarship Competition, Emilio Osta Scholarship Competition, Tucson Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and is a recipient of the Theodore Presser Scholarship. He is also a two-time winner of the University of Arizona President’s Concert Concerto Competition.

More recently, Cano served on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music. Cano has also been a member of the music staff at the Festival Lyrique en Mer in Belle Isle, France, Toledo Opera, San Diego Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Company of North Carolina, Florida Grand Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

His private studio in New York City has helped prepare singers for appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, and orchestral appearances with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic among others. He has performed as a guest soloist and chamber musician at the Killington Music Festival in Vermont, the Alamos Music Festival of Sonora, Mexico, and has participated as a pianist at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel and Blacksburg, Virginia. 

Cano will join our staff in the beginning of May, and additionally, will be perform with his wife, Jennifer Johnson Cano, on January 17, 2018 at 7:00 pm as part of the 2018 Tucson Desert Song Festival.

Please join us in welcoming Chris to the Arizona Opera family!