Stefanos Koroneos has been named Artistic and General Director of Teatro Grattacielo effective January 2020, where he held the position of Artistic Administrator since 2019.
Under his leadership Teatro Grattacielo has expanded to a year long programming in New York City and, in co-productions, in several locations in Europe.
He has garnered critical press for his multidisciplinary direction and curation of Mozart’s Idomeneo and Don Giovanni and was handsomely reviewed for his award-winning, site-specific visual treatment of Zandonai’s Giulietta e Romeo in Battery Park City, NY
Koroneos enjoyed a long and successful career as a baritone. International credits include the Greek National Opera, New York City Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, Opera Tampa, Teatro alla Scala, Rossini Opera Festival, Teatro Reggio di Parma, Teatro Giglio di Lucca, the Bolshoi Theater, Athens Concert Hall, Den Nye Opera, Staatstheater Freiburg, Theater Osnabrück and the Verdi Festival in Bussetto.
Stefanos is fluent in Italian, German, English, Spanish and Greek.
stefanoskoroneos@grattacielo.org
Duane Printz founded Teatro Grattacielo an ambitious opera-in-concert organization devoted to the performance and promotion of neglected works of the verismo school of Italian opera . Since its founding in New York in 1994, the company's energetic and passionate Founding and Executive director, Teatro Grattacielo has presented such rarities as Mascagni's Iris, Cilea's L'Arlesiana, Zandonai's I Cavalieri di Ekebu, Mpntemezzi's La Nave and Gchecchi's Cassandra. Several of the works Teatro Grattacielo has uncovered have proved to be surprisingly effective and impassioned entertainments.
Krystel grew up in Switzerland, lulled by her mother's passion for Italian culture (including opera, obviously) and her father's taste for travel. These were basic ingredients that fueled her lasting passion for music and exploring new horizons. She began studying Tourism Management, and worked for corporate events while living in Germany. However, this failed to provide the aesthetics and creative dynamic she desired. This is why she enrolled in a Bachelor's in Art Direction, a perfect way to learn creative languages, which concluded with a 6-month startup experience in New York in 2017.
Driven by a desire to engage with a purpose-based organization, she joined the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in New York in 2019, primarily working toward her country's candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. During the campaign, she had the opportunity to work with several artists and realized that, after spending some years trying to understand the world from a governmental perspective, it was time to go back to a more artistic approach and environment.
Krystel is currently completing her MBA in Cultural Engineering and Management, which began in Paris and brought her back to New York, much to her delight.
Omar Howard is the Creative and Social Media Director at Teatro Grattacielo. He is a triple threat with a passion for communications, music and education. In December 2020, Omar graduated from the University of Florida (UF) with his Bachelors of Science in Public Relations and a minor in Business Administration. After graduation, Omar took his talents to Golin – a global public relations agency – where he worked on the McDonald's account, helping to boost the brand’s cultural relevance. At Golin, Omar gained insight into media analysis, consumer marketing and corporate communications. Beyond business, Omar enjoys singing and producing original music. Omar has starred in musical productions including Fame: The Musical, Hairspray and The Wizard of Oz. In Fall 2022, Omar plans to pursue his Master of Education and Communication at Columbia University where he hopes to leverage communications to reshape systemic issues and increase access to educational resources in lower-income neighborhoods. In his free time, Omar likes to do yoga, read and take bubble baths.
You can listen to his latest single ‘Moon Swing’ by boy electric on Spotify or wherever you stream music.
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Favorite Vegetable: Zucchini (I’m a vegetarian!)
Favorite Color: Orange
A musical journey that has spanned over five decades as arranger, pianist, répétiteur, and conductor, Francisco X. Miranda (www.fxmmusic.com) was recently recognized as an eminent arranger in the classical, opera and popular genres.
Since the mid-1990s, he has created many arrangements and reductions of music, including those of George Gershwin, Philip Glass, Pietro Mascagni, Maurice Ravel, Giuseppe Verdi, plus Broadway Selections for Ms. Christine Ebersol. His arrangements have been performed throughout the United States, including The Phoenicia Festival of the Voice. His most recent project, a reduction of Riccardo Zandonai’s complex opera Giulietta e Romeo received all-around praises.
Hailed as “one of the most sought-after Mexican conductors in today’s music scene” by New York Weekly, Felipe Tristan has worked with orchestras around the world and currently serves as conductor of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Grattacielo, and at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. Also, he is the Creative Partnerships Manager of the GRAMMY®️ award-winning Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, where he has collaborated on projects with Carnegie Hall Citywide, NY Philharmonic Bandwagon, and Lincoln Center, bringing together Afro-Latin culture and classical arts, in New York City.
Tristan is the first-prize winner of the Conducting Competition Klangkraft Orchester Dirigierwettbewerbs, in Duisburg, Germany, and of the International Conductors Workshop & Competition, in Atlanta, USA. As the founder and general director of the Monterrey Summer Opera Academy, he aims to showcase operatic talent from around the world, working alongside world-class faculty, including Dolora Zajick, American mezzo-soprano that has been described as "one of the greatest voices in the history of opera." Some of the operatic titles in his repertoire include Falstaff and Il Trovatore (Verdi), La bohème (Puccini), Carmen (Bizet), L’amico Fritz (Mascagni), L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti). In 2017, Tristan toured China and presented a TEDx Talk in Beijing and Zhengzhou. Later that same year, he was honored to conduct at the Palacio de Bellas Artes - Mexico’s foremost stage - at the 40 Anniversary Gala of the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey.
Felipe Tristan has premiered over twenty works by contemporary composers, including Fractured Nation by the multiple-time GRAMMY®️ award-winner Arturo O’Farrill, pianist and composer. Recording credits include an album with flutist Krzysztof Kaczka and members of the Met Orchestra with works by Schubert (Hänssler Classics, 2023), and a production member of the GRAMMY®️ award-winning album Fandango at the Wall in New York (Tiger Turn, 2023), under the category of Best Latin Jazz Album.
Gerardo Garza is co-founder of Strattiva Marketing Agency and Director of Operations since 2020. He has more than eight years of experience developing high-impact communication strategies for commercial and non-profit international organizations.
Gerardo is an enthusiast of the arts, of which music and painting are his favorites, so he began studying lyrical singing in 2017 as a baritone with the vocal teacher and contralto Diana Alvarado; today he reaches a dramatic tenor tessitura. He has participated in regional opera galas and various Mexican musical projects.
Exuberance comes to mind being part of the creative team at Teatro Grattacielo. The opportunity to share my passion for the performing arts through philanthropy and cultural outreach is the ultimate ovation, Bravi Tutti...the best is yet to come!
