Row 1, L to R: Rehearsing Hoffman, Florida Grand Opera; Rehearsing the orchestra at Bellas Artes; Entführung Act 2 Quartet with Olivia Gorra, Rebeca Olvera,   Javier Camarena and José Guadalupe Reyes; After a performance at Bellas Artes with Javier Camarena and Liora Maurer

Row 2, L to R: Conducting the Verdi Requiem in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on Good Friday; Outdoor concert in Jaffa, Israel with tenor Juan Navarro; at the Alfredo Kraus competition with jury member Christa Ludwig and Juan Henriquez; Master Class in Moscow

Row 3, L to R: Master Class for IVAI in Jaffa, Israel; Tosca opening night in Lima, Perú with stage director Beth Greenberg; with some of my colleagues  of the Met's music staff at a party; coaching in Moscow for the American Masters Opera Academy



Row 4, L to R: Sharing a toast with Alfredo Kraus on his birthday after a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Liceu; my debut conducting Puccini's Suor Angelica in Orvieto, Italy, 1996; a very special moment after a performance of Florencia en el Amazonas between composer and dear friend Daniel Catán and baritone Hector Vazquez - Daniel is greatly missed; with another dear friend, the brilliant Nico Castel at his farewell reception at the Juilliard School of Music

Row 5, L to R: with Rockwell and Debbie Blake at a master class Rocky gave at SUNY Plattsburgh - Rocky is my favorite Rossini tenor of all time; going back a few years to my time at the Liceu, when Mignon Dunn came to sing in Barcelona; also at the Liceu during a performance of Tancredi with Marilyn Horne in the title role (I was playing the recitatives); a recital at the Basilica in Las Palmas with the wonderful Nancy Fabiola Herrera

Row 6, R to L: during the early years in Tel Aviv with IVAI, with Renata Scotto and my great friend Deborah Birnbaum; in 2015 after the premiere of Florencia at LA Opera - left to right: me, Veronica Villarroel, Andrea Puente Catán, Andreas Wimmer, Nancy Herrera and Marcelo Perez; rehearsing for a gala in Romania with the Sibiu Philharmonic; conducting the brief but happy finale of Così fan tutte that finished the gala for Canto-Toulouse 2016