Artistic Director and General Manager of Golden Gate Opera since 1996, founded Outreach Opera-tunities enrichment program for school children, and has led Golden Gate Opera in presenting full operas at Marin Center and innovative up-close opera performances throughout Marin since 2005. Ms. Wain-Becker’s professional opera career includes 30 years of international and US regional opera company engagements including New Opera Festival di Roma, The Israel National Opera, Portland Opera, Mississippi Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Arizona Opera, Whitewater Opera, Marin Opera, Berkeley Opera, Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Lamplighters Music Theatre, Cinnabar Opera Theatre. As featured soloist with symphonies in the west, she has had performances with Sacramento Symphony, Jackson Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Billings Symphony, Diablo Philharmonic, Marin Symphony, Santa Barbara Choral Society, Oakland Symphony among others and is a Voice faculty member of the San Francisco Community Music Center since 1995.

Winner of Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, her awards also include the Wagner Society of Northern California, William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation of New York, National Institute for Music Theatre and more. She has over 50 roles in her repertoire in operas by such composers as Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Donizetti and Puccini. She’s on the faculty of the California Opera Association Summer Institute in Fresno, an international training program for rising opera talent.

Golden Gate Opera is a member of Opera America and places an emphasis on bringing essential fine arts to school children and the community through GGO’s outreach programs.

Music Director and Conductor of Golden Gate Opera is in his third season with the company and Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi marks his firth production in the pit. Maestro Gallegos made his debut with GGO in 2003 conducting I Pagliacci. During the 2004 season he conducted Gianni Schicchi and The Telephone and in April of this year Madama Butterfly. A San Francisco native, Mr. Gallegos served as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Chamber Players Orchestra from 1985 to 1990. In 1991, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra and currently continues his long association with that orchestra. With the 2005-'06 season, Maestro Gallegos begins his second year as Music Director and Conductor of the Kensington Symphony Orchestra in Contra Costa County and his third year as Assistant Conductor of the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra of Northern California. Reflecting his deep commitment to music education, Mr. Gallegos begins his fifth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Golden Gate Philharmonic, an all-city youth orchestra in San Francisco and his fourth year as an Artist in Residence at the S.F. School of the Arts. Guest conducting has taken Mr. Gallegos throughout the United States and Europe including appearances with the Budapest Philharmonic and members of the Hungarian State Opera. Mr. Gallegos studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory School and San Francisco State University, completing, with honors, a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Education and Conducting. Advanced studies in orchestral and operatic conducting continued at the prestigious Conductors Institute and the;University of Iowa School of Music, where he received a Master of Arts degree with High Distinction and served as Conductor of the University Chamber Orchestra

GGO Stage Director returns to direct the double bill of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi in Spring of 2006 after having directed the Company’s Madama Butterly and Carmen. She has performed as opera singer to critical and popular acclaim in the United States and throughout Europe. Some of the companies she has sung leading roles with include: Munich Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Kassel Opera, Nurnberg Opera, Hannover Opera, the Spoleto Festival, Staatsoper Bonn, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Houston Opera, San Diego Opera, Baltimore Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera and Portland Opera. She has numerous awards to her credit including the Tchaikowsky Competition in Moscow (1970), Baltimore Opera Auditions, and Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Garabedian is founder of the Fresno International Grand Opera and is founder, CEO and Artistic Director of California Opera Association in Fresno. She has taught at the International Music Institute of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been Chairman of Voice and Opera at the University of Connecticut and University of the Pacific, and served as Professor of Voice on faculty of Northern Illinois University, California State University at Fresno, American University and San Francisco University. Recently, Ms Garabedian has been appointed Artistic Director of Opera Company of Hangzhou, in the capital of Zhejiang province, Republic of China, where she will present Carmen in the coming season. She brings to GGO’s Carmen production participation of selected talented opera singers from China gaining professional experience working with Golden Gate Opera. She will be bringing American opera singers to China for Rigoletto and will present in China a world premiere of the opera The Peacock Princess written by San Francisco’s very own Maestro Zong.