Artists’ Profiles

Benjamin Manis

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Conductor

American conductor, Benjamin Manis, joined the Utah Symphony as Associate Conductor in September 2022, leading the orchestra at Abravanel Hall, at the Deer Valley® Music Festival, and on its upcoming statewide tour. Before moving to Salt Lake City, Manis spent three seasons as Resident Conductor of the Houston Grand Opera, making his debut with Verdi’s Rigoletto. Other highlights of his time in Houston include performances of Carmen, Roméo et Juliette and The Snowy Day. He led four world premieres, among them the 2020 world premiere of Marian’s Song with the subsequent HGO Digital filmed version and Miller Outdoor Theatre performances of the same work. Manis returned to HGO in the 2022–23 season to lead productions of Tosca and El Milagro del Recuerdo.

Winner of the 2023, 2022, and 2019 Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Awards, Manis has served as cover conductor for the St. Louis, Dallas, and National Symphonies, working with conductors Gianandrea Noseda, David Robertson, and Stéphane Denève.

Pablo Sáinz-Villegas

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Guitar

Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has been acclaimed by the international press as the successor of Andrés Segovia and an ambassador of Spanish culture in the world. Since his debut with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at the Lincoln Center, he has played in more than 40 countries and has been invited to play with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic of Israel, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and National Orchestra of Spain, making him a benchmark for the symphonic guitar.

Plácido Domingo has described him as “the master of the guitar” and with him he has had the privilege of recording his new duo album, as well as participating in the tribute held in his honor at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid to an audience of over 85,000 and also in a concert on a floating stage on the Amazon River, televised for millions of people.