BEYOND THE ARIA ANTHONY LEÓN, IAN RUCKER, EMILY RICHTER, AND CRAIG TERRY

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

ANTHONY LEÓN

American-born Cuban and Colombian tenor, Anthony León, has rapidly emerged as one of today’s leading young tenors. His voice has been lauded by Stage and Cinema as possessing “beauty, freedom of tone, and outstanding breath control.” León has received some of the most prestigious honors in the opera industry including being a finalist for the Rising Star award at the 2024 International Opera Awards and winner of a 2024 Richard Tucker Career Grant. He was also a winner of a 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and received the First Prize and the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Zarzuela Prize at Operalia, 2022. Additionally, he has been awarded a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. Other accolades include being featured in Opera News magazine and named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list, among other important awards. 

In the 2025–26 season, León makes a house and role debut at the Teatro Regio di Torino singing Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a role he will sing as well later in the season for his house debut at Glyndebourne. He also makes another house debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing Ferrando in Così fan tutte, and returns to LA Opera for his role debut as Fenton in Falstaff. On the concert stage, he sings Estévez's Cantata Criolla with the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel as well as a run of Handel's Messiah with the Toronto Symphony. 

León’s most recent engagements include singing Nadir in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles for his debut at the Berlin Staatsoper, Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte at LA Opera. Previously León appeared as Nadir at Cologne Opera, sang Telemaco in Il ritorno d’Ulisse at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and made debuts with symphony orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival and the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with Gustavo Dudamel. Other recent notable performances include creating the role of The Consumer in the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s opera The Shell Trial at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

León holds a Bachelor of Music from La Sierra University and a Master of Music degree concentrating in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was awarded the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies studying under the tutelage of Bradley Williams.  

IAN RUCKER

American baritone Ian Rucker's roles in the 2025–26 season include Dandini in La Cenerentola at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro at Scottish Opera. Rucker recently completed his tenure as an Ensemble member with the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where his appearances included The Foreman in Jenůfa and Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory, both of which he jumped in for as cover, as well as Man in Bar in Champion, Moralès in Carmen, and Schaunard in La bohème. Last summer he performed the title role in the world premiere of The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Rucker was recently a prize winner in the final of the highly acclaimed Neue Stimmen vocal competition, and he sang the role of Diener IV in Strauss’s Capriccio at the 2024 Salzburg Festival.

Rucker received his bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, under the instruction of baritone Kenneth J. Pereira. It was there that he performed roles such as Ernst Ludwig in Cabaret, Officer Lockstock in Urinetown, and the title roles in both Sweeney Todd and Don Giovanni. He studied for his master's degree in Vocal Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, under the tutelage of the legendary soprano Carol Vaness. There he performed multiple leading baritone roles, including Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Post-education credits include a summer spent at the Aspen Music Festival as a Renée Fleming Artist, performing in weekly aria and scene masterclasses, including a public masterclass led by Renée Fleming herself. He spent the following season as an Apprentice Artist with Palm Beach Opera in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Rucker's competition success includes First Prize in Tier II of the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, second in the young artist tier of the James Alexander Vocal Competition with Mississippi Opera, and encouragement awards in both the Wisconsin and Georgia districts of the Metropolitan Opera's Laffont Competition. 

EMILY RICHTER

  The second-year soprano with Lyric's Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center from Arlington, Virginia, was a national winner of the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and made her Lyric debut in the 2024–25 Season as First Peasant Girl in The Marriage of Figaro.

In the summer of 2025, she was in residence at the Aix-en-Provence Festival Académie, and this season at Lyric she will appear in Medea. She recently completed two years as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera. Role highlights during her tenure include the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Ma in Proving Up, and Ginevra in Ariodante.

In the 2023–24 Season, she made her Messiah debut with the Seattle Symphony and her Verdi Requiem debut with the Westmoreland Symphony. Richter has spent her summers as an apprentice artist at Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera, and the Seagle Festival.

She holds a Master’s Degree from McGill’s Schulich School of Music and a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Lawrence University. Future engagements include Britten’s War Requiem with the Erie Philharmonic, Kaija Saariaho’s Émilie with Catapult, and her debut with Opéra National de Paris.

CRAIG TERRY

Grammy Award-winning pianist and arranger Craig Terry enjoys an international career regularly performing with the world’s leading singers and instrumentalists. Currently, Terry serves as Music Director of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, following eleven seasons at Lyric as Assistant Conductor. Previously, he was an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Terry has performed with such esteemed vocalists as Jamie Barton, Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Lawrence Brownlee, Janai Brugger, Nicole Cabell, Sasha Cooke, Eric Cutler, Danielle de Niese, Joyce DiDonato, Ying Fang, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Bryan Hymel, Brian Jagde, Quinn Kelsey, Kate Lindsey, Amanda Majeski, Ana María Martínez, Eric Owens, Ailyn Pérez, Nicholas Phan, Susanna Phillips, Luca Pisaroni, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell, Fatma Said, Bo Skovhus, Garrett Sorenson, Heidi Stober, Christian Van Horn, Amber Wagner, and Laura Wilde. He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchester, and the Pro Arte String Quartet.

Terry’s 2025-26 recital performance schedule includes concerts in North America and Europe with artists including Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Christine Goerke, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell, and Christian Van Horn. He is also serving as artist-in-residence for the University of Miami and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His discography includes five recently released recordings: Diva on Detour with Patricia Racette, As Long As There Are Songs with Stephanie Blythe, Chanson d’Avril with Nicole Cabell, and French Horn Recital from 24 Preludes, Op. 11 - Alexander Scriabin with former Lyric Opera principal horn Jonathan Boen. His latest recording project with Joyce DiDonato, Songplay, released by Warner Classics, received the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Terry has appeared on numerous television, radio, and streaming programs, including multiple appearances on both Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances for PBS, as well as on many programs broadcast on NBC, ABC, and CBS. In May 2021, he was the pianist for the Metropolitan Opera’s Wagnerian Stars Live in Concert, transmitted from the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Terry hails from Tullahoma, Tennessee, and received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, continued his studies at Florida State University, and received a Masters of Music in Collaborative Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of renowned pianist Warren Jones.

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Land Acknowledgement

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance resides on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox have also called this area home. The region has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Today, one of the largest urban American Indian communities in the United States resides in Chicago, and members of this community continue to contribute to the life and culture of this city.

To learn more about the practice of land acknowledgement and the importance of honoring native land, visit usdac.us. The Chicagoland region is home to over 65,000 American Indians and the country’s oldest urban-based Native membership community center, American Indian Center Chicago (AIC). Visit aicchicago.org to learn more about AIC’s mission to foster physical and spiritual health in the community, an active connection with traditional values and practices, stronger families with multigenerational bonds, and a rising generation of educated, articulate, and visionary youth.

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Photo Credits: Harris Theater Exterior by Hedrich Blessing. Harris Theater Nevelson Reflection by Kyle Flubacker. Beyond the Aria by Kyle Flubacker. Ian Rucker headshot by Jocelyn Bold. Lyric Opera of Chicago by Todd Rosenberg. The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center 2025–26 Ensemble by Kyle Flubacker. Harris Theater donors by Kyle Flubacker.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.