James Conlon

Equally well known in Europe and the U.S., James Conlon excels as an operatic and orchestral conductor. He is the longtime music director of the Los Angeles Opera. Conlon was born in Queens, New York, on March 18, 1950. His father was a New York City government official, and his mother was a writer; no one in the family had any musical tendencies. When Conlon was 11, he saw a production of Verdi's La traviata and requested music lessons. He joined a children's chorus and enrolled at New York's High School of Music and Art. Conlon settled on conducting after a stint at the Asp...