About

What We Do

Since 2005, the New York Opera Society has been doing something most opera companies don't: making brand-new opera happen. We don't just stage the classics, we commission them into existence, pairing composers with the stories worth telling, and getting the result onto some of the world's great stages.

We're small by design. No brick-and-mortar theater, no permanent company, just a network of world-class composers and performers we bring together production by production.

Who We Are

Jennfier Cho

FOUNDER & EXECTUTIVE DIRECTOR

Founded NYOS in 2005 and grew it from a small passion project into a company that opera houses and museums call when they want something new. A trained soprano herself (B.M. in opera performance, Northwestern), she's performed across Europe and the U.S. and is fluent in German, French, Italian, and Spanish, which comes in handy when the company is producing in Madrid one season and Cologne the next.
Ricardo Llorca

COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

A Spanish-American composer and Juilliard faculty member, Llorca studied under David Diamond and John Corigliano and has racked up a Guggenheim Fellowship along the way. NYOS has commissioned several of his boldest works, including Las Horas Vacías (Lincoln Center) and Tres Sombreros de Copa — the first-ever opera based on Miguel Mihura's classic play, which premiered in Brazil before making its European debut in Madrid.
https://www.ricardollorca.com/bio_eng.htm
Gisle Kverndokk

COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

One of Norway's most-produced living opera composers, Kverndokk trained at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and Juilliard. NYOS commissioned his cartoon opera Max und Moritz, which premiered in Washington, D.C., along with Upon this Handful of Earth and Letters from Ruth — both tackling weighty subjects (climate catastrophe, the Holocaust) with real emotional force.
https://www.gislekverndokk.com/
Alisa Jordheim

SOPRANO
A Fulbright Scholar who studied Scandinavian singing diction at the University of Oslo, Alisa Jordheim brings both scholarly rigor and real stage presence to her work with NYOS — she originated the title role in Letters from Ruth at the National Gallery of Art. Named one of "40 under 40" opera singers to watch by WQXR, she splits her time between major companies like San Diego Opera and the Pacific Symphony and a steady commitment to new music, premiering works written specifically for her voice.
https://www.alisasuzannejordheim.com/
Rosa Torres-Pardo

PIANIST
A native of Madrid and winner of Spain's 2017 National Music Prize, Rosa Torres-Pardo has been an NYOS Artist in Residence since our earliest seasons, lending her artistry to Las Horas Vacías and beyond. Her career has taken her from Carnegie Hall to the Konzerthaus Berlin, working alongside conductors like Plácido Domingo and Charles Dutoit — and she remains one of the strongest through-lines connecting NYOS's New York roots to its work across Spain.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Torres-Pardo
Allan Palacios Chan

TENOR
Allan Palacios Chan has performed with NYOS as Achille in Babette's Feast, part of a career that spans opera houses, concert halls, and increasingly, crossover music. A Corbett Foundation Young Artist with Cincinnati Opera for four seasons and a two-time Voice Fellow under Marilyn Horne at the Music Academy of the West, he's equally at home championing Kundiman (Filipino art song) for the Philippine Embassy as he is reimagining pop classics as symphonic pieces alongside Grammy-nominated collaborators.
https://www.allanpalacioschan.com/