Lisenka Heijboer Castañón

Lisenka Heijboer Castañón immersed herself in the creation of opera as assistant director, and later as co-director with Lotte de Beer. She also assisted a number of major opera directors, including Pierre Audi, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Monique Wagemakers and Laurent Pelly, in houses such as Dutch National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper and Oper Köln and in a wide range of repertoire from Stockhausen to Puccini. In 2019 she was appointed Directing Fellow for the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School in New York. In 2020, Heijboer Castañón was asked by Dutch National Opera to create an alternative season opening, in response to the circumstances created by the pandemic. She assembled an artistic team and set up a studio of composers who, together with her and Manoj Kamps, created FAUST [working title]; a production about sharing knowledge to build a future. As a young artist, Heijboer Castañón worked at the Royal Concertgebouw (La voix humaine) and the Bochumer Symphoniker (Parsifal), and created new work for the NJO Muziekzomer (About Orpheus), the Grachtenfestival (Vrouwenstemmen), Carnegie Hall (Through Movement) and Opera Zuid (An die Ferne). In the summer of 2022 she will make her debut at Santa Fe Opera, as co-director of a new production of Tristan und Isolde with Zack Winokur.