Douglaston's Own: James Conlon

Conductor James Conlon first took up music lessons as a young boy growing up in Douglaston.

Conlon, the music director of the Los Angeles Opera, was raised on Cherry Street, where he lived with his father, an assistant to the city’s commissioner of labor, and mother, a freelance writer, as well as four siblings.

As a youngster, Conlon took music lessons and became a treble in a Queens-based opera company.

He longed to be a tenor and then a baritone, attending the Aspen Institute and eventually entering The Juilliard School of Music.

In 1970, he was invited to the Spoleto Festival as a coach and chorus conductor.

A few years later, the conductor of a production of “La Boheme” dropped out of a performance and Conlon, who had impressed soprano Maria Callas during a rehearsal, stepped in to conduct.

In 1974, he received a conducting award from the American National Orchestra Association and became the youngest conductor for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s subscription series.

Two years later, he made his Metropolitan Opera and British debuts and, in following years, worked with the Paris Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence and the Chicago Lyric Opera.

In 1989, he took over as chief conductor for the Cologne Opera and, seven years later, was appointed music director of the Opera National de Paris.

He has conducted more than 250 performances at the Metropolitan Opera during a period of 35 years.

He is currently the music director of the Los Angels Opera. One of his current projects is a series known as “Recovered Voices,” which will bring the music of composers affected by the Holocaust to the stage.

He has recorded with EMI and Sony Classical and earned France’s Grand Prix du Disque. Conlon also won a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for his rendition of Kurt Weill’s “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.”

Other awards include an honorary doctor of music degree from Juilliard, recognition from Opera News for being one of the leading figures in the world of opera, an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and Italy’s Premio Galileo award for his contributions to music and peace.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, soprano and vocal coach Jennifer Ringo.