Board Members
Osvaldo de Leon - Artistic Director - President of the Board
Osvaldo was the recipient of the Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts grant in 2011 to finish his graduate studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU); The Avalos Award in 2010 after his interpretation of Latin American Music; and the Concerto Competition at SFSU in 2010; the FINANCIARTE grant in 2006 to produce, direct the opera “La Voix Humaine” by Francis Poulenc; and the Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts grant in 2003 to study a year at the University of Texas in Austin.
In Mexico he was admired due to his capacity to approach solo repertoire as well as to perform chamber music, accompany singers and instrumentalists, coach opera, and direct choirs both amateur and professional. He has performed with the Russian Chamber Orchestra in Marin California, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Sonora, The San Francisco State University Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Nuevo Leon, the Orquesta Juvenil de Nuevo Leon. He has appeared at the Festival Ceiba in Tabasco, Mexico, Encuentro Internacional de Opera in Coahuila, the Vocal Cycle at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, the Festival Cultural Tamaulipas, Spring Festival of Radio Nuevo Leon, and the Festival Rio de Bravo in Coahuila. He has conducted with Verismo Opera in Vallejo, CA the productions of Madama Butterfly by G. Puccini, and Il Tabarro by G. Puccini. He conducted with Berkeley Chamber Opera the production of The Marriage of Figaro. In 2014, he received and Honorable Mention at the Bienal Internacional de Piano in Baja California, Mexico.
Osvaldo de Leon finished his Bachelor´s degree in Piano Performance at Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey, México and his Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Chamber Music at San Francisco State University.
Dr. Terry Heiman-Patterson - Vice-President of the Board
Dr. Heiman-Patterson is Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Drexel University College of Medicine. Her career has been dedicated to clinical care and research in ALS or Lou Gehrigs Disease. She directs the MDA ALS Center of Hope at Drexel and has received more than a dozen grants to do both basic and clinical research in ALS. Under her direction, the Center of Hope has conducted clinical trials testing more than 25 different experimental treatments, while basic research is conducted using a mouse model to study genes that can modify the severity of the disease. She is co-chairman of Northeast ALS Consortium, President of the ALS Hope Foundation, and a member of the International Alliance of MND . She has published over 100 papers, abstracts, and chapters on ALS. As an extension of her commitment to ALS she founded the ALS Hope Foundation a non profit organization dedicated to making a difference to people living with ALS.
While her professional passion is helping people living with ALS, in her private life she is a musician and avid supporter of the arts. It has been her dream to combine the passion for the arts and providing opportunities for young performers and artists with making a difference to ALS leading to the partnership between Phènix Opera and the ALS Hope Foundation.
Nicole Lopez-Hagan - Treasurer
Nicole is a Bay Area soprano and nonprofit administrator. After seven years at the Compton Foundation in San Francisco, she joined the team at the Stanford Humanities Center as Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Administrator in 2017. She received her MFA in Vocal Performance from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, CA, and her Bachelor’s in History at the University of San Francisco, where she was a recipient of the Rick Roberts Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater for her appearance as Ms. Pennywise in Urinetown. She made her debut with Pacifica Spindrift Players as Rose Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis, going on to stage manage Gin Game and The Woman in Black. She was a 2016 and 2017 young artist resident with Chamber Music Silicon Valley, and has sung with Opera San Jose, Pocket Opera, and Stanford Light Opera, most recently appearing as the soprano soloist in the world premier of Joe Beckers “Obscuri Lateris Illuminati: A requiem mass from the Dark Side of the Moon," with the Yampa Valley Choral Society in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
