sai-national.org • FALL 2016 • PAN PIPES 17
CONDUCTING OPERA
H I J K
N O P
R S T U
W X Y Z
Leading the Way
By Christine Bruns
PAN PIPES editor
Nicole Paiement is a very active conductor who has gained an
international reputation as a conductor of contemporary music and opera.
She is the Artistic Director, Conductor, and Founder of the award winning
Opera Parallèle in San Fransisco, as well as Principal Guest Conductor of
e Dallas Opera. Paiement previously served as the Director of Ensembles
at the University of California - Santa Cruz (UCSC), and her research there
has led to numerous recordings of many world premiere works. She has
toured extensively in the US and Asia as an active guest conductor, and she
spent the summer at e Glimmerglass Festival working on Robert Ward's
e Crucible and George Frideric Handel's Xerxes. Future projects include
Kevin Puts' Silent Night at e Atlanta Opera, and the world premiere of
Mohammed Fairouz's e Dictator's Wife at the Washington National Opera.
She will also appear this year at the Monterey Jazz Festival to conduct the
world premiere of saxophonist Wayne Shorter's newly commissioned work,
e Unfolding, for jazz quartet and wind ensemble. She was initiated as an
SAI Honorary member by the Dallas Alumnae Chapter in 2015.
It was during a brief pause in her work at Glimmerglass that she was
PAIEMENT continued on page 18
