Draft:Airam Hernández

Airam Hernández is a Canarian operatic tenor. He has obtained international recognition for his interpretations of Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. , and Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Currently performing leading tenor roles in top opera houses around the world, he is also a recognized performer of contemporary classical music. In 2018 he performed the title role in the world premiere of Franz Liszt's long lost opera Sardanapalo.

Early years and education
Native of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the Spanish tenor is part of a family of musicians. His father Pedro Hernández is a recognized performer of Canarian folklore and his sister Raquel Hernández is a soprano. He began his musical training as a french horn player, instrument he played for twelve years mentored by Maestro Guillermo Zarzo in the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. After a few years participating in choruses and small vocal ensembles, he finished his formal vocal education at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona with Maria Dolors Aldea. During his training years he was given instruction by notorious singers and maestros as Vittorio Terranova, Dalton Baldwin, Lorraine Nubar, Dame Ann Murray, Fabio Luisi, Hedwig Fassbender, Eytan Pessen, Reinaldo Macías, Carlos Chausson, Dmitry Vdovin, Roger Vignoles, Laurent Naouri, Natalie Dessay and Mariella Devia. In 2014, after been selected for Plácido Domingo's Operalia Competition in Los Angeles, he was invited to join the Zurich International Opera Studio for season 14/15.

Career
In season 15/16 he became a member of the soloists ensemble of Opernhaus Zürich. During this period he participated in productions like Die Zauberflöte, Die Frau ohne Schatten , Fidelio , Falstaff and La Traviata. In 2014 he obtained great reviews for his interpretation of five different characters in Zurich's premiere of Martinu’s Juliette. During this period he is invited by Maestro Teodor Currentzis to debut as Alfredo in La Traviata in a new production from Perm Opera, directed by Robert Wilson. In season 16/17 he debuted the roles of Apollo/Dionysos in Manfred Trojahn's Zurich premiere of Orest



Season 17/18 marked his starting point as a freelance soloist. He successfully debuted the roles of Edgardo in Lucia de Lammermoor at Opéra de Lausanne ; Faust in Gounod’s homonymous masterpiece at Opera de Tenerife, and Arbace in Mozart's Idomeneo at Opernhaus Zürich. In season 18/19 he has his French debut at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse singing Alfredo from La Traviata. He also sang the title role in the world premiere on Franz Liszt recently recovered opera Sardanapalo with the Staatskapelle Weimar; and a tour of Verdi's La Traviata that took him to Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, Konzerthaus Dortmund and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, all dates conducted by Maestro Teodor Currentzis. This season will also mark his return to the Nationale Opera of Amsterdam portraying the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso in the world premiere of Caruso a Cuba, part of the Opera Forward Festival. In 2019 he will have his USA debut singing Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff at Dallas Opera.

He has performed concerts alongside renowned artists like Plácido Domingo, Ana María Martínez, Jessica Pratt and Vesselina Kasarova.

Hernández has worked with conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Stéphane Denève, Marco Armiliato, Michael Boder, Cornelius Meister, Markus Poschner, Alexander Anissimov, Sebastian Weigle, Ramón Tebar, Giovanni Antonini, Andrea Marcon, John Fiore, Omer Meir Wellber, Ivor Bolton, Jesús López Cobos, Francesco Ivan Ciampa, Carlo Rizzi, James Conlon, Teodor Currentzis and Nello Santi; and with directors like Barrie Kosky, Robert Wilson, Jürgen Flimm, David Pountney, Laurent Pelly, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Peter Stein, Jean-Claude Auvray, Gilbert Deflo, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Tatjana Gürbaca, Stefano Poda, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Andreas Homoki and Damiano Michieletto.