Soprano Melissa Citro, winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the George London Award, and the Mario Lanza Competition, made her European debut in 2008, singing the title role in Jenufa with Staatsoper Stuttgart. She joined the roster of LA Opera in 2006/07 for Hansel and Gretel and Tannhäuser, and returned last season for Jenufa, making her Company debut as the Infirmary Sister in Suor Angelica. She sings Ortlinde in Die Walküre during the 2008/09 season, and the Third Norn in Götterdämmerung during the 2009/10 season, as part of LA Opera's first Ring cycle. She also makes her Richmond Symphony debut during the 2008/09 season, singing Strauss's Four Last Songs with conductor Marc Taddei. Past roles include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with San Francisco Opera's Merola Program and Western Opera Theater, and the High Priestess in Rameau's Hippolytus and Aricia with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. While a fellowship artist at Marilyn Horne's Music Academy of the West, her role assignments included Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos and Lady Billows in Albert Herring. She was a scholarship winner at both The Juilliard School and Westminster Choir College, and was featured on A&E Television's Breakfast with the Arts as a rising young star to watch.