Greek soprano Eleni Calenos has earned the admiration of critics and audiences for the clarity, warmth, and beauty of her voice, and for the quiet dignity of her characterizations. Of her Tosca, Opera News wrote that she “gave a performance for the ages, both vocally and dramatically,” and The Wall Street Journal called it “searing... passionate, mercurial, heart-on-the-sleeve, with all the necessary vocal range, stamina and fire.” Reviewing her Cio-Cio-San, the Houston Press found “a true wonder to hear.”

Her repertoire spans more than thirty operatic roles, among them Mimì in La Bohème, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, the title roles in Suor Angelica and Tosca, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Liù in Turandot, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Desdemona in Otello, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.

She has also given voice to new work, creating Saida in the world premiere of Eichberg’s Schönerland and roles in the premieres of George Hatzinasios’s El Greco and Nikolaos Metaxas-Tzanis’s Marco Bozzari. On the concert stage, she has sung Verdi’s “Requiem,” Brahms’s “Ein Deutsches Requiem,” Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and “Missa Solemnis,” Mahler’s Second Symphony, Handel’s “Theodora,” Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” and Rutter’s “Magnificat” at Lincoln Center.

She has appeared with the Greek National Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Shreveport Opera, Maryland Lyric Opera, Opera Orlando, and Cleveland Opera Theater, among many others, and made her German debut at the Wiesbaden Staatstheater. Her recordings include Mascagni’s Zanetto with Odyssey Opera, two of Samaras’s operettas with the Greek National Opera, and Tsontakis’s Mirologhia on KOCH International Classics.

Her ties to Houston run deep. She made her US debut as Cio-Cio-San with Opera in the Heights, and in 2025 returned for a recital at Museo, the same setting that hosts this evening’s concert. Born in Thessaloniki, she holds a diploma in cello from her city’s Municipal Conservatory, a voice diploma from the National Conservatory of Athens, a master’s degree from Queens College, City University of New York, and a performance certificate from the Opera Institute of Boston University.

In recital, her approach is intimate and focused. She brings a sensitivity to language and phrasing that keeps the music close, creating space for reflection and connection within the audience. It is this quality—presence more than display—that she carries into Echoes of Memory

Houston-based pianist and conductor Teruhiko Toda has spent his career close to the singing voice: at the keyboard, in the coaching studio, and on the podium. He currently serves as staff accompanist at the University of Houston and at Lone Star College-Kingwood, and for several years was music director of Houston Grand Opera’s touring outreach program, Opera to Go!, which he led to wide success.

His work as a conductor and repetiteur spans two continents. With Opera in the Heights, he served as assistant conductor and head repetiteur for productions including Macbeth, Otello, La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, Anna Bolena, and Manon. In Tokyo, he was assistant conductor and repetiteur at the New National Theatre, preparing productions such as Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Die Meistersinger, and Tannhäuser, alongside Madama Butterfly and Così Fan Tutte, and he conducted L’Elisir d’Amore in 2007. His broader engagements include the RAI Torino Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, and the Nikikai Opera Foundation, with an operatic repertoire of more than sixty complete works.

Trained at the Tokyo College of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance and a graduate diploma in accompaniment, he returned there as an associate professor and coached opera students for a decade. He began his performing life as a soloist, giving a recital in Italy in 1996.

Over the years, he has partnered with many distinguished singers, among them Denyce Graves, Ryan McKinny, Kurt Moll, Stephen Gould, and the Metropolitan Opera soprano Michelle Bradley, and has worked under conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Gerd Albrecht, Dan Ettinger, and Philippe Auguin. He has performed for President George H. W. Bush, and in 2015 his article on Houston Grand Opera’s outreach program appeared in the Japanese classical music magazine Ongaku no Tomo.

For Echoes of Memory, he brings the sensitivity of a lifelong listener, pianist, and conductor who makes room for the voice and for silence.

Venezuelan cellist Benjamín Serur began his musical life at the age of five through El Sistema, Venezuela’s celebrated National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs. That tradition’s warmth and sense of ensemble still shape the attentive, generous, and grounded way he plays.

In 2016, he entered the Simón Bolívar Music Conservatory in Caracas, working with Maestros Francy Vásquez and Juan J. Romero, and the following year joined the Chacao Youth Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Ulyses Ascanio. In April 2018, he immigrated to the United States, where Courtenay Vandiver Pereira mentored him through his high school years.

Benjamín holds a bachelor’s degree in cello performance from the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, where he studied with Dr. Eunghee Cho, and is now pursuing a master’s degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University under Valentin Radutiu. He has held principal positions with the Moores School Symphony Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, and Cello Ensemble, as well as the Houston Youth Symphony and Virtuosi of Houston, with whom he performed at the Kennedy Center. He was a member of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) and a prize-winner in the Virtuosi of Houston concerto competition.

His festival appearances include the Maine Chamber Music Seminar, the Emerald Coast Chamber Music Festival, the International Cello Institute, the Texas Music Festival, and House of Cello, and he has studied in master classes with cellists such as Paul Katz, Desmond Hoebig, Brannon Cho, and Rhonda Rider. He performs widely across Houston, on stages including Zilkha Hall, Saengerhalle, and the Brown Theater.

To Echoes of Memory, he brings a young artist’s openness and a deep feeling for the cello’s singing, human voice.