LOS ANGELES (KABC) – The Los Angeles Opera has selected a Latina as their next resident conductor, a move OPERA America has called a “historic nomination.”

Conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados has traveled the world bringing operas and symphonies to life. After having been a conductor at the Seattle Symphony and more recently with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the native of the Colombian city of Cali is ready to settle in Los Angeles in 2022.

“Next season I’ll be doing opening night, the first production of a season which is a huge and important moment at the start of every year,” said Gonzalez-Granados.

In Boston, Gonzalez-Granados founded Unitas Ensemble, which performs works by Latin American composers and offers free performances. It was a response to the observation of the lack of representation. “For me, it’s a disaster, artistically, that we don’t have the visibility,” she said.

The award-winning conductor firmly believes that all music has the potential to be a classical piece. “In LA in general, it’s a city with such an explosion of multicultural resources. Our music is as valuable as our people,” said Gonzalez-Granados.

We had to ask ourselves: what’s on his playlist?

“I have very diverse tastes, and it’s like a direct reflection of my Colombian heritage because Colombia is extremely rich culturally,” she said. “From ‘Hamilton’, now with ‘Encanto’ – which is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen lately – to Queen to the Beatles, to ‘Barber of Seville.'”

As part of the LA Opera, Gonzalez-Granados will lead stage performances as well as other company programs like Off Grand, which takes the opera on the road to different venues.

“We share the same fundamental values ​​and we believe that music should be accessible to all,” she said. “And that being said, all of our music is important.”