Beginning his American career in Savannah years ago with the Sherrill Milnes VOICE Programs, Santiago Ballerini is now recognized in the Americas as one of the leading tenors in bel canto repertoire. Ballerini hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has sung in all major opera houses in South and North America. He most recently covered the roles of Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and appeared in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón as il Tenor Italiano in Strauss’s Der RosenKavalier and at Teatro Argentino as Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Ballerini is a regular performer with The Atlanta Opera and continues to work with the Savannah VOICE Festival, who is co-producing this event. In this SMF debut, he is accompanied by renowned pianist Howard Watkins—a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians both on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at The Metropolitan Opera.