Stephen Karr
Assistant Professor, Opera Musical Director
Education
- D.M.A., Doctor of Musical Arts, University of California, Los Angeles, 2020
- M.M., Master of Music, Instrumental Conducting, University of California, Los Angeles, 2009
- M.M., Master of Music, Organ Performance, Westminster Choir College, 2004
- B.M., Bachelor of Music, Mercer University, 2002
Biography
Karr is a compelling interpreter of opera and orchestral works, having appeared as
guest conductor in recent seasons with Anchorage Opera and Sacramento
Philharmonic and Opera. He has been on staff with opera companies across the United
States, including Des Moines Metro Opera’s OPERA Iowa tour, the
Glimmerglass Festival, Opera New Jersey and Palm Beach Opera.
His international appearances include the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman and an
appointment as Cultural Envoy from the United States Department of State to Rotterdam.
He was Associate Conductor with Long Beach Opera for the 2019 worldpremiere production
of The Central Park Five by Anthony Davis, which was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize
in Music, in addition to being scheduled to conduct The Lighthouse (Peter Maxwell
Davies) and Frida (Robert X. Rodriguez) in the COVIDtruncated 2020 season. He is a
co-editor of the first modern performing edition of Joseph Bologne’s L’Amant Anonyme,
which was premiered by LA Opera under James Conlon and has productions scheduled in
the 2021-22 season at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Wolf Trap Opera, the
Eastman School of Music, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Minnesota Opera.
In 2011, he co-founded Pacific Opera Project, for which he was music director until 2016. With POP, he led productions of Trouble in Tahiti, Così fan tutte, The Turn of the Screw, La Calisto (Los Angeles premiere), Ariadne auf Naxos and The Rake’s Progress, among many others. The LA Times praised his leadership of the Stravinsky as having kept orchestra, cast and chorus on “well-articulated rhythmic track.”
Karr’s repertoire spans nearly the entire history of opera, as well as significant
masterpieces of the orchestral repertoire. He is pleased to begin the role of Assistant
Professor of Music and Music Director of the opera program at the University of Memphis
in the 2022-23 academic year. Previously, he has taught at Chapman University, Michigan
State University, the University of Southern California and UCLA. His schooling includes
degrees in organ performance from Mercer University under Robert Parris and Westminster
Choir College under Stefan Engels, as well as master’s and doctoral degrees from UCLA
in
orchestral conducting, where his major teacher was Neal Stulberg.