Performance Year: 2026
A highly respected pianist, conductor, and coach internationally, Kathleen Kelly is both deeply experienced in the classical vocal canon and engaged in new creation, with projects and repertoire ranging from from Mozart to newly-commissioned works by her peers. Recent notable projects include a recording with soprano Emily Albrink of four world premiere song cycles, conducting the world premiere of Matt Bohler’s opera FAT PIG (composed for activist soprano Tracy Cox), and the filmed opera Interstate, composed by Kamala Sankaram and co-authored and performed by Kathleen and soprano Jennifer Cresswell.
Kelly began her career at San Francisco Opera before beginning a long association with the Metropolitan Opera. Following tenures as Head of Music at Houston Grand Opera and Music Director of Berkshire Opera, she was appointed Director of Musical Studies at the Vienna State Opera, the first woman and first American in that position. Since returning to the United States in 2015, Kelly has conducted at the Glimmerglass Festival, Wolf Trap Opera, Arizona Opera, El Paso Opera, Opera Columbus, Merola Opera Program, and Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. She has also been a regular visiting coach for the prestigious young artist programs of Lyric Opera of Chicago, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company.
Kathleen has performed internationally as a pianist in collaboration with leading singers, including Christine Goerke, Albina Shagiumuratova, Joyce DiDonato, and Susan Graham, and has appearanced at such venues as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She is a published poet and essayist, and has written several English adaptations of operas as well as several librettos. Her English adaptation of Hansel and Gretel, commissioned by Tri-Cities Opera, is now in use alongside her chamber-orchestra arrangement of the work. For Arizona Opera, she created a multilingual version of Emmerich Kálmán’s Arizona Lady, and she also wrote the libretto for Wolf Trap Opera’s world premiere of Listen, Wilhelmina!, a children’s opera with music by David Hanlon.
