Joel Revzen, Artistic Director

Previously at Arizona Opera: The Barber of Seville (2010), Arias (2010), La bohème (2010), Salome (2009), Tosca (2009), Don Giovanni (2009), The Mikado (2008), La traviata (2008), The Magic Flute (2008) 

Maestro Joel Revzen is an award-winning conductor and pianist who has been on the Metropolitan Opera conducting staff since 1999.  Revzen holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in conducting from The Juilliard School, where he was recipient of the Frank Damrosch Prize in Conducting.

From 1972-1984 Revzen served as Dean of the St. Louis Conservatory, where he led the growth and development of the school over a twelve year period and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate.

In 1984, at the invitation of Maestro Pinchas Zuckerman, Revzen moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota to assume the post of Assistant Conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a position he held until 1989.  During that same period, from 1982-1991, Mr. Revzen was on the conducting faculty of the Aspen Music Festival.

As Artistic Director of the Berkshire Opera in western Massachusetts from 1991-2003, Revzen led productions of more than twenty operas including a critically acclaimed world première of Stephen Paulus’s opera Summer, based on the Edith Wharton novella; Mozart’s The Magic Flute; Britten’s Rape of Lucretia; Verdi’s La traviata; Handel’s Semele; and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.

In 2003, Maestro Revzen was appointed Artistic Director of Arizona Opera (a post he currently holds) where he guides the artistic vision of the company, assists in securing financial support and conducts three of the five productions each season.

Revzen is a frequent guest conductor for leading symphonies and opera companies around the world, including the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Prague Symphony Orchestra' Prague Chamber Orchestra; Orchestre de Radio France; the Orchestra National de Lyon; Orchestre Capitole de Toulouse; National Theatre Mannheim, Germany; Kennedy Center Chamber Players; Minnesota Orchestra; Seattle Symphony; National Symphony; and Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, where he conducted a production of The Consul under the direction of composer Gian Carlo Menotti.

Maestro Revzen appeared as a guest conductor in the summer of 2005 for the White Nights Festival at the Marinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg in a Leonard Bernstein Gala, including the Serenade for solo violin and orchestra and two Suites from West Side Story.  In 2006-2007, he appeared as a guest conductor at the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado, debuted with Hawaii Opera Theatre in critically acclaimed performances of Madama Butterfly and  returned to the Metropolitan Opera to prepare Prokofiev’s War and Peace.

His recordings include two releases with the London Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a Mendelssohn recording with the Moscow Symphony, and a recording of works of Libby Larsen with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is both pianist and conductor on the Grammy Award winning recording The Art of Arleen Auger and has received critical acclaim for his recording of Menotti's The Consul. As a collaborative pianist, Revzen has appeared in recital with Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree, Sharon Robinson and the late Arleen Auger.  He was also heard on a “Saint Paul Sunday Morning” radio broadcast with the late Samuel Sanders performing and discussing music for four hand piano.