Stephen Carr’s recent work as a stage director and educator has taken him across North America and Asia. He returned to South Korea last season for Lucia di Lammermoor with the Korean National Symphony and directed Die Fledermaus and Cavalleria Rusticana for Toronto City Opera. He made his Koerner Hall debut with the Royal Conservatory of Music’s most recent production of Dialogues des Carmélites with Maestro Nicolas Ellis. His all-new 2019 production of La Bohème for Daejeon Opera was hailed by Auditorium as “A significant milestone… A futuristic staging that remains grounded in realism, bringing both a new sense of intimacy and a surprising freshness to the piece. It breathes new vitality into this well-known storyline.”
Other recent international projects include Turandot and Tosca at the Seoul Arts Center under the batons of Maestro Julian Kovatchev and John Fiore, and Le Nozze di Figaro with Maestro Shao-Chia Lü and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. For Daegu Opera, he led an new production of Così fan tutte, featuring young artists from the conservatories of Vienna, Stuttgart, Milan, and Shanghai. Other overseas productions have included Japanese translations of Company, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Little Shop of Horrors in Tokyo. His additional credits include past directing engagements with the Washington National Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Opera North, Opera Naples, Ohio Light Opera, Eastman Opera Theatre, and Center City Opera of Philadelphia.
As a member of Actor’s Equity, Stephen’s performance credits include New York, touring, and regional productions of Ragtime, Cabaret (London), Jesus Christ Superstar (European Tour), and The Scarlet Pimpernel. He can be heard on recordings for the Newport Classics label. Stephen is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM Voice, MM Stage Directing), the Royal Academy of Music, London (PGD Musical Theatre, LRAM), and the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program of the Washington National Opera.
Stephen spent eight years as an Associate Professor of Opera and Musical Theatre Studies at the Eastman School of Music, as well as Associate Artistic Director of Eastman Opera Theatre. His productions at Eastman included Les Dialogues des Carmélites, which was awarded the American Prize for Stage Directing, and Into the Fire, a collection of staged chamber works by composer Jake Heggie. During the Covid pandemic, he programmed, staged, and filmed original programs of the solo vocal music of Missy Mazzoli, Ben Moore, and Anthony Davis, curated in collaboration with the composers. He has also served on the faculty of the Interlochen Summer Arts Institute and is a Visiting Professor of Musical Theatre at the Senzoku Gakuen Conservatory of Music in Tokyo, where he helped to create one of the leading undergraduate musical theatre programs in Asia.
Stephen currently lives in Toronto, where he pursuing PhD studies in musicology and ethnomusicology at York University. He serves as Director of Development and Engagement for Toronto City Opera and also teaches at the University of Toronto’s School of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music in downtown Toronto.