Music Director

Prompter & Coach, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Metropolitan Opera, Australian Opera, Oper der Stadt Köln, Semper Oper Dresden

Kathryn Wright is an American coach/prompter living and working in Germany. She received her training at McGill University in Montreal, as well as under Joan Dornemann in New York.

She is currently engaged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, under the musical leadership of Christian Thielemann. She is looking forward to a guest engagement this coming season at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, assisting Maestra Young on a new production of Simone Boccanegra.

Her credentials include four years at the Oper der Stadt Köln under James Conlon, two years at the Semper Oper in Dresden under Giuseppe Sinopoli, and four years as a guest artist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, working with conductors such as Peter Schneider, Adam Fisher, Carlo Rizzi and James Levine, as well as artists such as Deborah Voigt, Jennifer Larmore, and Ben Heppner.

From 1996 to 2003 she was also a guest in Sydney for the Winter Season of the Australian Opera, involved with musical preparation for the company on many levels. She has prepared, assisted and prompted for many individual productions, the most recent being a new Otello from Harry Kupfer, with Simone Young conducting and Elena Prokhina as Desdemona. She has also worked extensively with the Young Artists of the company, helping to further their development.

“I jumped at the chance to be Musical Director of TOP mostly because I was eager to work with really young singers again, kids just putting their feet on the path to a career, because it was something I hadn't done much of since I started working at major houses like the Met and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Not only did I miss it, but in the meantime I had come to appreciate from the other side how necessary it is that young, untried voices get the very best information from the beginning. The operatic world moves too fast these days for anything else, and the competition is bigger and better than ever. If a fledgling singer could really understand how big the gap is between the first tentative beginnings and where they want to go, many of them would probably never start! Those of us who have been through it, and who do know, know also how much help, support, and first class information is required, even for the kind of bright, eager and talented youngsters we have gotten in our first two years of existence.
“TOP is not the kind of summer program that mushrooms up and disappears after a couple of seasons. We have a really dedicated and experienced staff and we set high standards for our students. We offer the right learning environment in a stunning natural environment and we send young opera singers, after a really intense three weeks, back out into the world better prepared to meet its demands, and much more confident of their abilities.”