Richard Harrell

Associate Director

Richard Harrell currently serves as Director of Heroes’ Voices, a service organization for veterans.  Heroes’ Voices produces music and poetry workshops and facilitates collaborations with other service organizations that serve returning war veterans. Previously, he was the Director of the Juilliard Opera Center, the Director of the San Francisco Opera Center, Artistic Advisor and Head of Faculty for the Training Program of the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Artistic Consultant and Principal Stage Director for the Bangkok Opera, Director of the Opera Program for the San Francisco Conservatory and faculty for the Opera Studio of the Netherlands. As a stage director his past productions include Aida, The Barber of Seville, Cavalli’s La Calisto and L’Egisto, La Cenerentola, Cosí fan tutte, Doctor Miracle, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, Conrad Susa’s Don Perlimplin, L’Histoire du Soldat, The Impresario, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, The Magic Flute, Mahagonny Songspiel, The Marriage of Figaro, The Medium, The Merry Widow, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Orpheus in the Underworld, The Pearl Fishers, The Rake’s Progress, La Serva Padrona, Floyd’s Slow Dusk, Tosca, La Traviata, Trouble in Tahiti, and Suor Angelica, for companies including the Bangkok Opera, Gold Coast Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, the Juilliard School, Opera Company of North Carolina, Operafestival di Roma, Opera San Jose, Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Conservatory, the San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program.  A frequent judge for vocal competitions, he annually adjudicates for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  His essays on artist training and the business of opera appear in several Opera America publications.  He has been a stage director, voice teacher, and guest Master Class instructor at universities and training programs including Yale, Indiana University, Chautauqua Institution, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Works, Loyola University, Mannes School of Music, and the University of Florida. As a singer, baritone Mr. Harrell performed with such companies as the Washington Opera, Baltimore Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Skylight Opera Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre Company, Opera Omaha, New Jersey Symphony, Richmond Symphony and National Symphony. He recorded the role of Bernardo on the Deutsche Grammophon album of West Side Story with the composer conducting.