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STEVEN OSGOOD is currently in his second season as Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.  He recently resigned as Artistic Director of American Opera Projects after leading the company for 7 years.  He is a regular guest conductor with companies across North America, and maintains active relationships with many of the United States’ foremost conservatories.  He is experienced in standard and non-standard as well as contemporary operatic repertoire, as is reflected in his 2007/08 schedule.  He conducted Lukas Foss’ Griffelkin at Manhattan School of Music in December-- his sixth production with the school.  He will act as Assistant Conductor for the Metropolitan Opera’s productions of La Traviata, and Phillip Glass’ Satyagraha, as well as the revival of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor, which he prepared for last season’s world premiere.  With American Opera Projects he conducted several workshops, including Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness, Conrad Cummings’ The Golden Gate, and Stephen Schwartz's Seance on a Wet Afternoon.  He will also lead the company’s nationally recognized Composers and the Voice Workshop Series as it enters its fifth season of fostering exceptional vocal writing from some of today’s most exciting emerging composers.

Steve began his piano studies at the age of 4, and in addition to being an active singer he played a variety of instruments, including clarinet, french horn, trumpet, and an extremely brief stint on the tuba.  His first love though was the theater, and he decided to pursue a career as actor and director.  After completing his undergraduate studies at Drew University he moved to New York City to join the Irondale Ensemble, an experimental theater company which uses improvisation as both a teaching tool and to build new company-developed productions based on classic plays.  While an actor with Irondale, Mr. Osgood would also become the company’s first full time Music Director, and helped create many pieces with which the company would tour the United States and Russia.

During his five years with the Irondale Ensemble, Steve was also exploring the operatic repertoire, to which he had not been exposed before.  The operas of Wagner, Puccini and Verdi were an irresistible call, and he decided to leave Irondale to explore his career options as an operatic pianist, coach, and aspiring conductor.  His first professional experience was as apprentice coach and pianist with Opera North in New Hampshire.  This led to private studies with Susan Almasi and positions with New York City’s Amato Opera, Bronx Opera, and the New Amsterdam Singers.  He prepared and accompanied the world premiere of Sorel Hayes’ The Glass Woman with Encompass Opera, which was his introduction to contemporary opera as well as John Yaffe, who would become his formative conducting teacher, and who would later introduce him to American Opera Projects.

Steve’s career as a pianist and conductor continued to grow in the following years.  Tony Amato would give him his first performances as conductor, beginning with Die Fledermaus, and following soon after with Falstaff.  Steve would go on to conduct performances of each of the companies operas in the following season.  Steve would also spend three summers at the Lake George Opera Festival, first as coach and accompanist, and later growing to positions of Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master.  During this time he also began working with American Opera Projects, initially conducting a performance of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and then going on to music direct several of the company’s First Chance workshops.

Contemporary opera quickly became a dominant force in Steve’s work.  He was introduced to Tan Dun, and was soon engaged to prepare the world premiere production of Tan’s first opera Marco Polo.  Steve was called upon to make the piano reduction of the full score, work closely with Tan in the coaching of the cast, accompany rehearsals, and supervise the premiere at the Munich Bienalle.  He would go on to be Assistant Conductor for performances at the Huddersfield Festival, London’s Barbican Center, Amsterdam (where he was also Assistant Producer for the SONY recording), and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.  Tan would next invite Steve to conduct the world premiere production of his second opera Peony Pavilion with Peter Sellars directing.  This production would go on to tour Vienna, London, Rome, Paris, and finish in Berkeley.  During the following years Steve would work closely with Tan in many of his concert works, conducting Orchestral Theater II with the Gulbenkian Festival in Lisbon, and the Crouching Tiger Concerto with the ??? Festival in California.  Steve’s collaboration with Tan most recently resulted in his being engaged as Assistant Conductor for the world premiere production of Tan’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera during the 2006/07 season.

In 1996 Steve was invited to conduct a workshop of Peter Lieberson’s opera Ashoka’s Dream, commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera.  This workshop led to his being engaged as Assistant Conductor of the world premiere production in Santa Fe the following season.  His relationship with Santa Fe Opera would continue for the next 8 years, and he would act as Assistant Conductor for many productions, including Wozzeck, Dialogues of the Carmelites, the American premieres of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, and Hans Werner Henze’s Venus und Adonis, as well as the world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Madame Mao.

Steve conducted many operas in progress with American Opera Projects, including Rusty Magee’s Flurrytale, Jan Hamer’s Lost Childhood, and Kitty Brazelton’s Fireworks. Paula Kimper’s Patience and Sarah gained the attention of the Lincoln Center Festival over the course of its workshops, and Steve would go on to conduct its world premiere there in 1998. Lost Childhood would result in Steve’s introduction to New York City Opera, when he conducted two scenes from the opera at the company’s VOX orchestral readings.  In later seasons he conducted VOX readings of works by Patrick Soluri, James Stepleton and Bright Sheng.  He went on to make his mainstage debut with NYCO in 2003 conducting La boheme.

Steve’s reputation for deftly handling complex contemporary scores has grown steadily.  He conducted the world premiere of Jonathan Sheffer’s Blood on the Dining Room Floor in its critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run.  He has conducted Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, and the American premiere of the chamber version of Tobias Picker’s Therese Raquin at DiCapo Opera Theater.  His debut with Edmonton Opera was in 2005, conducting the award-winning Robert LePage production of Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung, for which he was nominated for a Sterling Award. 

The training of young singers has been a consistent aspect of Steve’s career.  He led touring productions of Die Fledermaus and Don Giovanni for Western Opera Theater.  He has conducted 6 productions at the Juilliard School, ranging from La Calisto to The Turn of the Screw, as well as Werther at Rice University.  He maintains an active relationship with Manhattan School of Music, where he has conducted Der Wildschutz, as well as Lee Hoiby’s rarely heard A Month in the Country, a recording of which is available on Albany Records.  In 2005 Steve was Music Director of the Intermezzo Opera Program, conducting Mark Adamo’s Little Women and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, and in 2006 he conducted Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto with San Francisco Opera’s Merola program. 

Steve is also personally invested in the development of emerging composers, and in the 2002/03 season he designed and launched American Opera Projects’ now nationally recognized Composers and the Voice Series.  This yearlong workshop series accepts 6 composers each season, to work closely with Steve and AOP’s resident ensemble of singers focusing on effective vocal writing.  Alumni of the Composers and the Voice program have gone on to win important awards, most notably the Douglas Moore Fellowship, and a commission from the Bang On A Can People’s Commissioning Fund.  The workshop series has also proven to be a fertile breeding ground for new works, as several composers each year have had their pieces continue in development at AOP. 

Most recently Steve conducted the world premiere of Jan Hamer’s Lost Childhood at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, in a production directed by Ned Canty.  He also conducted the American premiere of Monteverdi’s Orfeo in a realization made by Respighi at the end of his life.  These landmark performances were part of the 2007 Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival in Wintergreen, Virginia.