Stephanie Rhodes is an active coach and collaborator, working with opera companies and singers around the world. An assistant conductor at Washington National Opera, her 2014-2015 season is a diverse one, beginning with Francesca Zambello’s production of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, and including The Little Prince (Rachel Portman) and Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc). Previous seasons have included productions of Verdi’s La forza del destino, American-composer Jake Heggie’s acclaimed opera Moby Dick, and Werther (Massenet). 2014-15 also marks Ms. Rhodes debut with LA Opera where she assists on the double bill of Dido and Aeneas and Bluebeard’s Castle, and returns to Florencia en el Amazonas.

As a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright award, Ms. Rhodes spent the 2012-2013 season at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia and now returns to Moscow each season as a guest coach for productions and a teacher in the Bolshoi Young Artist Programme. As a Russian enthusiast, she recently served as Russian diction coach for Arizona Opera’s Eugene Onegin, presenting a public masterclass on Russian art song with members of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio. She has taught Russian diction seminars in young artist programs across the country and was recently commissioned to create a Russian transliteration of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta by the Dallas Opera, where she is a member of music staff. This season Ms. Rhodes will assist music director Emmanuel Villaume on Iolanta and serve as a pianist for the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. Previous seasons at Dallas have seen her at the harpsichord for Rossini’s Barber of Seville, and as an assistant on La traviata, Magic Flute and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt. Last season she made her debut on the Winspear Opera House stage, performing in recital with tenor Jay Hunter Morris.

Additional engagements have included The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky), Rigoletto and La traviata (Verdi) with Utah Opera, a residency at Seattle Opera as guest coach and pianist for the Young Artist Program’s Werther (Massenet) and a foray into American opera with Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at Tulsa Opera, and Nixon in China (Adams) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Ms. Rhodes is a regular member of the summer music staff at Wolf Trap Opera, where she serves as a chorusmaster, conductor and frequent recitalist. Recent summer seasons involved collaboration with the National Symphony Orchestra and Tony award-winning conductor Larry Blank on Sweeney Todd, as well as productions of Rossini’s Il turco in Italia, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Verdi’s Falstaff and Stravinksy’s The Rake’s Progress. Past summers have included fellowships with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and staff positions with the International Vocal Arts Institute – Tel Aviv and Centro Studi Italiani in Urbania, Italy.

Passionate about the training of young singers, Ms. Rhodes was a faculty member of the inaugural Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy and a guest coach for the HGO High School Voice Studio. A frequent performer on the Rienzi Recital Series—a collaboration with Houston’s MFA—she has appeared in recital with some of the world’s rising opera stars.

The recipient of a San Francisco Opera Career Grant, Ms. Rhodes continues her individual studies as a conductor and linguist. Her wide range of musical endeavors includes humanitarian work and some of her most cherished performances were given in hospitals throughout Uganda and Kenya with a Reach the Children expedition. She is a graduate of the prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio and holds a master’s degree in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Utah State University. Her teachers include Martin Katz, Richard Bado, and Gary Amano.