Auditions & Career Guidance
Matthew A. Epstein spent the 2010-11 season teaching audition techniques and career development at the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Oper Frankfurt, English National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program, and the Santa Fe Opera. In past seasons he served in the same capacity at Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Mannes School of Music, and Yale University, among others.
In 2010 Mr. Epstein retired as the director of Columbia Artists Vocal, ending a long association with Columbia Artists Management that began in 1972.
Mr. Epstein was artistic director of Lyric Opera of Chicago from May 1999 to April 2005. He previously served as artistic consultant and later artistic advisor to general directors Carol Fox and Ardis Krainik, and to Lyric's first artistic director, Bruno Bartoletti.
As general director of the Welsh National Opera (1991-94), Mr. Epstein was the first American to run an opera company in Great Britain. From 1988 until 1990, he was artistic director of BAM Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As an artistic consultant, he has also worked with San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Carnegie Hall, Sony Classical, and BMG/RCA Records.
Mr. Epstein has served as manager to many celebrated artists, including Kathleen Battle, Rockwell Blake, Ileana Cotrubas, Mark Delavan, Reneé Fleming, Susan Graham, Marjana Lipovsek, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Madga Olivero, Felicity Palmer, Ruggiero Raimondi, Samuel Ramey, Neil Shicoff, Elisabeth Söderström, Tatiana Troyanos, Frederica von Stade, and Music Academy alumni Isabel Leonard ('05) and Alek Shrader ('06 and '08). Throughout his career, he has been especially interested in and identified with the career development of American singers, conductors, and stage directors.
Mr. Epstein served as a Music Academy faculty member from 1997 to 2009.