Stephen Karr

Conductor, Coach, Collaborative Pianist

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, STEPHEN KARR is a compelling interpreter of opera and orchestral works, and is in demand as a conductor and keyboardist. He is opera music director at the University of Memphis, where he has led an ambitious program since 2022, inaugurating the Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center as its new venue in 2023. He debuted with Opera Memphis and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra with The Falling and the Rising in 2023.

Previously, he was Associate Conductor at Long Beach Opera from 2018-2021, where he was scheduled to conduct Frida and The Lighthouse in spring 2020. With Frida, he made his debut with Anchorage Opera in Alaska in February 2020. In 2011, he co-founded Pacific Opera Project, for which he was music director until 2016. With POP, he led productions of Trouble in Tahiti, Così fan tutte, The Turn of the Screw, La Calisto (LA premiere), Ariadne auf Naxos and The Rake’s Progress, among others. The LA Times praised his performance of the Stravinsky as having kept orchestra, cast and chorus on “well-articulated rhythmic track.” He has worked as the music director for the OPERA Iowa tour, and been on music staff with the Glimmerglass Festival, Opera New Jersey and Palm Beach Opera.

Karr has taught at Chapman University, Michigan State University, USC and UCLA. His schooling includes degrees in organ (Mercer University and Westminster Choir College) and orchestral conducting (UCLA). He lives in Midtown Memphis with his wife, Hannah Waldman, and their children Leonard and Eleanor.

Spotlight 2025:

Conductor, La traviata

Collaborative Pianist, Cavalleria rusticana