Berkshire Opera
Life has a soundtrack.

Ryan Taylor, general director

A baritone and a native of Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Taylor has over twenty-five roles to his credit, having performed with Fort Worth Opera, Dayton Opera, Opera Carolina, Atlanta Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center. In concert, Mr. Taylor has appeared with the Reno Philharmonic, Napa Valley Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, New York Festival of Song, and the National Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves as General Director of the Southeastern Festival of Song (SEFoS), an organization he co-founded in 2003. With SEFoS, he has developed over twenty-six unique concert presentations, provided over a dozen educational programs for students ranging from kindergarten through the graduate level, and collaborated with many prominent arts organizations, casting and producing concerts, ballet, and opera.

Kathleen Kelly, artistic director

This season, Kathleen Kelly returns to the Houston Grand Opera with the dual titles Head of Music Staff and Music Director of the HGO Studio. She continues as Music Director of the Berkshire Opera in Pittsfield MA, where in August she led performances of La Bohéme. Her HGO podium debut was last season’s critically acclaimed Hansel and Gretel, which she led in her own arrangement for chamber ensemble. Ms. Kelly is a special visiting artist at the Peabody Conservatory. She has been a guest coach for the Lindemann Young Artist Program and at the University of Michigan, and a master class clinician at Baylor University, Arizona State University, and the University of Washington. Ms. Kelly served for nearly a decade as a coach and prompter at the Metropolitan Opera. Her long association with the San Francisco Opera includes her training in the Merola Opera Program. She was Director of Musical Studies for the Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artists in 2000 and 2001. Ms. Kelly is married to Paul Chuey, a writer.