Joel Revzen

Joel Revzen has his M.A. in Conducting from The Julliard School at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. He graduated in 1970 and was subsequently involved in the founding of the St. Louis Conservatory of Music, where he served as Dean from 1972 to 1984. During that period, he successfully built the Conservatory into an internationally recognized musical training institution with an annual budget of over $2.7 million. Maestro Revzen held the position of Assistant Conductor with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1984 to 1989. His work there led to two recordings of Haydn's Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten. Joel Revzen served as Pianist and Conductor with members of the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on the Grammy-winning The Art of Arleen Augér for Koch International Classics. From 1982 to 1991, he served as a Conducting Faculty Member of the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. In 1992, Maestro Revzen joined the Berkshire Opera in Massachusetts as Conductor and Artistic Director, a position he maintained for 14 years. His accomplishments with the Berkshire Opera included a groundbreaking recording of Menotti’s The Consul and the world premiere of Steve Paulus’ Summer. In 1999, Joel Revzen accepted a position on the Metropolitan Opera’s conducting staff. Over the course of eight seasons, he assisted the New York company in high-profile productions such as Prokofiev’s War and Peace and Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. Maestro Revzen accepted his current position as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Arizona Opera in 2003. Over nearly a decade with the company, he has directed more than 100 performances, ranging from Handel's Semele to Strauss' Salome. In the fall of 2010, he conducted Bizet's Carmen with Arizona Opera, and he will lead the Orlando Philharmonic in Verdi’s Rigoletto in early 2012. He has additional guest-conducting appearances scheduled for 2012, with Germany’s Theater Erfurt and Italy’s Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.

In keeping with his commitment to the classical arts, Maestro Revzen has served as a Board Member for the national service organization OPERA America, and he maintains membership with the League of American Orchestras. He supports the online micro-financing strategies of Kiva and the efforts of Smile Train, which performs cleft lip and palate surgery.