Biography
With more than twenty-five years in the field of Opera, JoAnn Kulesza has often been called a 'singer's conductor'. Beginning her career as coach/accompanist at the Hochschule "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, Austria, Ms. Kulesza's experience encompasses major Opera companies in the United States, Summer Festivals, Young Artist Programs and academic institutions. San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, National Opera Company and Wolf Trap Opera comprise the list.
Ms. Kulesza is presently Music Director of the Opera Department at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD. The Department produces between six and ten performances a year, serving over one hundred singers. With her years of experience in the professional world, she provides an important aspect of the aspiring professionals' training. Well versed in Opera's vast repertoire, she teaches classes in recitative, repertoire and works with collaborative pianists and conductors at the school. She team-teaches a seminar in Opera Conducting with the master teacher Gustav Meier.
A life-long lover of choral music, Ms.Kulesza worked with the renowned Margaret Hillis at the Chicago Symphony Chorus and as assistant to Chorus Master Philip Morehead at the Chicago Lyric Opera. She presently conducts the Arundel Vocal Arts Society, a chorus of 35-45 members, in two concerts of a wide variety of repertoire; she is in her fifth year as Music Director of this ensemble.
Since entering the conducting realm in 2004, Ms. Kulesza has conducted three world premieres, led as well as played continuo for productions of Mozart, Rossini, and Britten. She has worked with some of the most notable conductors in the field – Loren Maazel, George Manahan, Heinz Fricke, Stephen Lord, Margaret Hillis – and is in demand as a clinician and educator around the country. She makes her Opera Omaha debut in February '11, conducting and playing continuo for Mozart's Don Giovanni.
In her precious free time, JoAnn enjoys the Chesapeake Bay with her husband Bill on their 25' Catalina sailboat, Rhapsody, crossword puzzles and 'play dates' with her two grandchildren, Tommy and Abigail.
