George Steel is the director of the New York City Opera
Education:
BA in Music, Yale University, 1994
Studied at the American Conservatory of Music.
At the invitation of Leonard Bernstein, attended his conducting seminar at Tanglewood Institute
Background:
Born into a musical family, Mr. Steel began to perform regularly at age nine as a singer in the National Cathedral Choir in Washington, DC. Through the Choir, he met one of the formative influences on his career, Leonard Bernstein, and while still a student worked as Bernstein's production assistant on the revival of the composer's Mass. Mr. Steel subsequently attended Leonard Bernstein's conducting seminar at the Tanglewood Institute for four consecutive summers, 1986-1989. After attending St. Albans School in Washington, DC, Mr. Steel taught music and social studies at St. Augustine School of the Arts in the South Bronx and then attended Yale University, graduating with a BA in music in 1994.
Mr. Steel first made his mark in New York City as Managing Producer of the Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street YW-YMHA. From 1995 to 1997 he created a variety of new series (including Today's Composers and Dawn Upshaw's Voices of the Spirit), produced Haydn's Philemon and Baucis and Michael Korie and Stewart Wallace's Hopper’s Wife (the latter co-produced with the Long Beach Opera) and was responsible for budget, production, marketing, contract negotiations and artist relations.
Mr. Steel then became the Executive Director of the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, where over the course of an eleven-year tenure (1997-2008) he transformed this venue into one of New York's most acclaimed showcases for early and modern music. Among his many innovations at the Miller, he introduced full-scale opera productions with such notable works as the U.S. premiere of Iannis Xenakis's Oresteia, the New York stage premiere of Elliott Carter's What Next?, the U.S. stage premiere of Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway, and operatic works by Peter Maxwell Davies, John Eaton, Shirish Korde, Steve Mackey, Viktor Ullmann and The Gogmagogs. While at the Miller Theatre, he also commissioned new ballets by Edward Liang, Tom Gold, Brian Reeder, Luca Veggetti, Alison Chase and Amanda Miller and presented Christopher’s Wheeldon's Watching Ligeti Move. While programming 60 to 80 events a year, he took primary responsibility for fundraising, financial and personnel management, marketing, publicity, and facility planning.
Mr. Steel also has been active throughout this period as a conductor and performer, having founded the Vox Vocal Ensemble in 1995 and the Gotham City Orchestra in 1998. He has led these ensembles in performances of repertoire ranging from ancient Greek chant and Tallis to John Zorn and Julia Wolfe, at venues that include Carnegie Hall, Caramoor, Riverside Church and the Park Avenue Armory.
Most recently, Mr. Steel has served as the General Director of The Dallas Opera, a position to which he was appointed in August 2008.
George Steel has acted as a programming consultant to the Lincoln Center Festival 2000, where he programmed the Electronic Evolutions series; the Sacred Music series of the Holland Festival (2000-2001); and the World Trade Center Summer Music Festival 2001, which included the program "Leonard Bernstein's New York." He has served as a member of FACE, the French-American Cultural Exchange (2003-2006), and the Young Leaders Forum of the National Committee on US-China Relations (2005-2007). He chaired the Music Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts and performed committee service for the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, among others.
|
