CHORUS

GREG RITCHEY – Assistant Conductor & Chorus Master

Greg Ritchey presently serves as Assistant Conductor & Chorus Master at Palm Beach Opera.   During his time at PBO, he has been Chorus Master for nineteen productions including Turandot, Don Giovanni, Thaïs, Fidelio, Otello, Pagliacci, Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, La Boheme, L’Italiana in Algeri, L’elisir d’Amore, Nabucco, Orfeo ed Euridice as well as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem.  He has also conducted the Family Performances of Carmen and Così fan tutte.

Mr. Ritchey also serves as Assistant Conductor at Opera Theater of Saint Louis where he recently conducted performances of  Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Hans Krasa’s Brundibar.  He was also Chorus Master for the European premiere of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket at Wexford Festival Opera.  He was Principal Coach for the American premiere of Rudolf Schecter’s Der Ferne Klang at the  Bard Music Festival and also at Dallas Opera’s opening gala performance at the new Winspear Opera House  and for their production of Otello.  He previously held music staff positions at Central City Opera, Virginia Opera, Sarasota Opera and Kentucky Opera. As the Music Director of the Dallas Gilbert & Sullivan Company he conducted performances of The Yeomen of the Guard, Pirates of Penzance, The Gondeliers, and a gala performance Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.  He has been guest conductor for Chamber Symphony of the Metrocrest, Southwest Opera Company, assistant conductor for El Paso Opera, conductor/coach for Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera North. His diverse conducting repertoire includes Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte, and Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortileges.

As a chamber musician, he has performed in recital with members of the Dallas Symphony in Mexico, in the US with renowned flautist Susan Milan and has twice appeared at the Vysočina Music Festival in the Czech Republic with soprano Lynn Eustis.  As a concert pianist Mr. Ritchey has performed in Scandinavia,  throughout Europe and the United States. This summer, he returns  to the Amalfi Coast Music Festival where he will conduct Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi and later will return to Ireland to appear in concert with the Wexford Festival Orchestra.

Mr. Ritchey holds a BM degree from the University of North Texas and the MM degree from the Juilliard School of Music where he was the recipient of the William Petschek Scholarship.  His primary piano teachers were Larry Walz, Martin Canin, and Pamela Paul and he studied conducting with Anshel Brusilow.  He has been on faculty at University of North Texas, Texas Christian University, and Louisiana State University and was the 2009 honoree of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Charles MacKay Career Development Fund.