Based in Vienna, Austria, Eric Melear enjoys a diverse career as a conductor and pianist, working regularly on multiple continents and with a wide variety of singers and companies. A member of the music staffs at both the Vienna State Opera and The Metropolitan Opera, he has guest conducted at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival and at numerous U.S. opera houses, including Houston Grand Opera, Arizona Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, among others. Mr. Melear has also long been a champion of young artists, having led Studios at both Houston Grand Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, as well as serving as a guest coach for programs and universities in the U.K., Italy, and the U.S. 

 

Since returning to the Vienna State Opera full-time in 2015, Mr. Melear has conducted performances of Die Entführung ins Zauberreich, Wagner’s Nibelungen Ring for Children and Pünktchen und Anton and assisted Zubin Mehta, Peter Schneider, Simone Young, among many others. Sharing the duties of preparing the 45-50 operas a season, he also conducts the full-time stage orchestra, regularly coaches the ensemble of singers and the newly created Studio program, and can be seen in recitals and featured on continuo. 

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This season Melear is again on the podium for performances of Das verfluchte Geisterschiff and assisting and conducting stage music for productions of Le grand macabre, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Don Pasquale, Lohengrin, Die Frau ohne Schatten, among others.

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"Eric Melear conducted with confidence and sensitivity, drawing highly-charged playing from the orchestra in a performance that felt like a new artistic milestone for Wolf Trap.”

– Opera Magazine (UK)

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“... [The singers] also sang the heck out of Gassmann's sparkling, witty score (pruned down from four hours to under three), supported firmly by Eric Melear's lithe, nuanced conducting and the orchestra's spirited playing."

– Opera News

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“In the pit, conductor Eric Melear drew nuanced,

colorful playing from the orchestra."

– Opera Today

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