Faculty

Lisa Sylvester, pianist/coach/conductor, is Chair of Vocal Arts & Opera at the USC Thornton School of Music. She teaches courses in diction, vocal repertoire and collaborative piano on USC Thornton’s Vocal Arts faculty. She is also faculty coach at OperaViva!, a summer training program for young singers in Verona, Italy. Sought after as a coach and recital collaborator, Sylvester has also given presentations and performances at the conventions and symposiums of the National Opera Association, National Association Teachers of Singing, Classical Singer, the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society and the Song Collaborators’ Consortia. She has been associated with the acclaimed Long Beach Opera where she has served as assistant conductor/orchestral pianist in their main stage productions of works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Leos Janacek and Osvaldo Golijov, among others. She also served as the music director for LBO’s Educational Outreach production of The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigori Frid.

An advocate for new vocal music, Sylvester has been on the creative teams for several new works. She recently conducted scenes for a new opera in progress with Beth Morrison Projects at USC Thornton. She has also conducted scenes from Julia Adolphe’s So Donia Speaks on Chamber Music Palisades, and was music director/conductor for Teresa Levelle’s aLtered sTates on the RealNewArts Foundation series. She served as assistant conductor for two world premieres produced by First Look Sonoma: Caliban Dreams by Clark Syprynowicz and Daughter of the Red Tsar by Lisa Scola Prosek. She is a mentor and pianist for the Prima Voce Emerging Artist Series, curated by Mark Saltzman, where she has premiered several works for voice and piano by composers such as Derrick Skye, Juhi Bansal, Thomas Kotcheff, Mingja Chen, Jordan Nelson and Julia Adolphe, among others.