Christopher Larkin
2006 District Judge

This past year Christopher Larkin made his Wexford (Ireland) Festival Opera debut, conducting Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, a production which The Times (London) called “…the undoubted hit of the festival” in, “…from an artistic point of view, the most successful Wexford for more than a decade.” Other recent projects have included Dialogues des Carmelites with Fort Worth Opera and L’Italiana in Algieri with Lake George Opera. This coming season he makes debuts with Utah Opera, Florentine Opera and The Music Academy of the West.

Maestro Larkin has appeared as a guest conductor with many major opera companies throughout North America. His conducting credits include Washington Opera (Samson et Dalila, I Puritani), New York City Opera (Don Giovanni, La Bohème), Santa Fe Opera (La Traviata), Houston Grand Opera (Tosca, Roméo et Juliette, Le Nozze di Figaro), and Portland Opera (Il Viaggio a Reims, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail), among others. He has led the world premieres of Mark Adamo’s Little Women and Michael Daugherty’s Jackie O and has appeared with Boston Lyric Opera to conduct Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars and the East Coast premiere of Tod Machover’s Resurrection. Maestro Larkin has also traveled to Japan for the past several summers to conduct a program of opera scenes with the young singers at the New National Theatre, Tokyo.

He is the former Music Director of the New York City Opera National Company. During his tenure with that company, he led national tours of Madama Butterfly and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Prior to coming to New York, he held the position of Associate Conductor with Houston Grand Opera where he conducted the highly acclaimed multi-media productions of Carmen, Madama Butterfly, and I Pagliacci.

Maestro Larkin has also worked as an Assistant Conductor and vocal coach with several major opera companies in North America, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia,

Vancouver Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company.

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