Philip Lauriat has more than 30 years experience in the world of opera as conductor, producer and stage director. Artistic Director of Granite State Opera for ten years, he has led more than forty productions of operas to acclaim from local, national and international critics.
In concert, he led Frederica von Stade’s first performance of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder and Patricia Racette’s first performance of Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915. He led a workshop of Oscar Wilde, a new opera by Thomas Oboe Lee, which was featured on Public Radio International’s Here and Now.
From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Lauriat was also Music Director of the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra. In those four seasons, he built this civic orchestra into a significant musical entity, with performances of standard orchestral repertoire, such as Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, and lighter classics, including the world premier of the Dangerous Crosswinds Suite (Jeff Rapsis, composer) from the 2005 film Dangerous Crosswinds.
As a guest conductor and stage director, his credits include Baltimore’s Opera Vivente, Boston Midsummer Opera, Geneva Light Opera, Savoyard Light Opera Company, and the Keene (NH) Chamber Orchestra. In July, 1998, he made his European conducting debut with Le Nozze di Figaro at the East Slovakian State Opera, Košice, Slovakia. In July, 2009, he conducted the premier of A Crime of Righteousness, a new opera by Ellen Schwindt. He is currently finishing a new vocal score of Verdi’s Macbeth, the 1847 version.
Mr. Lauriat studied conducting with the late Dr. Georg Tintner, a student of Felix Weingartner and noted Brucknerian. He studied orchestral conducting and voice at Eastman School of Music and Westminster Choir College. He has performed under Erich Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim. He has conducted on WGBH radio, PRI’s Here and Now, and CNN, and was the host of The Opera Hour on Concord, NH radio station WKXL for several years.