American pianist/conductor Stephen Hopkins has completed eleven seasons as a Solokorrepetitor (pianist/coach) and stage music conductor at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) and has appeared in concert on the international stage from the United States to Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Slovakia, and Austria. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Music from Yale University in 2006 and his Master's Degree in Piano Accompanying and Coaching from Westminster Choir College in 2008. Mr. Hopkins secured his first professional engagement when he won the Young Musicians in Performance Competition in 2000 and performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the South Shore Symphony of Long Island, New York the same year.  He has since been featured as a solo and collaborative pianist on both WQXR, the Classical Music Radio Station of New York City and KUHF, Houston’s Public Radio Station. Throughout his collegiate career, he coached, accompanied, and conducted several operas and was subsequently engaged by Houston Grand Opera as a studio artist for two seasons.
 

            Since his arrival in Vienna in 2010, he has musically prepared dozens of productions with many prominent singers, including Roberto Alagna, Plácido Domingo, Juan Diego Flórez, George Gagnidze, Elīna Garanča, Véronique Gens, Peter Mattei, Erin Morley, Inva Mula, Leo Nucci, Patricia Petibon, Erwin Schrott, Anne Schwanewilms, Pietro Spagnoli, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Ramón Vargas, and Pretty Yende. Additionally, his versatility at the keyboard has enabled him to perform regularly on the Hammerklavier (fortepiano), organ, harmonium, and harpsichord (cembalo) in many important venues such as the Wiener Staatsoper and the Musikverein.

            Mr. Hopkins has conducted the Vienna State Opera Stage Orchestra each season since 2013 both backstage and in children’s opera adaptations and chamber music works including Undine by Albert Lortzing, Iván Eröd's Pünktchen und Anton, Patchwork op. 83 by Tristan Schulze, Alma Deutscher's Cinderella, Le Carnaval des Animaux by Saint-Saens, as well as Was ist los bei den Enakos? by Elisabeth Naske. In July 2022, he will return to Oberaudorf, Germany for the sixth time as a master class teacher and guest coach with Musiktheater Bavaria.

            Acclaimed for his 'fine and sensitive' recitative playing on the fortepiano with the Vienna Philharmonic in both Die Presse (a highly regarded Austrian newspaper) and Opera News, Mr. Hopkins has quickly become a recognized musical presence as a promising conductor, a distinguished coach, and an accomplished pianist.