Joel Revzen has served the Arizona Opera in Phoenix and Tuscon as its Principal Conductor and Artistic Director for the last eight years. He has conducted over 100 productions, featuring celebrated talent like Dolora Zajick, Christine Brewer, Stephanie Blythe, Greer Grimsley, Gordon Hawkins, and Nancy Gustafson, in a wide variety of pieces. In the 2010 to 2011 season, Revzen will produce Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, and Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio with the Arizona Opera, Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata with Opera Carolina, and lead a subscription program with The Phoenix Symphony featuring pieces from a number of artists.

Maestro Joel Revzen earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music The Juilliard School in New York City. Shortly after receiving his Master’s degree, he took a position at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music, acting as its Dean from 1972 to 1984. During that time, he increased the school’s enrollment from 11 students to 120 and its annual budget from $50,000 to more than $2.7 million.

From 1982 to 1991, Joel Revzen served on the conducting faculty of the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. While serving in that role, he also became the Assistant Conductor for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a position he continued to fill until 1989. In the years since, he has guest conducted at symphonies in countries around the world.

In 1992, Joel Revzen became the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Berkshire Opera in Massachusetts. He continued in this role until 2006, working for much of the time as part of conducting staff for the New York Metropolitan Opera, which he served for eight seasons beginning in 1999, and the Principal Conductor for the Arizona Opera, which he joined in 2003.

In addition to his live performance duties, Joel Revzen pursues an active recording career. He has produced recordings of Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons and the Mendelssohn Double Concerto, as well as recordings with Libby Larsen and Benita Valente. Revzen acted as pianist and conductor for The Art of Arleen Augér, a 1994 Grammy-winning recording.