Luke Housner, Musical Director

Mr. Housner maintains a balanced schedule between opera and choral experience with a combination of vocal coaching, extensive performing, opera assembling, choral preparation, and musical direction. Mr. Housner joined The Academy of Vocal Arts music faculty and the Curtis Institute of Music opera department in 1996. Over that time span, he has assisted renowned voice teachers including Bill Schuman, Ruth Golden, Patricia Misslin, the late Ted Puffer, and the late Louis Quilico.
A native of western Massachusetts, Mr. Housner earned a master’s degree of music in vocal accompanying and coaching from University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana with instruction from internationally acclaimed vocal coach John Wustman. Previously, he received a Bachelor’s Degree of Music, with a double major in piano performance and vocal accompanying from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
At AVA, Mr. Housner musically prepared, musically directed, and performed from the piano a conductor-less, fully-staged production of Strauss’ Elektra in 2004 and Wagner’s Das Rheingold in 2006. He will do the same with Vanessa. Recent engagements for Mr. Housner include principal vocal coach for a production of Turandot featuring sopranos Jennifer Welch-Babidge and AVA alumna Othalie Graham in the summer of 2005 at Utah Festival Opera in Logan. In February 2005, Mr. Housner served as assistant musical director for Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at AVA. In January 2005, Mr. Housner musically prepared Wagner’s Parsifal, Act III for Philadelphia Orchestra’s Christoph Eschenbach’s coachings with Matthias Hölle, Andreas Schmidt, and John Keyes.

The Student Prince is Mr. Housner's debut with Concert Operetta Theater.