Christofer Macatsoris
Music Director
Maestro Macatsoris began his conducting career in Italy at the Conservatory in Milan. He went on to study conducting privately with such famed maestri as Fausto Cleva, Max Rudolf, and Tullio Serafin, and studied composition with Vincent Persichetti. Among his many performance credits are appearances with Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company, Pennsylvania Opera Company, San Francisco Opera Center, and numerous regional opera companies. In 1970, Max Rudolf invited him to The Curtis Institute of Music, where he taught and conducted for seven years.
Mr. Macatsoris was the music director of the weekly NBC-TV program, Opera Theatre, and was music director and conductor for two seasons with the Opera at Ambler Festival. As a pianist, he toured with Metropolitan Opera singers in recital programs.
As music director of The Academy of Vocal Arts since 1977, he has led critically acclaimed performances of Puccini's ll trittico and Madama Butterfly, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Britten's Albert Herring, which was broadcast on PBS. In addition, many operas received their Delaware Valley premieres at AVA under his baton, including Mozart's Idomeneo and La finta giardiniera, Handel's Deidamia, Strauss's Capriccio, Verdi's Un giorno di regno, Puccini's Edgar and Richard Wargo's A Chekhov Trilogy. Mr. Macatsoris has appeared at The International Corfu Festival, Greece, in 1981 and 1982, leading performances of The Rape of Lucretia, La sonnambula, Ariadne auf Naxos, and CosÌ fan tutte.
He has conducted in many regional American houses and has been on the conducting staff of San Francisco Opera Company. He is in great demand as a lecturer and for master classes, and has conducted them at major universities, including Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Loyola of New Orleans, and SUNY-Buffalo. He frequently serves as a panel judge for the National Council Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Macatsoris consistently earns high praise for his interpretive abilities and total commitment to excellent opera theater.
