Stephen Hopkins

© Wiener Staatsoper / Michael Pöhn

American pianist Stephen Hopkins has been solo répétiteur, stage music conductor and deputy musical studies director at the Vienna State Opera since 2010 and musical studies director since the 2022/23 season. Previously, he spent two years as répétiteur and stage music conductor in the opera studio of the Houston Grand Opera.

He received his bachelorʼs degree in music from Yale University and his masterʼs degree in piano accompaniment and coaching from Westminster Choir College. He received his first professional engagements after winning the 2000 Young Musicians in Performance competition and performing Griegʼs Piano Concerto in A Minor with the South Shore Symphony.

Further concert appearances have taken him to the USA, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Slovakia and Austria. His versatility on keyboard instruments has allowed him to perform on fortepiano, organ, harmonium and harpsichord. His most recent appearance was on the fortepiano at the Vienna Musikverein in Haydn's The Seasons as a guest of the Tonkünstler Orchestra and Ivor Bolton, with whom he has enjoyed a long musical friendship as harpsichordist since a joint production of Gluckʼs Alceste with the Freiburger Barockorchester. He also made his harpsichord debut at the Vienna Musikverein with Elisabeth Kulman and the Ensemble Wien. He also played there with the Wiener Virtuosen and accompanied various recitals on the piano, including with Andrea Carroll and Svetlina Stoyanova.

He also works as a conductor for childrenʼs opera productions at the Vienna State Opera. Engagements as assistant conductor under Sascha Goetzel, Guillermo García Calvo and Cornelius Meister have taken him to the Opéra National de Lorraine in France, the Ópera de Oviedo in Spain, the Vienna Academic Philharmonic Orchestra and the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra. In July 2022, he has been invited for the sixth time as a masterclass leader and guest accompanist at Musiktheater Bavaria.

Praised by Opera News and Die Presse for his 'sensitive' and 'sovereign' recitative playing on the fortepiano with the Vienna Philharmonic, he quickly attracted attention and achieved widespread musical recognition in Vienna and beyond as an outstanding pianist, as well as for his dedicated work as a conductor and répétiteur. Since arriving in Vienna, he has rehearsed and worked on numerous productions at the Vienna State Opera with well-known singers such as Roberto Alagna, Plácido Domingo, Juan Diego Flórez, George Gagnidze, Elīna Garanča, Véronique Gens, Peter Mattei, Erin Morley, Leo Nucci, Patricia Petibon, Erwin Schrott, Pietro Spagnoli, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Ramón Vargas and Pretty Yende.