New Leadership for Santa Fe Opera
Apprentice Program

The acclaimed apprentice program will have new leaders at the next Santa Fe Opera season, specifically Kevin Murphy as its director and longtime chorus director Susanne Sheton as his associate. The new lineup succeeds last year’s, which saw Chandler Johnson as director and David Lomeli as chief artistic director. Last June, Johnson was named artistic director of the Dayton Opera and Lomeli general director and CEO of the Dallas Opera. Sheton will continue in her role as chorus director and pick up an additional title as well.

As a result of the changes, Santa Fe has re-opened applications for the 2027 program, if only briefly, from September 10 – 12. Live auditions will take place in October in selected cities.

Boasting such alumni as Joyce DiDonato, Michael Fabiano, John Holiday, and Will Liverman, the apprentice program was launched in 1957 by company founder John Crosby and lays claim as the first of its kind in the U.S., a place where young singers on their way from academia to a career can gain real-world experience in and around the professional opera stage. The 40 or so apprentices appear in the summer-long festival’s productions and rehearsals and take masterclasses with faculty and visiting artists along the way.

Murphy is certainly well equipped to head up such activities. He is professor of music in collaborative piano and director of coaching and music administration for Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. He’s been on the faculty since 2011, also the year he became artistic director of the Singers Program at Ravinia’s Steans Institute, a role he’ll continue through 2027. Previous positions include director of music administration and casting for New York City Opera and director of musical studies at the Opéra national de Paris. The first pianist and vocal coach to join the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Murphy has also served on the Met conducting staff.

Sheston has been chorus director at Santa Fe Opera since 2008 and is credited with preparing its apprentices to be choristers in countless productions, including ten world premieres and two North American premieres. Most recently she prepared the chorus for a re-imagining of Monteverdi’s Orfeo with new orchestration by Nico Muhly. She also trained the group for the 2021 premiere of M. Butterfly by Huang Rao and David Henry Hwang, for Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the recording of which won the Best Opera Performance Grammy Award for 2019, and for Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, which received a Grammy nomination. Previously, Sheston was the director of both the Utah Symphony Chorus and the Utah Opera Chorus as well as chorus master and associate conductor at Des Moines Metro Opera.

 Pictured: Kevin Murphy, Susanne Sheston