RAKEFET HAK - CONDUCTOR/MUSIC DIRECTOR

Maestra Rakefet Hak has been in demand as a coach and pianist both nationally and internationally in companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Spoleto Festival, Merola Opera Program, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, The New Israeli Opera, Semperoper Dresden, and Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts in Germany. In 1997, Ms. Hak joined the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Metropolitan Opera music staff as one of its youngest members and the first Israeli in history to do so.

During her tenure at the Met, Ms. Hak worked as assistant conductor and coach with Maestros James Levine, Jun Märkl, Sebastian Weigl, Plácido Domingo, Bruno Campanella, Carlo Rizzi, Patrick Summers, Edo de Waart, and Julius Rudel, among others. She also worked with such notable singers as Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli, Joyce DiDonato, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Simon Keenleyside, Suzanne Mentzer, Kurt Moll, Patricia Racette, Carol Vaness, and Deborah Voigt.

In 2000, Ms. Hak was invited by Plácido Domingo to join Los Angeles Opera's music staff, where she worked with Maestros Plácido Domingo, Kent Nagano, John DeMain, Richard Armstrong, Roderick Brydon and served as Music Director with LA Opera Connects on various productions. Ms. Hak was named Music Director of the UCLA Opera Studio in 2004 and recently conducted the world-premiere of Quake by Kay Rhie. Last Summer, Ms. Hak made her Long Beach Opera debut as Music Director for their new innovative production of "The Recital," in which film festival meets live performance.

Ms. Hak has collaborated on recitals with Bryn Terfel, Alexandra Deshorties, Michelle DeYoung, Mariusz Kwiecień, Sondra Radvanovsky and Alfred Walker in venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Merkin Concert Hall, Lincoln Theater of Miami, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Sala Teatro La Fenice, New York’s Town Hall, the Tilles Center of Long Island. Ms. Hak also conducted masterclasses and concerts in Germany and the Czech Republic and served as assistant conductor on productions of Tosca and Falstaff with the Malmö Opera company in Sweden.