Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Marcus Shields is a New York City based director who specializes in the presentation and performance of classical music.

He is the recipient of the 2017 Drama League Opera Directing Fellowship in conjunction with The Metropolitan Opera and Wolf Trap Opera as well as well as a winner of the 2018 Opera America Robert L Tobin Director-Designer Showcase grant. His work ranges in scale from installation/ performance art to fully produced theater and blends his various skills (pianist/ singer/ visual artist/ director) into cross disciplinary pieces that probe the boundaries of genre. 

Trained as a musicologist, he has, at times, moonlighted as a grant/ proposal writer, worked as a rehearsal pianist/ music director (Northwestern University’s musical theatre program), and sung professionally (concert/ opera) throughout the United States. He has professional directing affiliation with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, the Merola Opera program, Lyric Opera Chicago, the Atlanta Opera, Urban Arias, Wolf Trap Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 

He currently serves as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Opera Directing at University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music.