Mary Chun

American conductor Mary Chun, a dynamic and deeply collaborative force in the world of contemporary music is known for her vibrant presence on the podium. Forging powerful artistic partnerships with leading composers, she supports bringing their innovative visions to life. Noted collaborations include work with luminaries such as John Adams, Libby Larsen, and Tan Dun, a testament to her exceptional ability to connect with and interpret new musical languages. 

A Voice for New Music

Mary’s dedication to fostering new American voices telling new contemporary stories shines through her close synergystic relationships with composers on numerous world premieres. At the personal invitation of John Adams, Mary embarked on a significant collaborative journey, conducting the critically-acclaimed premieres of Adams’ hybrid opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, Hamburg’s Thalia Theater, and the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques in Montreal, working closely with both the composer and visionary stage director Peter Sellars. 

Mary’s rich and enduring relationship with California composer-librettist Carla Lucero has yielded significant contributions to the contemporary American operatic canon, beginning with the world premiere of Wuornos, a gripping portrayal of America’s most notorious female serial killer, presented at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Theater. Later with the world premiere of Lucero’s Juana in Los Angeles, Mary’s work with the composer’s uncommon orchestra employing traditional Western European instruments mixed with traditional Mexican instruments including the Aztec ocarina clay flute and huehuetl drum was hailed by LA Times critic Mark Swed as “one of the great glories” of the opera. Mary’s most recent triumph working on Lucero's latest opera Touch at Opera Birmingham further underscores their powerful artistic synergy. Mary conducted the Alabama Symphony in the world premiere of Touch, an ingenious piece that vividly portrays the extraordinary life of Helen Keller, the renowned political activist and advocate for blind and deafblind individuals at the Red Mountain Theater in Birmingham.

Mary also collaborated with Libby Larsen on Larsen’s hard-edged chamber opera, Every Man Jack, based on the alcohol-fueled life of writer Jack London. Sonoma City Opera, located in Sonoma (the site of London’s Beauty Ranch), commissioned the work which was met with enthusiastic reviews. Mexican-American composer Guillermo Galindo’s avant-garde installation Decreation: Fight Cherries, centered on the brief but brilliant life of thought-provoking twentieth century French philosopher and mystic Simone Weill, was initially conceived to be performed without a conductor but after the first rehearsal, Galindo realized he had written a piece that needed a conductor who could step in and quickly pick up his unique musical vocabulary. Mary’s expert music direction of Galindo’s work was presented to enthusiastic response at the California College of Arts in San Francisco. 

Partnering with the award-winning writing team of Burwell and Sasser on the development of the Lamplighter Music Theater’s first commission operetta, By Georges! A Day in the Life of the Legendary Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Mary helped fine tune their work over the course of several workshops and led the premieres to resounding success with performances in San Francisco and Mountain View. Her commitment to nurturing new artistic visions is evident in her close collaboration with the creators of the surrealist chamber opera Hutong: award-winning Chinese-American composer Kui Dong and architect/author Monica Datta. A recent opera-in-progress viewing of Hutong was presented with Other Minds at Cinnabar Theater and filmed for Opera America. 

Selected as one of eight composers for the highly competitive West Edge Opera Aperture online new opera development program, Korean-American composer Kyong Mee Choi composed Pale Courage during the Corona virus shutdown while participating in the residency.  An inspirational true story about women’s struggles for education and independence in feudal Korean society, Mary in her role as Guest Curator for Aperture directly engaged with Choi and librettist Bianca Lee throughout the development of the opera and gave the world premiere at the Reskin Theater with the Opera Studio of the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Teaming up with composer Mort Garson and playwright Joseph Graves, she assumed dual roles as music director and orchestrater for Revoco, a dark theater work that exposes the anti-semitic views of sixteenth century Christian Reformationist Martin Luther. Programmed on the same series as the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof (music direction and orchestral arrangement also by Mary), Revoco achieved great success at its premiere at the Texas Shakespeare Festival, despite sparking controversy over the unsettling subject matter.

Global Collaborations

Bridging diverse musical worlds with exceptional ability, Mary conducted the brilliant world premiere performances and studio recording of celebrated Chinese-Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho’s dramatic Chinatown for City Opera Vancouver. This critically acclaimed production, featured Ho’s unique and colorful orchestration combining traditional Chinese instruments—such as the plucked guzheng zither and the two-string erhu fiddle—with traditional Western orchestral instruments and a bilingual libretto by acclaimed Chinese-Canadian author Madeleine Thien. Weaving together English and the evocative dialect of the first Chinese diaspora in North America, Hoisanese, Chinatown marked a powerful return to the stage for City Opera Vancouver at its premiere in the Vancouver Playhouse, the company's first staged opera after the lifting of pandemic restrictions. The subsequent album, released under the Canadian Leaf Music label, garnered widespread acclaim for its breathtaking performances of truly groundbreaking music theater.

Mary’s influence resonates globally through her role as Music Director/Supervisor of Beijing’s Seven Ages Productions since 2014, where she has guided Mandarin  productions of iconic Broadway and West End musicals to widespread success across China. Under her direction and supervision, Tony-award winning hits such as Avenue Q, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Man of La Mancha and others have enjoyed explosive success throughout China in the last decade and continue to tour today. Her most recent work on the French musical Mozart, l’Opéra Rock starring Chinese rock legend Zhang Qi in the title role included studio recording and performing to extended runs with sold-out houses in Tier 1 cities of Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai

Partnerships

An enduring artistic partnership defines Mary’s relationship with the Bay Area’s West Edge Opera contributing as a guest curator for WEO’s innovative new opera online platform, Aperture, and serving as co-conductor for the annual Snapshot new opera development series, a collaboration with the Earplay new music ensemble. In addition to leading Snapshot concerts since 2017, Mary’s music direction credits with WEO include the West Coast premiere of Fabrizio Carlone’s Bonjour M. Gauguin and the her conducting of Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face for WEO was praised by San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman, who noted  “Conductor Mary Chun led a taut and explosive account of the score..” The partnership with WEO continues with the highly anticipated world premiere of Nicolás Benavides’ compelling new opera Dolores, a project reflecting a shared commitment to telling the important story of Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers’ Union.

Historic Repertoire

Equally in demand for historic repertoire, Mary has brought her collaborative spirit to the grand opera stage, enjoying successes with numerous companies in the USA and Europe including Hawaii Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Cleveland, Opera Idaho, West Edge Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, the Texas Shakespeare Festival, Ballet San Joaquin, the Mendocino Music Festival, Opera San Jose, Cinnabar Opera Theater, Mercury Theater and the Reskin Theater in Chicago, among others. As the Resident Music Director of the Cinnabar Theater in California (2009-2020), she received the Bay Area Theater Critic Circle Award for “Best Music Direction of an Opera” for her work on Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and her work on Puccini’s La Boheme in a co-production with Pocket Opera and Cinnabar Theater was voted “Best Opera Performance” by San Francisco Classical Voice with the Audience Choice Awards of 2023-24. Mary was the principal guest conductor with the Slovakian State Opera Company where she was invited to conduct the East European premiere of composer Martin Kalmanoff’s Insect Comedy at the Kosice Opera House in addition to leading several acclaimed tours of Carmen with the company throughout Austria, Germany and Switzerland. She has also led performances of historic repertoire at La Monnaie in Belgium and the Silesian Theater in the Czech Republic.

Earplay at 40

Since 2000, as Principal Conductor of Earplay, Mary has cultivated a dynamic collaborative environment with a highly skilled ensemble of new music specialists and composers. Together, they have championed the creation and performance of a vast body of contemporary chamber music, celebrating the work of hundreds of composers from the USA and beyond. Commemorating Earplay’s 40th anniversary of new music-making in 2025, Mary’s leadership continues to foster a vibrant and collaborative space for the evolution of new classical music.

In the Recording Studio

Collaborating with composers in electronic media, Mary is active in the recording studio often working at George Lucas’ famed Skywalker Sound both on the sound stage and as a producer. With her conducting featured on over a dozen published CDs of new classical music and opera, Mary also directed the music on Chinese-American award-winning screenwriter Eugenie Chan’s new vaudeville film, The Truer History of the Chan Family, which has a scheduled release in 2025. Off the podium and in the producing booth she has helped facilitate numerous studio recordings with Opéra de Lyon, where she held the significant role of Director of Musical Studies during Maestro Kent Nagano's tenure as Music Director. As the integral musical member of the cinematography team for the San Francisco Symphony's groundbreaking Keeping Score DVD series, Mary contributed her musical expertise on Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Ives' Holidays Symphony, Copland and the American Sound, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, and MTT on Music DVDs, all under the baton of Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas.

Early Career Foundations

In her formative years Mary was a member of the conducting staffs of a number of distinguished opera companies such as the previously mentioned Opéra de Lyon where she also served as Assistant Chorus Master to Chorus Maestro Donald Palumbo. At the San Francisco Opera she was invited to work on contemporary operas including working as Cover Conductor alongside Maestro Donald Runnicles on Olivier Messiaen’s monumental Saint François d’Assise in the only fully staged production produced in the USA. With Opera Saint Louis she worked as Associate Chorus Master on productions with Maestros David Agler and Andrew Litton and also Los Angeles Opera again with Maestro Kent Nagano.