James Darrah

James Darrah's award-winning work as a director, designer, screenwriter and GRAMMY® award-nominated producer is leading a bold exploration intertwining film, television, opera, new music and pop culture and was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "experimenting and inventing a new art form". He is Artistic Director and CCO of Southern California's innovative Long Beach Opera where he directed the acclaimed world premiere of composer Kate Soper's opera "The Romance of the Rose" and created and directed "The Feast" at Segerstrom Center for the Arts--launching a three-year artistic collaboration with the Martha Graham Dance Company. He has directed several award-winning world premiere operas, directed and produced music videos for classical artists, forged new work merging operatic repertoire and film as full length works, and directed and designed new stage works with Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, LA Opera, Prototype Festival, Theater an der Wien, the Metropolitan Opera at Juilliard, LA Phil, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera Omaha, Karlsruhe Handel Festival in Germany, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera and Orchestra, The Barbican London, KKL Lucerne, Salle Pleyel in Paris, New World Symphony in Miami, Handel and Haydn Society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival. He was mentored by operatic director, singer and artist Peter Kazaras and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. He studied at The Juilliard School and is a graduate in directing of UCLA: School of Theater, Film and Television. He also trains the next generation of opera singers, actors and stage designers, as Creative Director of Music Academy of the West (2017-2022) and as scenic design faculty of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television.