Nominated for “Best Newcomer” at the 2015 International Opera Awards, Mary Birnbaum is an opera and theatre director. Recent credits include Otello (Taiwan Philharmonic), world premiere of Jeremy Denk and Steven Stucky’s The Classical Style (Carnegie Hall and the Ojai Festival), Die Zauberflöte, The Rape of Lucretia and Eugene Onegin (with conductor Matt Aucoin) at Juilliard, Barber of Seville and Hansel and Gretel (Houston), L’elisir d’amore (Teatro Nacional, Costa Rica), New World Symphony, and assisting Stephen Wadsworth on King Roger (Santa Fe Opera) and the Ring Cycle (Seattle Opera.) She teaches acting for singers at Juilliard, where she is the associate director of the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program.