Curtis Serafin has recently completed a two-year collaborative piano fellowship with Yale Opera; this engagement followed his fourth season as a member of the music staff at Sarasota Opera, where he played productions of Tosca, Attila, La scala di seta, and Dido & Aeneas. In 2024, Serafin made his Merkin Hall debut as principal coach and pianist with Berkshire Opera Festival for “The Reef” by Anthony Davis. As a conductor, Serafin has led four successful productions with Chicago Summer Opera. Other summer seasons have included professional fellowships at the Tanglewood Institute, Stephanie Blythe’s Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, Manchester Music Festival, and Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. Curtis Serafin is a graduate of Warren Jones’s studio at the Manhattan School of Music; this was preceded by the completion of his undergraduate studies in piano performance at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

 

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During his time at Yale, Serafin worked alongside Daniela Candillari, Louis Lohraseb, Gerald Martin Moore, J.J. Penna, Alejandro Roca, and Anna Smigelskaya. Serafin served as a vocal coach and assisted musical preparation of the following productions : The Seven Deadly Sins, Gianni Schicchi, The Rake's Progress, Le Comte Ory, The Rape of Lucretia, and L'Elisir d'Amore (for which he was also chorus master). Serafin was selected to accompany Yale Opera students for Renée Fleming's masterclass during her spring 2024 residency. While at Tanglewood, Serafin collaborated on projects with artists such as Margo Garrett, Alan Smith, and Dawn Upshaw; he was also an active part of the musical preparation for the U.S. premier of The Cricket Recovers by Richard Ayres, which was presented under the baton of Sir Thomas Adès. 

 

 

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Photos: Matt Madison-Clark and Kault Photography

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