Sharon Lavery

Pianist, coach, conductor, and soprano Sharon Bjorndal Lavery began her career as an Assistant Chorus Master at New York City Opera. She went on to serve as Chorus Master for productions at the Bard Summerscape Festival and Opera Philadelphia.

Sharon has served as pianist, coach, soprano, and conductor for opera companies and symphonies around the country, including Wolf Trap Opera, San Diego Opera, San Diego Symphony, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Waco Symphony, Vox Seraphim Choir and Orchestra, and McLennan Opera.  She has worked closely with living composers Jake Heggie, Marc Adamo, Deborah Drattell, and Daron Hagen, as well as the late Stephen Sondheim, interpreting premieres and reviving classics. A champion of underrepresented composers, Sharon performed the Florence Price Piano Concerto in One Movement and the American premiere of the Agathe Backer Grøndahl Piano Concerto this past year.

She received the Doctor of Musical Arts in collaborative piano from The Juilliard School, Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music and was a double major in piano and vocal performance at Oberlin College Conservatory where she received the Bachelor of Music.