Music Director

Ms. Kulesza is the recently retired Music Director of the Opera Program at the Peabody Conservatory and began her career at the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, as coach/accompanist in opera and Lied. Professionally, she has worked as rehearsal accompanist, chorus master and assistant conductor for the Washington National Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Baltimore Opera Young Artist Program, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Compania Lirica Nacional (Costa Rica), and the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. She also assisted Maestro Loren Maazel for two of his Chateauville Chamber Opera Projects.

While much of her work inevitably takes place in the background, coaching singers and preparing productions for other conductors, she made her Peabody opera conducting debut in 2003. She continues in that capacity today, and has many productions and several world premieres to her credit. She regularly conducts for the Lowveld Chamber Music Association in Nelspruit, South Africa and returns there in June, 2019 to conduct a chamber version of Johann Strauss’s DIE FLEDERMAUS.

A recipient of the Johns Hopkins University Excellence in Teaching award, Ms. Kulesza has conducted master classes and guest residencies at various institutions around the country and is much in demand as a clinician and educator. As a collaborative pianist, Ms. Kulesza has played chamber music and vocal recitals throughout Europe and the United States, as well as accompanying master classes for such artists as Walter Berry, Edda Moser, Renata Scotto, and Placido Domingo.

As a collaborative pianist, Ms. Kulesza has played chamber music and vocal recitals throughout Europe and the United States, as well as accompanying master classes for such artists as Walter Berry, Edda Moser, Renata Scotto, and Placido Domingo.

Since 2011, she has served as Head of Opera for Music Theater Bavaria, a month long summer opera training program in Oberaudorf, Germany. She spent six summers as Music Director of the Opera/Musical Theatre section of the two-week Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (AK). Ms. Kulesza has also been Chorus Master for the Washington National Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Company, as well as assistant for the Lyric Opera Chorus (Chicago).

A choral music enthusiast, she feeds her love of choral music as director at Eastport United Methodist Church in Annapolis, MD, and as director of the Arundel Vocal Arts Society.