Kenneth Merrill
Instrumental Focus
- senior coach piano opera coach
Programs Taught
- Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS
- Collaborative Piano
Kenneth Merrill, pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor, is currently on the coaching faculty of The Juilliard School’s vocal arts department. He is also a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music, where he teaches accompanying and song repertoire. He has collaborated in concert with such artists as Gérard Souzay, Anna Moffo, John Aler, Anthony Dean Griffey, Charlotte Hellekant, Jennifer Aylmer, Randall Scarlata, Faith Esham, Ruth Golden, Jeanette Thompson, and William Ferguson. Mr. Merrill specializes in many styles, from the early Baroque, the operas of Mozart and bel canto composers, to the operas of Britten. As a conductor of opera, he recently led Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Nevada Opera. He has conducted Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the Maryland Opera Studio, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Wolf-Ferrari’s Le donne curiose with the Juilliard Opera Workshop, and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias, and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Manhattan School of Music. He has been associated with the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1980.