Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner’s artistry, versatility, and reputation for innovation are making her a sought-after collaborator and an impresario for the 21st century. She was the first three-time winner of the American Prize for Opera Conducting, praised as “mightily impressive”, and is a proud alum of The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Maria is the Artistic & General Director of Resonance Works, the genre-defying performing arts company she founded in her native Pittsburgh in 2013; co-founder and lead producer of the Decameron Opera Coalition; and a frequent cover conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Her unique, artist-driven programming has been praised for its “innovative streak” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and for bringing a “welcome infusion of sophistication and diversity” (I Care If You Listen) to Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape.
Recent seasons have included a number of company debuts across the country - including Portland Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Opera Ithaca, Lyric Opera of the North, Opera Steamboat, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City - conducting her favorite mix of Verdi, bel canto, and contemporary repertoire.