A graduate of Yale University and the Juilliard School with degrees in music and theater, Stephanie comes to the directing profession with the experience of a former career as a professional singer. She has worked in solo performance in diverging musical arenas with such luminaries as Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Van Dyke Parks, and Ry Cooder. Her voice has been featured in film and commercials. A recipient of the Chanel Diva Award, Stephanie is best known in Los Angeles for her work as an opera singer at L.A. Opera where audiences delighted in her performances as Nicklausse in Tales of Hoffmann with Placido Domingo, as Hermia in Gordon Davidson's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, as Suzuki in Madame Butterfly with Maria Ewing in the title role. She has appeared internationally in a number of operas and concert performances. Her chamber music work in the States includes Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire as an artist-in-residence at Duke University as well as Berio's Folk Songs and Ravel's Chanson Madecasses as guest soloist with the Seattle Chamber Players. Concert performances include work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as solo artist in addition to a number of guest appearances with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra in critically-acclaimed performances of Weill’s Die Kleine Mahagonny under the baton of John Adams as well as the American premier of Kernis' Goblin Market as featured narrator. She has performed a number of works for broadcast on NPR syndicated and local radio. In addition to her classical engagements, Stephanie has garnered |
renown in Los Angeles and oversees as, according to the Associated Press, the "moonlighting Diva" and is well-known as a Weill interpreter. Additionally, her cabaret, The Gangster Hour, was hailed by Variety as a "Cotton Club meets the Maltese Falcon...but what really sells is Vlahos and her incredible voice..." Her cabarets have been performed in the States and in Europe, most notably a sold-out concert tour of Greece where she also starred in a film by Nicholas Triandafyllidis, entitled, Black Milk, featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Stephanie is currently directing opera, musicals, and theater, working in a number of large Los Angeles venues in productions ranging from Carmen to OLIVER! Above all, Stephanie is most proud of her creation of The Full Circle Opera Project; a one-of-a-kind experience in the art of opera for young adults. The project has been heralded by the L.A. County Supervisors as “groundbreaking” and is the proud recipient of a grant from the Flora Thornton Foundation, establishing itself as a wonderful paradigm for outreach. Stephanie is currently theater coach and stage director for the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist’s Program at LA Opera as well as this year’s director-in-residence at the Cole Conservatory Opera Institute at Cal State Long Beach. Her recent work in directing has already been recognized by the community at large as she was among 30 other artists, nationwide, to be nominated for the prestigious United States Artists Grant in directing in 2007. |
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