Elkhanah Pulitzer is known for her bold, nuanced stage direction that explores the intersection of music and theater through innovation and hybridized forms. Recent projects include John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra at San Francisco Opera; a tour of Esperanza Spalding’s album 12 Little Spells; and DIORAMA, an art installation at the I.O.U. in San Francisco. She has directed projects at the LA Philharmonic including Adams’ Nixon in China and Bernstein’s Mass, the latter of which was also staged at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. She directed Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary at the San Francisco Symphony, and Lucia di Lammermoor and Judas Maccabaeus at LA Opera. This season, she collaborates with cellist Alisa Weilerstein on Fragments, and her production of David Lang’s prisoner of the state (premiered by the New York Philharmonic) tours European orchestras. Pulitzer served as Artistic Curator of SF Opera Lab, an experimental chamber opera program, from 2015-17. She has directed productions at West Edge Opera, including Wozzeck’s Lulu, Ades’ Powder Her Face, and Francesconi’s Quartett. Past work includes collaborations with Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and the Canadian Opera Company. She received Opera America’s Success Award for her libretto Dream of the Pacific, composed by Stephen Mager. Born in Boston and raised in St. Louis and Marin, she holds an MA from Columbia in Directing and serves as board vice president of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
