About Kristin
Conductor and pianist Kristin Ditlow serves as Music Director of Opera Theatre and Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching at the University of New Mexico, where she leads full-scale opera productions and mentors emerging singers and collaborative artists. Her work centers on the intersection of vocal artistry, dramatic interpretation, and orchestral leadership.
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Originally trained as a classical pianist, Ditlow’s career has evolved toward conducting and operatic leadership, informed by deep experience in vocal repertoire and collaborative performance. She has appeared in concert throughout North America, mainland China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic, bringing a refined musical sensibility and structural clarity to both podium and keyboard.
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Her training includes degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Westminster Choir College, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music. Advanced studies at the Tanglewood Music Center, the San Francisco Opera Center, and the Franz Schubert Institut further shaped her approach to vocal and operatic repertoire.
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Her passionate pursuit of languages, advocacy for young professional musicians, and deep love of the song literature led her to create Die Liederreise, a unique study abroad - Young Artist Program experience. This program unifies deep textual knowledge, study of music history, and current performances of Lieder throughout Germany and Austria.
As a conductor, Ditlow is known for her detailed rehearsal process, stylistic precision, and collaborative leadership with singers. Her background as a pianist and vocal coach informs her nuanced understanding of phrasing, language, and dramatic pacing, allowing her to shape performances with both structural command and expressive depth.
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She has led performances of operatic repertoire, from little-known Baroque revival works to world premieres, for companies such as Santa Fe Opera, Opera Steamboat, Permian Basin Opera, Teatro Paraguas, Amarillo Opera, Opera Southwest, New Mexico Philharmonic, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Zempleni Festival (Hungary), the Princeton Festival, and for several consecutive summers with Festival of International Opera (FIO) in Italy, with the Time Machine Ensemble. Her interpretations of both contemporary repertoire as well as forgotten operas (of which she has led world re-premieres and constructions) have garnered international acclaim.
Additionally, she has served on the music staffs of Opera Philadelphia, Central City Opera, Opera Southwest, and Finger Lakes Opera, as well as Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Westminster Choir College.
Her solo debut piano CD, Passages, has received national accolades. Harry Musselwhite of the Rome News-Tribune wrote that “the recording … is sonically breathtaking and her playing ranges from intimate pianistic thoughts to thundering room-shaking outbursts. She is a consummate interpreter.” In a review by musicologist Ralph Locke, Boston’s The Arts Fuse remarks, “I have played this album repeatedly for weeks … [the performances] are deeply affectionate: I sometimes felt I could hear Ditlow thinking about the (silent) words, noticing a surprising modulation, or responding to the tension-and-release within a musical phrase.”