Ithaca College

Brian DeMaris, Director of Opera and Musical Theater at Ithaca College, has achieved 2nd place nationally in the opera division of The American Prize Conducting Competition for his conducting of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica at the College last spring. 

DeMaris was selected from applications reviewed this summer from all across the United States. The American Prize is a series of new, non-profit, competitions unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings.

The Conducting Competition recognizes and rewards the best orchestral, choral, opera and musical theater conductors in America in 2013, based on submitted applications. Finalists for The American Prize receive professional adjudication and regional, national and international recognition based on their recorded performances. 

The American Prize was founded in 2009 and is awarded annually in many areas of the performing arts. Complete information on the website: www.theamericanprize.org. 

In addition to his work at IC, DeMaris is the Music Director of Mill City Summer Opera in Minneapolis and has performed with New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Syracuse Opera, American Opera Projects, American Lyric Theater, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Music Saint Croix and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared at the United Nations, the Aspen Music Festival, Boston’s Jordan Hall, New York’s Studio 54, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, Skirball Center, La Maison francaise, and in recitals, competitions, and master classes throughout the United States and abroad.