Eric Weimer

Eric Weimer has established himself as one of the pre-eminent coaches in the international opera world. Through his work at some of the world’s leading companies—primarily his 35 seasons as full-time Assistant Conductor with Lyric Opera of Chicago but also work at the Metropolitan Opera, Bayreuth Festival, San Francisco Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and Edinburgh Festival — he has prepared some 240 productions. In this work, he has collaborated with most of the world’s greatest opera maestri as well as coached and worked closely with most of the major singers active on the international opera stage.

While famous as a German specialist—he has prepared no less than seventeen complete cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen—he is highly esteemed also for the depth of his experience in other repertoires, particularly the Baroque and the Italian.

A former musicologist—Dr. Weimer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is the author of "Opera seria and the Evolution of Classical Style"—he is also in great demand as a coach of young singers. He joined the music staff of the Ryan Opera Center (training wing of Lyric Opera of Chicago) in 1990 and has ever since served as one of its principal coaches, preparing young singers for their mainstage role assignments and conducting many of its summer opera workshops. He has also held numerous residencies with the other principal opera training programs in the US and Canada: the MET’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, the Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artists, the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, and the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio.