Emily Jarrell Urbanek
Emily Jarrell Urbanek has been Opera Carolina’s Director of Music Preparation since 2007, serving as chief coach, pianist and chorus director, and she has performed with the company since 2003. During Opera Carolina’s 2019-2020 season, Emily conducted a joint production of Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg for Opera Carolina and Opera Grand Rapids, as well as Opera Carolina’s March 2022 performances of Zach Redler and Jerre Dye’s opera, The Falling and the Rising, and their 2023 performances of La Traviata. Emily is also an extra keyboardist with the Charlotte Symphony and frequently performs chamber music with area musicians. Recent performances include Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok with Opera Carolina and Chamber Music 4 All, music for piano and strings by women composers with the Bechtler Ensemble, and Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, with the principal strings of the Charlotte Symphony in a collaboration with the Charlotte Ballet entitled Ibsen’s House. From 2007 to 2023 Emily was part of the musical staff of the Chautauqua Opera, and she has also served as repetiteur for a variety of companies, including New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, Austin Opera, Fort Worth Opera Festival, New Orleans Opera, Kentucky Opera, and Cincinnati Opera.