Conductor Jonathan Khuner resides in Berkeley, but works at the major opera companies across the USA. He has been Artistic and Musical Director of Berkeley (West Edge) Opera in California since 1993, and has led over sixty-five productions there. His next appearance on that podium will be this summer: the premiere of Clark Suprynowicz's Caliban Dreams. His main posts are as Assistant Conductor and prompter for San Francisco Opera (since 1981), the Metropolitan Opera (since 1997), and the Lyric Opera of Chicago (since 1995). In 1996 he was also the prompter for the Ring Cycle at the Bayreuther Festspiele.
Besides appearing frequently as guest conductor with various California opera companies—among them California Opera Association (Fresno), San Francisco Lyric Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera (San Luis Obispo), West Bay Opera, and Livermore Valley Opera—, Khuner also initiated an opera workshop performance course for the University of California at Berkeley (2001 – 2004). For the last several seasons he has been pre-curtain lecturer or Opera Guild lecturer for the San Francisco Opera, most recently last season's Makropulos Case, for which he was also rehearsal conductor and prompter.
Mr. Khuner conducted three operas at the New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv while he was Resident Assistant Conductor there in 1992-93. He is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, and earned degrees from U.C. Berkeley in Mathematics and Musicology.