Biography
Director
Peter Sellars
PETER SELLARS has gained international renown for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of twentieth-century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects. His work illuminates the power of art as a means of moral expression and social action.
He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and the Salzburg Festival, among others. He has also collaborated on the creation and production of many works with composers John Adams and Kaija Saariaho. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2001, staging Adams’s El Niño.
Late in 2020 Mr. Sellars conceived and directed “this body is so impermanent. . .”, a film made in response to the pandemic inspired by text from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Earlier this year, he created a staging of the Roman de Fauvel at the Théatre du Châtelet. Upcoming projects include Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) for the Park Avenue Armory, Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and a revival of Tristan und Isolde at the Opera de Paris.
Mr. Sellars is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and the founding director of the Boethius Institute at UCLA. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, and Gish Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
May 2022
He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and the Salzburg Festival, among others. He has also collaborated on the creation and production of many works with composers John Adams and Kaija Saariaho. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2001, staging Adams’s El Niño.
Late in 2020 Mr. Sellars conceived and directed “this body is so impermanent. . .”, a film made in response to the pandemic inspired by text from the Vimalakirti Sutra. Earlier this year, he created a staging of the Roman de Fauvel at the Théatre du Châtelet. Upcoming projects include Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) for the Park Avenue Armory, Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and a revival of Tristan und Isolde at the Opera de Paris.
Mr. Sellars is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and the founding director of the Boethius Institute at UCLA. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, and Gish Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
May 2022
