A fierce advocate of new work, Mary Chun (conductor) has worked with many composers such as John Adams, Olivier Messiaen, Libby Larsen, William Kraft, and Tan Dun, to name a few. At the invitation of composer John Adams, she conducted the Finnish chamber orchestra Avanti! in the Paris, Hamburg and Montreal premiere performances of his chamber opera Ceiling/Sky to critical acclaim. Passionate about new lyric collaborations, she has music-directed a number of world premieres, including Libby Larsen’s opera, Every Man Jack; Mexican-American composer Guillermo Galindo’s Decreation: Fight Cherries, a multi-media experimental portrait of the brief life of the brilliant French philosopher Simone Weil; Carla Lucero’s Wuornos, the tragic true tale of the notorious female serial killer; and Joseph Graves’ and Mort Garson’s Revoco.

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Mary is the Resident Music Director of Cinnabar Theater and Music Director for SEVENAGES Investment Company, a Beijing/Shanghai-based production company that produces blockbuster Broadway musicals in Mandarin translation. Mary's work as Music Director can be heard in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella that continues to tour cities across China. This season, Mary is slated to music direct world premiere performances of new operas by Carla Lucero and Kui Dong.

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Closer to home, she has worked with West Edge Opera, where she conducted Thomas Ades' controversial opera Powder Her Face to international critical acclaim. Other conducting engagements include opera tours with the Kosice Opera throughout Germany, Switzerland and Austria in addition to concerts in Belgium and the Czech Republic. She has also been invited to conduct the Hawaii Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Cleveland, Opera Idaho, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Ballet San Joaquin, West Bay Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, and the Mendocino Music Festival.