Kamna Gupta is an American Prize-winning conductor experienced in operatic, orchestral, and choral repertoires. Several world premieres mark the upcoming 2023-24 season: Ms. Gupta leads the Trinity Church Wall Street Choirs and NOVUS in Luna Pearl Woolf's new oratorio Number Our Days (part of the inaugural season of New York's newest venue, the Perelman Performing Arts Center), and she returns to Spoleto Festival USA to conduct the world premiere of Ruinous Gods (Chaker / Shlesinger). In addition to these, Ms. Gupta makes her Washington National Opera debut as the cover conductor for Songbird, and she returns to Tapestry Opera to conduct Rocking Horse Winner, which she recorded to much acclaim during the pandemic and which was featured on CBC's Music's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.

 

In the 2022-2023 season, Ms. Gupta made her Vancouver Opera debut conducting Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, and served as music director and conductor for the world premiere and subsequent tour of The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist (Berger / Reily / Francis). She also made her PROTOTYPE Festival debut leading In Our Daughter’s Eyes (Du Yun / McQuilken) following its successful premiere under her baton  at LA Opera in 2022. She returned to Mannes Opera to lead the baroque masterpiece La Calisto from the harpsichord, returned to the International Contemporary Ensemble to lead a program in their Composer Portraits at Miller Theatre, and joined Atlanta Opera as cover conductor and chorus master for their production of Bernstein’s Candide. In summer 2023, she returned for her fifth season to The Glimmerglass Festival to conduct the world premiere of The Rip Van Winkles (Morris / Fuentes). 

 

Recent highlights include her debut with the International Contemporary Ensemble in A Cockroach’s Tarantella and Zolle (Du Yun) at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, the world premiere of Jungle Book (Sankaram / O’Rourke) at The Glimmerglass Festival, the Next Generation Competition with Beth Morrison Projects, and joining Spoleto Festival USA to conduct in their Music in Time series, cover conduct Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and serve as cover conductor for La bohème. Other highlights include engagements with the Seattle Opera, the Royal Opera in Versailles, American Lyric Theater, Sarasota Opera, and Opera Saratoga.

 

Active internationally, Gupta’s orchestral credits include performances in France, Germany, Russia, and the Czech Republic; leading the Leipzig Barockorchester in an all-Bach program was a special highlight. Previous highlights include her work with the New York Youth Symphony as an apprentice conductor and her role as a Conducting Fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival, where she recorded many contemporary works by living composers.

 

Gupta’s passion for education has also led her to work with education departments at the New York Philharmonic and the Castleton Festival. Based in New York City, she is active as a pianist and harpsichordist in addition to conducting. Gupta received her Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Arizona State University and her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude.

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