Stephanie Vlahos

I am a witless forger of my fate, a fate that should have been about touching a life, providing someone insight into their humanity, reminding whomever that all of us are everything. We are all, we are…

from John K

I’m a storyteller.

I have sung opera, self-expressed through performance art, mentored, directed, produced essentially, explored my voice.

A recent shift in my life has led me to deeper reflections expressed via another voice, a writer’s voice.

I value collaboration and the breadth of insights collaborating gives me.

Having spent a creative life as a journey rather than a port-of-call, I have landed in wonderfully rich and unexpected destinations.

I am interested in artists’ journey at various points along the way. I am interested in assisting expression in what ways I can. I cherish creative perspectives and the camaraderie in sharing how each of us approaches the journey.

stephanie vlahos

Interview with Joan Quinn – West Coast editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, Joan’s constant snapshot taking for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner of emerging and established artists. Her ‘The Joan Quinn Profiles’ cable television show created an archive of people in the creative world.

Writer/Creator/Stage Director Stephanie Vlahos brings her accumulated experience in the arts/mentorship/and writing to her professional collaborations.  

Stephanie is interested in telling stories about complex ideas in technology and education and giving them a voice that is approachable and engaging. Working as a writer and a stage director, her skill sets include everything from curation to research to media presentation to storytelling. She believes that a life steeped in the artistic process can lend insight and impact in unexpected mediums and technologies.

Professional Journey

A former, professional opera singer with a crossover edge, Stephanie’s early career ranged in its collaborative work with artists such as Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Van Dyke Parks, John Adams, Ry Cooder, Jeff Bridges, Walter Hill, Sir Peter Hall, Director Peter Sellars, the composer Danny Elfman, and Music Producer David Was.   These collaborations led Stephanie to further explore performance art, coaching and mentoring students in theatre technique and voice for a number of years.  

A recipient of the Chanel Diva Award, Stephanie sang in opera houses nationally and internationally in addition to her direction of and performances in cabaret-influenced performance art, earning her the moniker of the moonlighting Diva by the Associated Press.  Her one-woman shows toured Europe, most notably a tour in Greece where she was also featured as a Maria Callas character in Nicholas Triandafillydis film, Mavro Gala. 

One of 30 artists across the States to be nominated for the prestigious United States Artists Grant for Directing in 2014, Stephanie is recognised for her unique staging of classical work such as La Boheme with Lyric Opera Virginia, and Britten’s Little Sweep in collaboration with Maestro James Conlon not to mention a new work for the Confucius Institute conceived and directed by Stephanie entitled Pacific Cinderella that premiered in Hangzhou, China in 2013.  Stephanie has directed opera, theatre, and event shows from sold-out performances of operas for California State University to critically successful Equity theatre productions.    

Opera Posse and Mentorship

Stephanie’s boutique company, Opera Posse, hit the ground running with a critically-acclaimed production of Amahl and the Night Visitors at California’s State Theatre, the Pasadena Playhouse, with Malcolm McDowell reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Her hybrid production with freely conceived lyrics by Stephanie and interpolated pop songs by young high school students entitled, Carmen High (after the opera Carmen), was not only featured in Getty Images with a rave review from Broadway World, it also received 5-stars at the Edinburgh Fringe.  

A passionate advocate of outreach through education, Stephanie created a project at the LA County High School for the Arts, Full Circle Opera Project, dedicated to the outreach of opera not only by encouraging young singers to experience opera in performing grand opera themselves but through their own unique prism of perspective.  Full Circle Opera Project earned a generous 15-year grant from the Thornton Foundation and was acknowledged as ground-breaking by the LA Board of Supervisors.  “I have learned more about myself as an artist through mentorship than from all my years as a performer.”

Stephanie earned an academic degree in music at Yale University with further vocal studies at The Juilliard School.  Among other engagements, she is proud to have served on the Thornton School of Music, Board of Counselors at the USC.  In addition to her work as a Stage Director, Stephanie was Theatre Coach for the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera for 5 years.  

Stephanie is currently based in Edinburgh where she is working on a variety of projects with folks from both the States and the UK.  Her blog Bend is a collection of reflections and poems on her life experience then and now.