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Emma Griffin
Director

Emma Griffin is a theater and opera director; she is also the Managing Artistic Director of Mannes Opera, a program at the College of Performing Arts at The New School.

Griffin has a diverse background in theater, musical theater and opera. Her productions have been seen in performance venues all over the country. She is a frequent collaborator on new music/theater pieces; projects include the Ricky Ian Gordon/Frank Bidart operatic poem Ellen West (with Beth Morrison Projects & Prototype), Phil Kline’s Out Cold & Zippo Songs at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Corey Dargel’s Removable Parts; and Susan Bernfield and Rachel Peters’ Stretch, a fantasia. Opera highlights include Sweeney Todd at Wolf Trap Opera, La Fanciulla del West at Opera Colorado, the world premiere of Charpentier's La Feste de Ruel with Catacoustic Consort; La Boheme at Crested Butte Music Festival, Three Decembers at Atlanta Opera; Don Giovanni at Boston Lyric Opera; The Cunning Little Vixen and Don Giovanni at Juilliard Opera; Wozzeck at Opera Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theater. She was the Artistic Director of the OBIE-award winning Salt Theater, based in NYC; highlights with Salt include Stage Door (FringeNYC Excellence Award as Best Director), The Cherry Orchard, Scenes from a Marriage and Conquest of the Universe. She has theater credits at many regional theaters including Perseverance Theater, Geva Theater Center, Syracuse Stage, Southern Rep, Actor’s Express, Virginia Stage, and Williamstown Theater Festival.

Her career as an educator is as central to her artistry as her directing career. She spent many years as adjunct faculty at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (working with students in Undergraduate Drama, Graduate Acting, and Graduate Design). She was on the faculty at SUNY Stonybrook, and she has worked extensively at both The Curtis Institute of Music and at Juilliard. Prior to her appointment to Mannes Opera, she spent four years as the Professor of Opera Stage Direction at the University of Cincinnati’s CCM. She is currently a member of the faculty at The Chautauqua Institute in the Opera Conservatory, where she will be returning for her second summer as a director in 2026.

Under Griffin’s leadership, Mannes Opera has become a vital program in the training and study of opera for the next generation of performers and makers. In both workshops and full productions, Griffin, her team and their students have collaborated with and produced work by composers such as Mark Adamo, Ricky Ian Gordon, David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Rachel Peters, Huang Ruo, Kamala Sankaram, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Kate Soper and Greg Spears. Establishing the school as a new work incubator, Mannes Opera has partnered with industry leaders in the support of contemporary opera, bringing companies such as Wolf Trap Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, Opera Saratoga and others into collaborative projects with students and guest artists. As a director, she has helmed the following productions at Mannes Opera: In the Green, La Calisto, Die Zauberflote, Don Giovanni, and La Passion de Simone.

Upcoming work includes The Silent Serenade, the US premiere of a lost operetta by Erich Korngold; and Eugene Onegin at Wolf Trap Opera.

Emma Griffin
Director

Emma Griffin is a theater and opera director; she is also the Managing Artistic Director of Mannes Opera, a program at the College of Performing Arts at The New School.

Griffin has a diverse background in theater, musical theater and opera. Her productions have been seen in performance venues all over the country. She is a frequent collaborator on new music/theater pieces; projects include the Ricky Ian Gordon/Frank Bidart operatic poem Ellen West (with Beth Morrison Projects & Prototype), Phil Kline’s Out Cold & Zippo Songs at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Corey Dargel’s Removable Parts; and Susan Bernfield and Rachel Peters’ Stretch, a fantasia. Opera highlights include Sweeney Todd at Wolf Trap Opera, La Fanciulla del West at Opera Colorado, the world premiere of Charpentier's La Feste de Ruel with Catacoustic Consort; La Boheme at Crested Butte Music Festival, Three Decembers at Atlanta Opera; Don Giovanni at Boston Lyric Opera; The Cunning Little Vixen and Don Giovanni at Juilliard Opera; Wozzeck at Opera Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theater. She was the Artistic Director of the OBIE-award winning Salt Theater, based in NYC; highlights with Salt include Stage Door (FringeNYC Excellence Award as Best Director), The Cherry Orchard, Scenes from a Marriage and Conquest of the Universe. She has theater credits at many regional theaters including Perseverance Theater, Geva Theater Center, Syracuse Stage, Southern Rep, Actor’s Express, Virginia Stage, and Williamstown Theater Festival.

Her career as an educator is as central to her artistry as her directing career. She spent many years as adjunct faculty at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (working with students in Undergraduate Drama, Graduate Acting, and Graduate Design). She was on the faculty at SUNY Stonybrook, and she has worked extensively at both The Curtis Institute of Music and at Juilliard. Prior to her appointment to Mannes Opera, she spent four years as the Professor of Opera Stage Direction at the University of Cincinnati’s CCM. She is currently a member of the faculty at The Chautauqua Institute in the Opera Conservatory, where she will be returning for her second summer as a director in 2026.

Under Griffin’s leadership, Mannes Opera has become a vital program in the training and study of opera for the next generation of performers and makers. In both workshops and full productions, Griffin, her team and their students have collaborated with and produced work by composers such as Mark Adamo, Ricky Ian Gordon, David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Rachel Peters, Huang Ruo, Kamala Sankaram, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Kate Soper and Greg Spears. Establishing the school as a new work incubator, Mannes Opera has partnered with industry leaders in the support of contemporary opera, bringing companies such as Wolf Trap Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, Opera Saratoga and others into collaborative projects with students and guest artists. As a director, she has helmed the following productions at Mannes Opera: In the Green, La Calisto, Die Zauberflote, Don Giovanni, and La Passion de Simone.

Upcoming work includes The Silent Serenade, the US premiere of a lost operetta by Erich Korngold; and Eugene Onegin at Wolf Trap Opera.