Since 1995 Carol Rausch has served as Music Administrator/Chorus Master, overseeing the musical components of the company and the Young Artist Program. 

Carol is also the Chorus Master/Music Administrator for the New Orleans Opera. She has won awards for both choral direction and for the company’s success in arts education throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Carol has previously worked for Virginia Opera, Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera), Ohio Light Opera and Opera Columbus. She has taught at The Ohio State University and has been on the staffs of Kenyon College and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Carol is currently head of the opera department at Loyola University New Orleans, where she has musically prepared and conducted numerous performances. In January 2018 the city of New Orleans hosted the National Opera Association conference, for which Loyola produced Tom Cipullo’s award-winning chamber opera After Life. 

Carol has performed as a member of the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and the Metamorphosis Chamber Ensemble. She has remained active as a coach and recital pianist, including concerts with Jennifer Rowley, Marquita Lister, Fabiana Bravo, Ned Barth, Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, Greer Grimsley, Luretta Bybee, Anthony Laciura, Melanie Helton, Brenda Harris and Bryan Hymel. Carol often accompanies the Gulf Coast regional auditions for the Metropolitan Opera National Council and has judged both the district and regional levels of competition throughout the U.S. 

Carol holds degrees from Indiana University and The Ohio State University, and she pursued a year of study at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels, Belgium, as a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellow. Her piano teachers have included Jorge Bolet, Earl Wild, Richard Tetley-Kardos and Sonja Anschütz.