Peter Sellars

Peter Sellars

Peter Sellars has gained international renown for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of twentieth century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative and performing artists.

He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opéra National de Paris, Salzburg Festival, and San Francisco Opera, among others. Sellars has collaborated on the creation of many works with composer John Adams, including Nixon in China, the Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, and Girls of the Golden West. Inspired by the compositions of Kaija Saariaho, he has guided the creation of productions of her work (L’Amour de loin, Adriana Mater, Only the Sound Remains) that have expanded the repertoire of modern opera.

In 2022, Sellars created a staging of the Roman de Fauvel at the Théâtre du Châtelet in collaboration with Benjamin Bagby, founder of the Sequentia Ensemble. Also in 2022, he staged composer Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), featuring artwork by Julie Mehretu, for the Park Avenue Armory in New York. A revival of Sellars’ acclaimed production of Tristan und Isolde, with videography by artist Bill Viola, was presented at the Opéra National de Paris in early 2023.

Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro, Sellars’ widely extolled collaboration with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, has toured extensively.

Sellars is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and a resident curator of the Telluride Film Festival. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, and the Gish Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize and been named Artist of the Year by Musical America. In the fall of 2021, he was honored with the EBU-IMZ Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of opera video recordings