A veteran of 33 seasons at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Eric Weimer has served as Assistant Conductor for some 130 mainstage productions there, as well as preparing an additional 120 productions for the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Canadian Opera Company, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Bayreuth Festival. In this work has collaborated with, coached, accompanied and assisted most of the world’s great opera maestri and singers of the past 35 years. While famous as a German specialist—he has prepared no less than seventeen complete cycles of Wagners’s Der Ring des Nibelungen – he is known also for the breadth of his experience with other repertoires, particularly the Baroque and the Italian. A former musicologist, Dr. Weimer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is the author of Opera seria and the Evolution of Classical Style —he is also in great demand as a coach of young singers. He has been a member of the music staff of Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center since 1992 and has also held numerous residencies with the other principal opera training programs in the US. Increasingly active also as conductor, recent seasons saw him on the podium for two performances of Der fliegende Hollaender with the Washington National Opera as well as runs of L’elisir d’amore, La fille du regiment and Carmen.