Richard Owen is one of the most gifted and visionary musicians of the modern era. Of his debut in Austria, The Wiener Zeitung (Vienna News) proclaimed: “Maestro Owen must be a genius… how flowing and musical this young American was able to realize the music from the podium.” Combing a successful career as a conductor, educator, entrepreneur, pianist and organist, Maestro Owen is music director of Camerata NY Orchestra, St. Jean Baptiste Church & Adelphi Orchestra and is co-director of the Owen Music Academy. Over the past decade he has collaborated with guest artists such as Alec Baldwin, Alvin Ailey and Aprile Millo in concerts in Carnegie Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Lincoln Center, among others.

His vast repertoire includes symphony, opera, choral, ballet, jazz, pop and modern dance and he has performed internationally throughout Europe and North and South America. As a director of the Owen Music Academy, he is also committed  to fostering the development of the next generation of great classically trained musicians. He was formerly on the conducting staff of the NY Philharmonic (cover conductor) as well as the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf).  This past season, Mr. Owen conducted Nutcracker with the Donetsk State Ballet,  Dvorak Symphony No. 7 with the Adelphi Orchestra, the Messiah with Camerata New York and the St. Jean Baptiste Festival Chorus and Orfeo with Mannes Opera and Martha Graham Dancers.

In past seasons, Mo. Owen has conducted the Little Opera Theater of New York (Gluck’s The Reformed Drunkard), with Rioult Dance (M. Torke’s Iphigenia – World Premiere), the Center for Contemporary Opera (Night of the Living Dead) and was invited to conduct along side Mo. Kent Nagano with the Montreal Symphony in a performance of Carmina Burana to an audience of over 40,000.

Mr. Owen has conducted in Germany with the Ost/West Symphonie and Kammer Orchester; in Vienna with the Europa Symphony, Camerata Internazionale and Pro-Arte Orchestra; in Mexico with the Monterrey Symphony; in Poland with the Rzeszow Philharmonic; and in Serbia with the Belgrade National Philharmonic. In the United States, he has conducted, among others, the New York Philharmonic (Reading), the Altoona Symphony (as a candidate for Music Director), the Bleecker Street Opera (Artistic Director), Delaware Valley Opera and Amore Opera (Music Director). He was formerly the Music Director of the Columbia University Glee Club, was a conducting associate at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and was a visiting conducting associate at the San Francisco Opera.

Mr. Owen has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Opera News, Newsday and on New York classical radio stations WQXR and WMNR, Polish, Serbian and Mexican Radio and Television as well as SiriusXM.

Mr. Owen was a semifinalist in the 7th Fitelberg International Competition for Young Conductors. He also completed a recording for Albany Records of the opera “Rain” by R. Owen Sr., which had its fully staged world premiere in Lincoln Center under his direction. Owen was born in New York City into a musical family. He began studying piano and voice at age five and sang as a boy soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in productions with Pavarotti and Domingo under the baton of James Levine, among others. Mr. Owen graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was a recipient of a piano scholarship. He received his Masters the Manhattan School of Music and studied conducting at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. Mr. Owen speaks Italian, Polish, German and French. Mr. Owen performs regularly with his wife, a professional cellist, singer and organist, and they have three musical sons with whom he also performs. In recent seasons, the whole family performed Amahl and the Night Visitors in several venues in New York.