Quickly earning a reputation as New York’s premier “Indie Opera” conductor, Peter Szep is known for his “tremendously affecting” accounts of difficult works. His production of “Il Tabarro” performed on an oil tanker at the Red Hook container port received critical acclaim in The New York Times and was called “exhilarating” by Brian Kellow in Opera News. Peter Szep is Music Director of Vertical Player Repertory (www.vpropera.org) in New York, where he will be conducting a site specific production of "A View from a Bridge" performed in the Red Hook neighborhood in which the opera is set. Other engagements have included a concert with The Windham Orchestra in Brattleboro Vermont, Darius Milhaud's “Médée” with the Vertical Player Repertory in New York City, and several appearanced at AMC Mountains and Music. This Summer at the Stonington Opera House he will be conducting the Premier of Maia Abrahamian's opera Burt Dow: Deep Water Man, based on the children's book by Robert McCloskey.

Though trained as an orchestra conductor and passionate about the classical repertoire, Mr. Szep has dedicated much of his career to championing new opera works, recently working on the world premier of Harold Farberman's “Diamond Street,” at the Hudson Opera House which they co-conducted (A recording of their collaboration is being released on Albany records this year). Other premiers that Mr. Szep has conducted include the New England premier of Ned Rorem's "Our Town" in the actual town that inspired the original play by Thornton Wilder; Anna Dembska’s “The Singing Bridge” at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle Maine; the premier of “The Bee Opera” by Sorrel Hayes; and the premier of David Rodwin’s opera, “The Sound of Waves: A Prayer Cycle,” which was produced as part of the Mabou Mines’ Suite program.

Mr. Szep was also on the production staff on the American premier of Janacek’s Osud, conducted by Leon Botstein, and worked as a video artist in the multimedia production of Don Juan in Prague at the Fischer Center for the Performing Arts featuring one of the most remarkable personalities in Czech music, Iva Bittova.

Since 2003, Peter Szep has also been the Music Director of The Raylynmor Opera Company, based in New Hampshire. Mr. Szep has conducted many operas of the standard repertory there including Tosca, Carmen, La Traviata, Cenerentola, and Don Giovanni among others.