Ken Weiss has been principal coach of the Cafritz Young Artists at Washington National Opera since 2004, training singers and pianistswho have launched careers in major companies around the world. He joined Washington National Opera as an assistant conductor in 1998, and has helped prepare more than 100 productions as pianist, cover conductor or diction coach. Through the company’s American Opera Initiative and other commissioning projects he has taken a leading role in the development and preparation of more than 30 world premieres, including works by Missy Mazzoli, Kamala Sankaram, Jeanine Tesori, and Scott Wheeler. He has served as chorus master for WNO productions of A View from the Bridge, Lucrezia Borgia, and Iphigénie en Tauride, and is a principal lecturer for WNO’s Opera Insight pre-concert talks. Work outside WNO includes coaching for CCM Spoleto, Opera Theater of Lucca, the CCM Opera Bootcamp, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera North, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, as well as masterclasses for the University of Maryland and Baldwin-Wallace College and a seminar on opera for the Smithsonian Institution.