James Darrah joined The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music faculty as the director of Opera UCLA in 2024. Darrah is a GRAMMY Award-nominated director and of opera, theater and film who has become known for a singular cinematic elegance that is “experimenting and forging a new art form.” (The Wall Street Journal)

His recent work as a director, screenwriter, producer includes projects that continue to explore the merging of film, television and opera. He is the artistic director and chief creative officer of Long Beach Opera and was the creative director for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s digital content in 2020/21. In 2021/22 he also completed two cinematic opera projects with Boston Lyric Opera: a new stop motion animated feature-length film of Philip Glass’ Edgar Allan Poe adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher and the acclaimed world premiere of Desert In, an original operatic miniseries.

With Opera Philadelphia, he has made numerous new productions including the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves and was the producer, production designer and screenwriter for the  GRAMMY-nominated film adaptation of Soldier Songs by composer David T. Little. He wrote, directed, produced a film adaptation of Poulenc’s La voix humaine starring the soprano Patricia Racette.

His track record developing and directing acclaimed stage world premieres includes Kate Soper’s The Romance of the Rose (Long Beach Opera) in 2023, Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m (LA Opera/Prototype), Missy Mazzoli’s operas Breaking the Waves (Opera Philadelphia) and Proving Up (Opera Omaha/Miller Theater New York), Michael Tilson Thomas’ Four Preludes on Playthings on the Wind (SF Symphony, LA Phil, New World Symphony), The Brightness of Light by Kevin Puts with Reneé Fleming at Tanglewood ( Boston Symphony Orchestra),  and Academy Award-winner John Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries (Santa Fe Opera). He also has crafted the U.S. West Coast premieres of Jennifer Higdon’s opera Cold Mountain and Jonathan Dove’s The Other Euridice and Flight. Darrah’s music videos for opera artists including Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Józef Orlinski are known for “enigmatic twists” (NPR) and have been distributed by the Warner Music and Erato record labels. Darrah was previously artistic director of Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival from 2016-2021, where he was praised for “expanding the boundaries of the operatic form” (The Wall Street Journal) by establishing a first-of-its-kind residency for artists in the operatic genre.

James Darrah is a native of San Antonio, Texas and lives in Los Angeles, California.