Valerie Pool, pianist, begins her second season as resident coach with The Atlanta Opera in September 2017. She has also been a member of music staff with Cincinnati Opera since 2014, where her main projects this past summer were to serve as rehearsal pianist and coach for Song from the Uproar (Mazzoli), Frida (Rodriguez) and the Washington Park Concert, as well as coordinating supertitles. Prior residencies include Tulsa Opera (2014-2016) where her assignments included Samson et Dalila, A Streetcar Named Desire, La Bohème, Of Mice and Men, and a studio performance of Florencia en el Amazonas, among others. Additionally, she has worked as pianist, coach, and répétiteur with Opera Saratoga (New York), Cincinnati Chamber Opera, Nashville Opera’s Mary Ragland Young Artist Program, and Capitol City Opera (Atlanta). She was the Studio Pianist for the Wagner Society of Cincinnati (2012-2014), with performances including a musical analysis of Parsifal, the Wesendonck Lieder, and a collaboration with Cincinnati Opera of Die Walküre.

A native of Marietta, Georgia, Valerie completed her Artist Diploma in Opera Coaching at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She also holds a master’s degree in Chamber Music and Accompanying from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Kennesaw State University. Valerie has participated in the collaborative piano and opera programs at SongFest at Pepperdine (California), the International Performing Arts Institute (Germany), Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Asolo Song Festival (Italy), the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz (Austria), and Brevard Music Center.