Biography

• MM, accompanying, Manhattan School of Music
• BS, music merchandising, Hofstra University

George Hemcher is the career development coordinator for the Center for Performing and Cinematic Arts. Prior to joining the administrative staff at Temple, he was the youth opera coordinator for Sarasota Youth Opera (SYO) at Sarasota Opera in Florida. His role spanned work from youth opera productions and mainstage productions to educational outreach and community outreach. Hemcher was an assistant conductor for SYO's world premiere of Rachel J. Peters' Rootabaga Country, Britten's The Little Sweep and Hans Krása’s Brundibár. For mainstage productions, he was the assistant conductor for Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and children's chorus master for Puccini's Turandot and La bohème. Outside of his music engagements, Hemcher was on the board of directors for the Fabulous Arts Foundation, Inc. fostering LGBTQ+ artists as a catalyst for political and social change and was on the steering committee of OPERA America's Community Engagement and Education Network.

When he was based in New York, Hemcher worked as a collaborative pianist with arts organizations including Delaware Valley Opera, Pocket Opera of New York, Regina Opera, Light Opera of New York, eVoco Voice Collective, Oyster Bay Music Festival, Venture Opera, Vancouver Concert Opera Society and Floating Opera New York which produced Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande on a barge in Redhook, Brooklyn. Hemcher has been a ballet pianist for USDAN Summer Camp for the Arts and music director for Bethel Woods Center for the Arts summer camps. He was a staff pianist for the vocal departments at Queens College, Brooklyn College, and Barnard College and was the Music Director of the Opera Scenes program at Hofstra University. Hemcher has worked on over 40 operatic productions by composers including Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Donizetti, Britten, Gounod and Offenbach. He played piano for Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) on the world premiere of Cristian Grases' Nocturnos y Adivinanzas at Carnegie Hall as well as Steven Sametz' Carmina Amoris, Donald McCullough's In the Shadow of the Holocaust, Zane Zalis' I believe, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem, Tim Sharp/Wes Ramsey's A High, Lonesome Bluegrass Mass, the Verdi Requiem, and Tarik O'Regan's Tryptich and The Ecstasies Above.