Sam Brown is a stage director based in London. He read Classics at Oxford and completed the MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck College, London. He was assistant director at West Yorkshire Playhouse and staff director for Opera North. In partnership with designer Annemarie Woods he was honoured with two prestigious international opera awards in 2011: the European Opera Directing Prize and the Ring Award in Graz – where they won all available prizes.
Sam Brown made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera with Sigurd the Dragonslayer by Andy Pape. His directorial career led him subsequently to ENO and WNO, and to opera houses all over Europe: Klagenfurt, Graz, Lucerne, Geneva, Karlstad, Karlsruhe, Munich, Cottbus, Darmstadt, Trier, and Regensburg. He directed the world premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest by Gerald Barry in Nancy and put Phyllis Tate’s BBC-commissioned opera The Lodger successfully on stage in Bremerhaven.
Sam Brown had his Viennese debut at Theater an der Wien with Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in 2019. Starring Nina Stemme in the title role, a semi-staged Fidelio was premiered in Sweden’s Örebro and subsequently performed in Stockholm, Paris, Brussels and Essen. He shall stage Lucia di Lammermoor in Osnabrück in the forthcoming season.