Sam Helfrich is an opera and theater director based in New York. He has directed opera productions at Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto Festival/USA, Virginia Opera, Opera Boston, Pittsburgh Opera and Wolf Trap, among others. Recent opera highlights include Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at Virginia Opera, Lermontov’s Masquerade (accompanied by the Brooklyn String Orchestra), the world premiere of Enemies: A Love Story, by Ben Moore, at Palm Beach Opera; Embedded, by composer Patrick Soluri, at Fargo-Moorhead Opera; Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at Virginia Opera; Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at Eugene Opera; André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Virginia Opera; the American premiere of Philip Glass' Kepler at Spoleto Festival/USA; Adams' Nixon in China at Eugene Opera; a fully staged Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; the world premiere of Michael Dellaira's The Secret Agent at Center for Contemporary Opera in New York; the Armel Opera Festival in Hungary and Opera Avignon; The Turn of the Screw at Boston Lyric Opera; Philip Glass' Orphée at Pittsburgh Opera, Virginia Opera, Portland Opera and Glimmerglass Opera; and Anthony Davis’ Amistad at Spoleto Festival/USA. 

Recent theater credits include Arthur Miller’s After The Fall at NYU/Tisch Grad Acting, off-Broadway productions of Owned, a world premier play by Julian Sheppard, and Tape, by Stephen Belber, both of which played to wide audience and critical acclaim, and a double bill of plays by Shaw and De Musset at the Franklin Stage Company. 

Upcoming projects include Patrick Soluri’s Embedded at Ft. Worth Opera, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek at Boston Lyric Opera, Haydn’s Creation with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the world premiere of Dan Sonenberg’s The Summer King at Pittsburgh Opera. 

Helfrich is also an associate arts professor and head of dramaturgy in the graduate Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.