Kazem Abdullah is currently an Assistant and Cover Conductor for the Metropolitan Opera, working under Music Director James Levine. On January 28, 2008, Mr. Abdullah made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Gluck’s Orfeo. Additionally he assisted James Levine in Der Ring des Nibelungen. Mr. Abdullah’s orchestra engagements in the 2008-2009 season will include the Indianapolis Symphony, The New World Symphony and the Mexico City Philharmonic. During the 2007-08 season he served under Kirill Petrenko for Die Zauberflöte, Louis Langree for Iphigenie en Tauride, and Lorin Maazel for Die Walküre. His recent career has spanned an exciting mix of operatic, orchestral, and chamber music performances, including, notably, his short-notice substitution into performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Tanglewood Music Center during the summer of 2007. In his tenure as a conducting fellow during Tanglewood 2006 and 2007, Mr. Abdullah’s highlights included a complete performance of Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, a concert of Haydn’s Symphony No. 92, Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin and Brahms’ Serenade No. 2. He also worked closely with the American composer Charles Wuorinen on his compositions during the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Kazeem Abdullah has conducted productions for several opera companies in the United States including the Baltimore Opera, Chautauqua Opera, the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera and the Young Artists Studio of the Florida Grand Opera. Maestro Abdullah’s additional conducting credits include the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa, the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, the Berliner Kammerphilharmonie, and Finnish Radio Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic. Trained as a clarinetist, he has appeared as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony, National Symphony, and the New World Symphony. He began his music studies at the age of ten and later graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 2000, and subsequently studied at the University of Southern California. His conducting teachers and coaches include Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, Stefan Asbury, Bernard Haitink and James Levine.