about

Mila Henry is a conductor, pianist and music director who maintains a versatile career, leading works spanning folk operas to rock musicals to reimagined classics. Her 2024-25 season includes conducting Welcome to the Madness (Opera Steamboat) and Pierrot Lunaire (City Lyric Opera); serving as music director/pianist for Eat the Document (PROTOTYPE); coaching Sensorium Ex (BMP, VIA); and concert work with the Brooklyn Art Song Society.

Hailed “a stalwart contributor to the contemporary opera scene” (Opera Ithaca), Mila’s musical theater upbringing has lent itself extensively to finding a niche in works that defy genre. She frequently collaborates with Beth Morrison Projects (BMP), PROTOTYPE and VisionIntoArt (VIA), with past collaborations taking her to American Lyric Theater, American Opera Projects (AOP Artistic Director, 2019-2023), BalletCollective, Circle in the Square (Circle Series), Experiments in Opera (EiO), HERE, Hoi-Polloi, The Industry, La MaMa, McCarter Theatre, Miller Theatre, OPERA America, Opera on Tap (OOT), Overtone Industries, Page 73 and Pittsburgh CLO; and BerkleeNYC, College Light Opera Company, Columbia University, NYU Tisch and Princeton University.

As a conductor, her credits include Magdalene (PROTOTYPE, CalArts REDCAT), The Old Man and the Sea (BMP, VIA) and Letters That You Will Not Get (AOP). She assisted on The Night Falls (BalletCollective, PEAK Performances), and the AOP premieres of As One (BAM), The Blind (Lincoln Center Festival) and Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom (Irondale).

Equally comfortable helming from the piano, Mila provided music direction for Words on the Street (Baruch PAC) and The Hunt (Miller Theatre), and was the vocal director for the Obie-winning The World is Round (Ripe Time). She is still active as a répétiteur, with past productions including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone and p r i s m (PROTOTYPE), and the groundbreaking Iphigenia (Real Magic, Octopus Theatricals).

She continued into the pit as principal pianist for We Shall Not Be Moved (Opera Philadelphia, The Apollo, Dutch National Opera), Thumbprint (PROTOTYPE, LA Opera), Looking at You (HERE, OOT, EiO) and Mata Hari (PROTOTYPE). Her supportive approach has allowed her to help shape countless new works with some of the leading creators in Broadway, opera and beyond, including Lileana Blain-Cruz, Heather Christian, Bill T. Jones, George Lewis, Missy Mazzoli, Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding.

A “terrific” pianist (Opera News), she has performed at the Library of Congress, Merkin Concert Hall, Feinstein’s/54 Below, The Stone and Joe’s Pub, and with Death of Classical, New York Festival of Song, NOVA and Up Until Now Collective. She is a member of Brooklyn Art Song Society’s New Music Advisory Board and a Maestra mentor, and has participated on grant panels for New Music USA and OPERA America.

Mila holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music, Collaborative Piano) and Elizabethtown College (Bachelor of Arts in Music, Piano). She is based in New York, and was nicknamed a “Jill of all trades” (Sullivan County Democrat) for her multi-instrumentalist work with The Opera Cowgirls.