This interview was originally posted by the NEA on October 25, 2010.
The Oral History Project is supported by the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation. 

Eve Queler, conductor

Early in her career, conductor Eve Queler served as rehearsal accompanist and coach with the Metropolitan Opera Studio, and between 1965 and 1970, was an assistant conductor to Julius Rudel at the New York City Opera. In 1968, she created the New York Opera Workshop (which would later become the Opera Orchestra of New York) to present concerts by established opera performers and emerging talents. As music director of Opera Orchestra of New York, Queler has shepherded the institution since its establishment and has conducted more than 100 operas in concert at Carnegie Hall. Queler has presented long-neglected and little-known operas, many of which had rarely or never been heard in the United States. She has also provided critical early exposure to many opera luminaries such as Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, James Morris, Lauren Flanigan, Stephanie Blythe, and Deborah Voigt. In 2002, Queler was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her commitment to French operas.

Queler was a 2010 recipient of the NEA Opera Honors, a program administered by the National Endowment for the Arts from 2008 to 2011. The NEA Opera Honors recipients are now recognized in OPERA America’s Opera Hall of Fame.