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. 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), Welcome to the Madness (Opera Steamboat) 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 Eat the Document (PROTOTYPE 2025), 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), and most recently on Sensorium Ex (BMP, VIA, Opera Omaha 2025).

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. milahenry.com

Outside of AOP, Mila maintains an active and versatile career, leading works spanning rock musicals (These Girls Have Demons, Pittsburgh CLO; Something Blue, Page 73) to folk operas (The World is Round, Ripe Time, Obie-winner), multi-composer collaborations (Magdalene, PROTOTYPE; Words on the Street, Baruch Performing Arts Center; SWELL, HERE) to multi-persona monodramas (Love & Trouble, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra), classical traditions (La liberazione di Ruggiero/The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace, Opera Ithaca; Hansel and Gretel, Opera on Tap) to crossover rebellions (Barnum’s Bird, Circle in the Square’s Circle Series; The Moon’s Silent Modulation, Lincoln Center’s Atrium 360°). She prefers not to separate styles, but to blur boundaries, with the outlook that “music-theatre” is one overarching art form that welcomes all musical traditions.

A “terrific” pianist (Opera News), Mila traveled to Dutch National Opera and The Apollo for We Shall Not Be Moved (Opera Philadelphia; synthesizer double), LA Opera for Thumbprint (Beth Morrison Projects, PROTOTYPE; harmonium double), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for Persona (BMP) and the Library of Congress for Fierce Grace: Jeannette Rankin (OPERA America), in addition to playing for the premieres of Looking at You (HERE) and Mata Hari (PROTOTYPE) in her home base of New York. She has worked extensively with BMP and HERE, participating in eight PROTOTYPE festivals and serving as répétiteur for Anatomy Theater, Angel’s Bone, difficulty of crossing a field, Ouroboros Trilogy, p r i s m and The Scarlet Ibis. She has also collaborated with American Lyric Theater, Experiments in Opera, Opera on Tap and OPERA America (including their Creators in Concert series with Anthony Davis, Laura Kaminsky, Missy Mazzoli and Kamala Sankaram), and previously served as Assistant Conductor for the AOP premieres of As One (BAM), The Blind (Lincoln Center) and Harriet Tubman (Irondale Center).

She has performed at Brooklyn Museum, Café Sabarsky, Feinstein’s/54 Below, The Greene Space, Merkin Concert Hall, National Sawdust, The Schomburg Center, The Stone and Symphony Space; on the FERUS, FringeNYC, New York Musical and Queens New Music festivals, the New York Festival of Song, and the NOVA and Phoenix Concerts series; and alongside Either/Or, Hotel Elefant and Refugee Orchestra Project.

She can be heard on the albums Later the Same Evening (Albany Records), Love & Trouble (Roven Records, with Adrienne Danrich), Thumbprint (National Sawdust Tracks) and Voices of Women (Affetto Records, with Heather Fetrow). She is also a core member of the alt-country band Opera Cowgirls, showcasing her eight years as a percussionist and her growing folk instrument collection, including the accordion, autoharp, melodica and ukulele.

A native of the Philadelphia area, Mila holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music, Collaborative Piano) and Elizabethtown College (Bachelor of Arts in Music, Piano).

www.milahenry.com

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