Donna Racik

Met Assistant Conductor and Prompter Donna Racik first developed a love for music in her hometown of Newark, Delaware, and went on to earn both her Bachelor’s degree and Master of Music degree in piano performance at New York’s Mannes College of Music. Shortly thereafter she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to continue further studies as an opera coach in Milan, Italy. During her second year in Italy, she had the opportunity to study prompting and conducting and observe rehearsals and performances at La Scala, one of the most prestigious opera theaters in the world, as well as to further immerse herself in Italian language and culture.

On her return to the US in 1986, she was offered the opportunity to work with a prompter at the Met and observe rehearsals there. Within a year and a half, she was invited to join the company as a prompter, and made her prompting debut.  In her thirty -two years at the Met she has worked on more than 80 operas with nearly all of the world’s leading singers and conductors, in a wide variety of repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary, including several world premieres.