A Julliard graduate, Laurie Anne Hunter was the fourth woman ever to conduct at New York City Opera.

Laurie Anne Hunter’s multi-faceted career was already under way when she was in high school, even though she may not have realized it.

“I was accompanying for the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, ‘The Gondoliers’,” she explained. “The singers were all my best friends, and I helped them learn their parts. And since the show was not conducted, I was essentially leading from the piano. I didn’t know it at the time, but basically that was vocal coaching and musical directing.”

A Julliard graduate, the Medford woman has enjoyed a long and successful career as a conductor, vocal coach, performer and accompanist. She’s currently music directing for Collaborative Theatre Project’s “Into the Woods,” playing in Medford through May 28.

The complex Sondheim musical can be an ambitious undertaking for a music director. Accompanying on the keyboard instead of conducting an orchestra for the CTP production presents its own set of issues.

“My biggest challenge was playing from a conductor’s score, which is not necessarily playable on the piano as written,” she said. “Also, since our singers are not mic’d in this production, I chose to leave out or edit some of the underscoring (music under dialogue).”

The score leaves out most of the script, so she ended up largely creating her own score with music-notation software.

“I included enough of the dialogue so I know what cues to listen for,” she said. “Even so, a lot of the music is still very challenging to play on the piano.”

Opera conductor

A native of Pasadena, California, Hunter, 64, spent five seasons as assistant conductor and vocal coach with New York City Opera, becoming the fourth woman ever to conduct there when she made her Lincoln Center debut with Marc Blitzstein’s “Regina” in 1992.

She was the designated “cover” conductor for the production, but when the scheduled conductor was let go, she was not immediately allowed to step in.

“I was first asked to teach the show to another conductor, who then led a somewhat disastrous orchestra rehearsal,” she said. “And then I proved myself by conducting a successful piano dress rehearsal. Even so, I was given very short notice, as in the day of the orchestra dress rehearsal, that I would conduct the run of the show.”

Giving her confidence was knowing the show really well from having played piano for all the rehearsals. She also understood the pacing of the show, and the needs of the individual singers.

The situation required a lot of positive self-motivation. That included a preshow meditation, sitting in the theater and imagining standing on the podium with her presence expanding to encompass those onstage, in the orchestra pit, and in the audience.

“The positive response from others and in the press was quite overwhelming and, frankly, life-changing for me,” she said.

Hunter went on to conduct “Showboat” in New York, “Phantom of the Opera” in Toronto, and worked with many regional opera companies in the U.S. and Canada.

Career course adjustment

Hunter faced the usual challenges of a woman breaking into the male-dominated field of conducting.

“Besides feeling the need to be extra prepared, the biggest challenge was psychological,” she said. “I had to be very driven and deny my femininity in order to succeed. In the end, it took a toll on my health.”

Largely because of that experience, she made a career course adjustment.

“I decided it was more important to my personal development to embrace my feminine side and become a balanced and happy human being than to be a successful conductor,” she said.

It was the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that brought her to the Rogue Valley in 2001, hiring her to be music director and pianist for “Enter the Guardsman.”

Following that, she was brought in to coach singers on some other OSF shows, as well as working on the premiere of “Tracy’s Tiger” in 2007.

“The most memorable thing, though, is that I met my now deceased husband at OSF,” she said. “Frank Sullivan ran sound for ‘Enter the Guardsman’ and his studio, Sullivan Recording, produced a lot of the incidental music used in subsequent plays, many for which I also played.”

Over the years since moving here, Hunter has worked as artistic director for Rogue Valley Chorale and has conducted for Oregon Cabaret Theatre, SOU Theater Arts, Rogue Opera and Brava! Opera.

She also has had gigs with other Rogue Valley music organizations and is the music director at First Presbyterian Church of Ashland.

Playing in ‘service’

A harpist as well, Hunter has used the instrument in hospice care. She discovered the joy of playing as “service” as opposed to “performance” when her elderly father broke his hip and shoulder in a fall.

“I volunteered to go in and play light classical and show tunes on the piano, and was blown away by the residents’ reactions,” she said.

“Shortly after my father’s death, my partner at the time built me a small harp from a kit. Then I met one of the teachers for the Music for Healing and Transition Program who invited me to a class about the use of music in hospice care and the grieving process.”

One of her most memorable moments playing for hospice patients involved a woman with dementia who had been a church musician, but had lost the capacity to speak.

“I pulled my harp up close to the bed so she could hold onto the harp column and feel the vibrations as I played familiar hymns. And she started to sing along! From that moment on, her daughter was able to sing with her mother during subsequent visits.”

Although she mostly has coached singers, Hunter also teaches piano and harp. The piano students she currently instructs range in age from 4 to 76.

How does she stay motivated with her busy schedule of practicing, performing, directing and teaching?

“I’ve learned that it’s really important for me to take breaks between projects,” she said. “If I’m doing too much, I just get run down. Being outside in nature or working in the garden is what rejuvenates me.”

Immediately following “Into the Woods,” she will be musical director for “Desperate Measures,” also at Collaborative Theatre Project.

The sound you just heard was the breaking of her taking breaks rule.

“But sometimes we just have to take what comes!” she laughed.

For more information about the CTP plays she’s working on or to purchase tickets, go to ctpmedford.org.