Avi Stein has served as Artistic Director of The Helicon Foundation since 2013. Avi is also the associate organist and chorus master at Trinity Church Wall Street and on faculty at the Juilliard School where he teaches continuo accompaniment, vocal repertoire, and chamber music.
The New York Times described Avi as "a brilliant organ soloist" in his Carnegie Hall debut. Avi has directed the International Baroque Academy of Musiktheater Bavaria, and the young artists’ program at the Carmel Bach Festival. He has conducted a variety of ensembles, including Tafelmusik, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Opera Français de New York.
Avi conducted Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Juilliard in a production that toured in London’s Holland Park and at the Royal Opera House at the Palace of Versailles. His production last season at Juilliard, Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo, was named one of the best performances of 2021 by The New York Times.
He performed on the 2015 Grammy Award-winning recording for best opera by the Boston Early Music Festival. Avi studied at Indiana University, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California and was a Fulbright scholar in Toulouse, France.