Opera stage director and new works collaborator, Carmen C. Kruse, grew up in Carinthia and Hamburg. She now lives in Vienna. Fed by first-hand accounts, her directing work is shaped by an in-depth, psychological exploration of broad societal themes and their effects on individuals. For these she creates immersive, live experiences that change the relationship between orchestra and dramatic action, and present archaic worlds that inspire and empower. She gave her directing debut with Cavalli's L’Egisto at the Halifax Summer Opera Festival in 2017. Further productions brought Kruse to a.o. the Osterfestspielen Baden-Baden, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatsoper Stuttgart, and the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt. Kruse won the CROSS Award in Italy (2019), the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden Directing Competition (2018), and was a finalist of the Fondazione Haydn Stiftung OPER.A 20.21 Competition (2019) as well as the NOperas! Competition (2021). She is an Alumna of the Akademie Musiktheater heute of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Directing Scholarship, 2017-19), the Women Opera Makers Workshop with Katie Mitchell at L’Académie du Festival d’Aix (2020), the BMP: Producers Academy in New York (2020) and the Lincoln Center Theaters Directors Lab in New York (2018). She collected first opera experiences in Australia, the US, and Canada, before studying music and media management with a focus on opera and innovation in Munich and San Diego. Currently, she is enrolled in the Executive Master in Arts Administration program in Zurich.