Eileen Downey is currently Vocal Coach and Distinguished Lecturer of Collaborative Piano at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she also works frequently in collaboration with the Knoxville Opera Company. This year, Downey will be performing at the College Music Society National Conference in Washington, D.C., teaching a residency at Vanderbilt University, and coaching and performing as a faculty member of the Adult Chamber Music Intensive with the Knoxville Chamber Music Society.

During the 2022-23 season, Downey was a featured performer at the African American Art Song Alliance Conference, a guest clinician for events with the National Association of Teachers of Singing at the University of South Carolina and Austin Peay State University, and performed in Opera Roanoke’s production of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied. She joined the faculty of SongFest at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN, and returned to her position as opera coach at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

Downey was chorusmaster, vocal coach, and Music Director for the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center for six summer seasons between 2013 and 2019, and is frequently contracted to be a pianist for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition.

Downey is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program and has participated in numerous other programs including Opera North, SongFest, Aspen Opera Theater Center, Project Canción Española, and the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. Downey received a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and a Master’s Degree in Collaborative Piano from Michigan State University.