Richard Teaster has served as Director of Music at First Baptist Church since 2004. He grew up in northeast Tennessee in Kingsport with one sister who now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance in 1986. He also received a Master’s Degree in 1989 in Vocal Performance from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He came to Pittsburgh in 1997 to sing with the Pittsburgh Opera Center and is currently on faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. He resides on Pittsburgh’s Northside and in his spare time, he enjoys going to the Farmer’s Market, swimming, foreign films, cooking, ethnic restaurants and performing in community opera productions such as “La Boheme” and “Elixir of Love.