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Artist Resources
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Connect with peers, learn new skills and meet industry experts. OPERA America brings you closer to the people you need to know, including managers, arts administrators and fellow artists at Making Connections — professional development and networking events in New York City. Attend informative workshops, panel discussions and artist spotlights with influential professionals in the field, followed by receptions where you can enjoy refreshments and conversation with your colleagues.
When: Wednesdays, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., followed by a reception
Where: OPERA America, 330 Seventh Avenue (at 29th Street)
Fees: As noted, many events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited; advanced reservations are strongly encouraged. Additional events are $15 for members and $20 for non-members; be sure to log in to register at the member rate. Registration is limited to 20 for paid events to ensure ample one-on-one time with session leaders. Advanced registration is required.
Not in NYC? Free events will also be streamed live on the OPERA America homepage.
For information on hosting a Making Connections event in your city, please click here.
2011-2012 Making Connections Schedule
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September 21, 2011
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STAGES OF DEVELOPING A NEW WORK
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| The road to creating a new opera is paved with questions. Who should be on the creative team? How do you know when a work is ready for the next stage of development? When do you let the public hear it? At this session, hear from artists and administrators at the forefront of contemporary opera and gain insight into how new works are created, developed and produced. |
• John Glover, composer View Bio
• Beth Greenberg, director View Bio
• Jim Schaeffer, Center for Contemporary Opera View Bio
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September 28, 2011
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EFFECTIVE AUDITIONS — FREE
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| An effective audition package showcases the best of your vocal abilities and gives a glimpse into your artistic point of view. Even if you don’t get the part, you can still make an impact on the auditioners. Learn strategies for an effective audition season at this session featuring panelists from both sides of the audition table. |
• Alexandra Bacon, Barrett Vantage Artists View Bio
• Philip Cutlip, baritone View Bio
• Gordon Ostrowski, Manhattan School of Music View Bio
• Megan Young View Bio
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October 12, 2011
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HOW TO BE A TEACHING ARTIST
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| Teaching artists educate and engage with community members through work in schools, hospitals and other social services organizations. To be successful, teaching artists must possess a wide range of business and interpersonal skills in addition to talent and artistry. At this session for all opera artists, panelists will discuss the types of opportunities available to teaching artists and how you can obtain the skills needed for success. |
• Tom Cabaniss, composer View Bio
• Neil Ginsberg, composer View Bio
• Amy Kirkland, Weill Institute View Bio
• Camille Zamora, soprano View Bio
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November 3, 2011
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IN CONVERSATION WITH STEPHANIE BLYTHE — FREE
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| Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed opera artists of our time. She has performed at major opera houses all over the world in repertoire ranging from Handel to Wagner and this season she returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Rodelinda, Aida and the complete Ring Cycle. Join us as this singular artist discusses her craft and career with OPERA America President & CEO Marc A. Scorca. |
• Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano View Bio
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December 7, 2011
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ACTING RESOURCES FOR SINGERS
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| The days of "park and bark" are over. Opera singers today are expected to not only sing beautifully but give engaging dramatic portrayals as well. And like singing, developing your acting abilities is a life-long process. At this session, learn what resources exist to help singers improve their acting chops at all levels of career development. |
• Marc Astafan, stage director View Bio
• Amy Burton, soprano View Bio
• Chuck Hudson, director View Bio
• Jonah Nigh, Columbia University View Bio
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Podcasts
For those OPERA America members who are unable to attend the live events or would like to revisit them, podcasts of past Making Connections season are available by clicking here.
A sample podcast of September 24, 2008’s Crossing from Theater Directing to Opera is available to preview. [listen to podcast]
Information subject to change. Contact us with any questions: MakingConnections@operaamerica.org
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Making Connections is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
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Anne Adamowsky
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Anne Adamowsky has been a tax accountant for the past 10 years with the firm of Trudy C. Durant & Associates, LLC. The firm specializes in tax preparation and tax planning in all areas of performing arts and entertainment. Adamowsky is a graduate of SUNY Binghamton where she earned a degree in sociology. Her facility with finance and understanding of taxes, coupled with her people skills, led her to a successful career with an entrepreneur in the business field. After raising her two boys with her husband Jack, Adamowsky found the perfect niche in her present position, combining her love of the theater and her knowledge and skills in the intricacy and complexities of taxes.
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Marc Astafan
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Stage director Marc Astafan made his official debut on New Year’s Eve 1996 as director and choreographer of The Magic Flute at Eugene Opera in Oregon. Since then, he has crisscrossed the U.S. directing productions from Florida to Alaska, Massachusetts to Nevada. He made his New York debut with Opera Orchestra of New York in 1999, again with The Magic Flute, on the site of the Egyptian Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2000, Astafan joined the directing staff at the Metropolitan Opera as assistant director on 10 productions. In 2008, his production of Summer and Smoke was a feature of the Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown, MA. Career highlights include critically acclaimed productions of Tosca at Virginia Opera, Cendrillon and Rinaldo at Central City Opera, Romeo et Juliette at Syracuse Opera, La Cenerentola at Nevada Opera and La Calisto at New England Conservatory. Astafan is a longtime guest director for the Juilliard School and USC Thornton School of Music. He was recently named the new director and administrator of the Central City Opera Young Artist Program.
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Alexandra Bacon
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Born and raised in Boston, Alexandra Bacon graduated from The Park School and The Winsor School. She was trained as a classical pianist. Her music education includes New England Conservatory of Music (Preparatory School — receiving highest honors), Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Manhattan School of Music (B.M., piano). Ms. Bacon is currently the vice president of the vocal division of Barrett Vantage Artists (formerly Herbert Barrett Management). Prior to Barrett Vantage Artists, which she joined in 1986, she worked in the artist & repertoire department of Baldwin Piano. As a teacher, Ms. Bacon speaks regularly with young musicians about careers and management — recent engagements include Manhattan School of Music, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, University of Maryland School of Music, Westminster Choir College, VOICExperience Foundation, The Auditions Project and Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. She has participated as a panelist in previous OPERA America workshops (Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City and Cincinnati).
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Stephanie Blythe
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Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blytheis considered to be one of the most highly respected artists of her generation. Blythe has sung in many of the renowned opera houses in the U.S. and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Opera National de Paris. Her many roles include the title roles in Carmen, Samson et Dalila, Orfeo ed Euridice, La Grande Duchesse, Tancredi, Mignon and Guilio Cesare. This past season, Blythe appeared as Fricka in the Metropolitan Opera’s new productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, and made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Un ballo in maschera and The Mikado. This season, she returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Rodelinda, Aida and the complete Ring Cycle, and appears with the New York Philharmonic and with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra at Cal Performances.
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Larry Bomback
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Larry Bomback joined OPERA America in February 2008 as director of finance and operations. Prior to that, he managed the financial and administrative operations of the New York Youth Symphony. He is a member of Bridgestar's New York Nonprofit CFO Networking Group, and served on the finance and development committees and board of directors of the Bronx Charter School for the Arts. An opera enthusiast, Bomback has published articles in The Musical Times, Musicological Explorations, Opera America, Faust Studies and The Harmonizer, and he has presented lectures in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. Bomback received a B.A. from Haverford College and a M.A. from City College of New York.
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Amy Burton
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Amy Burtonis well known to New York audiences through her many performances with New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center Festival, New York Festival of Song, Chamber Music Society, the 92nd Street Y and Carnegie Hall, to name a few. Her opera and concert career has spanned the U.S., Europe, U.K., Israel and Japan. Her recordings include Souvenir de Printemps (Harbinger Records), Songs of John Musto (Bridge Records), Fond Affection (CRI), Gershwin’s Blue Monday (Angel/EMI), Richard Wilson’s Persuasions (Albany) and Paul Moravec’s Vita Brevis with Trio Solisti (Naxos). Highlights of recent seasons include the orchestral premiere of John Musto’s Quiet Songs, Corigliano’s Mister Tambourine Man with Marin Alsop, a one-woman show of French operetta at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre de Liceu and many recitals and cabaret performances with composer/pianist John Musto. Burton received the first Artist Advocate Award from OPERA America. She teaches at Mannes College of Music and at Songfest at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
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Thomas Cabaniss
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Thomas Cabaniss composes for opera, theater, dance, film and the concert stage. His choral works include Behold the Star, available on New World Records and published by Boosey & Hawkes. Recent works include three new orchestral commissions for Orchestra of St. Luke's and Carnegie Hall's Link UP! program (2010-2012), A Lad That is Gone and Watchman (2010), a cappella works for the Young People’s Chorus of NYC and Searching for Kristallnacht (2008), an oratorio for singers, musicians and actor. Other works include The Reclamation (2009); Noise + Speed (2008) and It’s All True (2007) for choreographer Hilary Easton; Three Sabbaths for the Columbia University Bach Society (2006); and Hilary Easton's The Short-Cut (2005). The Sandman, a chamber opera based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, premiered at the Connelly Theater in New York in 2002 and was revived again in 2003. Cabaniss spends much of his time working as a teaching artist in schools and community settings, leading songwriting workshops in homeless shelters, senior centers and hospitals. He is also a member of the faculty at The Juilliard School and a member of Target Margin Theater.
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Philip Cutlip
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Philip Cutlip's 2011-2012 season includes performances of Dido in Dido & Aeneas with Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra and Mark Morris Dance Group; Bach’s Cantata No. 192 and the Brahms Requiem with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra; a staged version of Handel’s Messiah with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; his return to New York City Opera as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte; Handel’s Alexander’s Feast with Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra; Carmina Burana with Memphis Symphony Orchestra; and Haydn’s The Seasons with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Recent highlights include his reprise of the title role in Philip Glass’s Orphée (Portland Opera), recorded for Orange Mountain Music, first performed for Glimmerglass Opera; Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles (Minnesota Opera); Ariodate in Serse (Houston Grand Opera); Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia (Toledo Opera); Valentin in Faust (Washington Concert Opera); Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (New York City Opera); Maurice Bendix in The End of the Affair (Seattle Opera); Zoroastro in Orlando (Moscow State Philharmonic Society); Bach cantatas (Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century at Concertgebouw); and Dvorák’s Te Deum and excerpts from Jacobin (Chicago Symphony Orchestra).
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Ana De Archuleta
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Ana De Archuleta has quickly established herself as one of the most sought after managers by rising young artists in the operatic field. Representing a thriving roster of vocalists and conductors worldwide, ADA Artists are seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera and throughout the U.S. as well as in Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and France. A business member of OPERA America and the American Symphony League, De Archuleta’s vast background in the arts has played a major role in her success. Her work now takes her to companies throughout the U.S., where she often works with the resident artists in master classes passing on insight into the business aspect of the opera world. She has given seminars at Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music, Westminster Choir College, Lake George Opera, Opera New Jersey, Minnesota Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, among others.
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Juliana Steele
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Juliana Steele joined the Fractured Atlas staff in June 2008 and is the program specialist for fiscal sponsorship. She received her master's degree from Pratt Institute in arts & cultural management, and also holds a B.A. in art history from Boston University. Before joining Fractured Atlas, she spent four years managing the historic Byrd Theatre, a nonprofit movie theater, in Richmond, VA. She was also the programming coordinator at The Tank, a nonprofit presenter of new and emerging artists in New York City.
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David B. Devan
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David B. Devan arrived at the Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP) in January as managing director. In March 2009, he was appointed to the position of executive director. Since his arrival, Devan has worked closely with the board and administration on strategic planning initiatives and building partnerships within the community. Key achievements born out of these initiatives have included the first cycle of the education department’s Hip H’Opera collaboration with Arts Sanctuary’s after-school program; the successful partnership between OCP, Curtis Institute of Music and Kimmel Center Presents to produce a fully-staged opera each season at the Perelman Theater with joint marketing strength; OCP’s selection for a Wallace Foundation Excellence Award to support marketing programs; and a $5 million fundraising campaign supporting the company’s artistic goals, of which $4.1 million has been raised in a most difficult economic climate. A native of Canada, Devan attended Brock University in Ontario and Stanford's University's Graduate School of Business Executive Program.
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Elena Dubas
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Elena Dubas is a program associate for NYFA Source at the New York Foundation for the Arts. Dubas adds and updates listings to the largest online database of artist resources across disciplines, and assists artists across disciplines in their business and technical questions. Also a working artist, primarily photography and video, Dubas lives and works in Brooklyn. She has been included in exhibitions at Chashama Times Square Gallery (New York City), The Kuhn Fine Arts Gallery (Ohio), and through solo and group exhibitions at Community Darkroom Gallery (Rochester) and Margaret Colacino Gallery (Rochester). Dubas holds an M.F.A. from SUNY Brockport through the Visual Studies Workshop and a B.S. from Nazareth College of Rochester.
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John Glover
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John Glover has composed music for theater, opera and the concert hall. Commissions from organizations and musicians including Houston Grand Opera, American Conservatory Theater (War Music), the Five Boroughs Music Festival and violist Liuh-wen Ting (Life-Cycles) have distinguished him as an emerging voice in contemporary music. Glover has received numerous awards, fellowships and grants for his music from organizations, including Meet the Composer, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Thornton School of Music at USC and the American Music Center. Current projects include a one-act opera, Our Basic Nature, being developed by American Opera Projects and Nautilus Music Theater. He received his undergraduate training in composition with a focus in saxophone performance from Indiana University and his Master’s degree in composition from the University of Southern California. Glover also writes notes, articles and online courses for organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Glimmerglass Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Carnegie Hall and OPERA America. He currently lives in New York City where he co-curates the music/art series NewYorksoundCircuit at the Brecht Forum, a grass-roots organization dedicated to premiering new works and finding the intersections between music and other art forms.
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Neil Ginsberg
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Neil Ginsberg is an educator, composer and musician currently living in Brooklyn. He is a workshop facilitator with OPERA America's Music! Words! Opera! program and a teaching artist with the International Schools Theater Association. He has developed music, musical theater and drama curriculum for arts programs at the Henry Street Settlement, Encore Summer Theater Program, Berkshire Ensemble for Theater Arts, Hotchkiss School Summer Portals, Young Peoples Center for Creative Arts, Harlem Day Charter School, Essex Street Academy High School and Brooklyn Friends School where he served as co-chair of the performing arts department. His choral works are published by Santa Barbara Music, Hal Leonard, GIA, Shawnee and Lorenz, and included on the American Choral Directors Association’s lists of recommended repertoire. He has written and orchestrated music for film, television and theater, and has music directed and accompanied productions Off-Broadway, regionally, with national touring companies and the Juilliard School of Drama.
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Beth Greenberg
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Stage director Beth Greenberg is best known for her work at New York City Opera. For the Lincoln Center company she's directed original mainstage productions of Tales of Hoffmann and Turandot, and revivals including Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca, La traviata, Intermezzo and La bohème. Across the river, aboard an oil tanker moored in Red Hook, Brooklyn, she recently directed the site-specific Il tabarro. Greenberg has earned a reputation for her collaborations with living American composers. She works on all phases of a new show's development from early libretto and workshop readings to fully-staged productions. Her colleagues include Mark Adamo, Gordon Beeferman, John Eaton, Elliot Goldenthal and Jorge Martin. Upcoming is the professional world premiere of Lori Laitman's The Scarlet Letter for Opera Colorado. She earned a Fulbright to Germany where she apprenticed with Gotz Friedrich at Berlin's Deutsche Oper. As an educator, she's been a mentor director for the SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers) Foundation, and has taught master classes at Mannes and Malibu's SongFest. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music and Brooklyn College.
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Sari Gruber
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Soprano Sari Gruber has sung with Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Netherlands Opera, Maggio Musicale di Firenze, Saito Kinen Festival, Seiji Ozawa’s Ongaku-Juku Opera Project, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Pacific and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, among others, performing leading roles including Susanna, Pamina, Norina, Adina, Gretel, Gilda, Juliette, Musetta, Ann Trulove, Alexandra in Regina, Anna in Seven Deadly Sins, Aricie in Hippolyte et Aricie, Poppea in Agrippina and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Concert credits include appearances with Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, Portland Baroque, Cincinnati Symphony and Aspen Music Festival Orchestra. Gruber has appeared in recital at Alice Tully and Weill Halls, with San Francisco Performances, Chicago Humanities Festival and New York Festival of Song.
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Chuck Hudson
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Based in New York City, Chuck Hudson has directed at Cape Town Opera (SA), Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Cleveland, Seattle Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, among others. His Off-Broadway production of She Stoops to Conquer earned a Callaway Award by Actors Equity Association. His specialty in stage movement comes from being one of only three Americans to receive a diploma from the Marcel Marceau International School in Paris. He is the only American appointed to teach at that school, and he performed with Marceau on European Tours and in Klaus Kinski’s film Paganini. Hudson enjoys focusing his work on artists in training. He is co-creator of Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program, and he has directed productions at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, AVA, USC, BU, CCM, IU and MSM. He draws on his experience as a performer, director and coach in his master classes at professional artist training programs for singers and actors.
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Amy Kirkland
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Amy Kirkland is currently the manager of school programs at Carnegie Hall. In this role, she oversees programs that annually serve over 170,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals and adults in the New York area and across the U.S., as well as 100,000 people around the world through distance learning initiatives. In addition, she currently serves on the board of directors for the NYC Arts In Education Roundtable and on the steering committee for the Department of Education’s Arts Achieve project. Kirkland has more than a decade of experience as a musician, arts educator, teaching artist and curriculum writer. Prior to her tenure at Carnegie Hall, Kirkland was the director of curriculum development at Reading in Motion in Chicago. She has also worked with organizations including the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Metropolitan Arts Council, the Peace Center for Performing Arts and Alabama Operaworks. She holds degrees in educational theater from New York University and vocal performance from Samford University.
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Kevin Newbury
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Kevin Newbury is a theater and opera director based in New York City. His production of Virginia at the Wexford Opera Festival recently won the 2010 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Opera Production. Newbury has directed new productions for Minnesota Opera (Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda), The Santa Fe Opera (Falstaff, Life is a Dream), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (Eugene Onegin), L’Opera de Montreal (Devereux), the San Francisco Symphony (El Nino), Glimmerglass Opera (La Cenerentola), Wolf Trap Opera (La bohème), Wexford (Virginia) and Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center (Bernstein’s Mass). Newbury also directed the revival of Jim Robinson’s production of Nixon in China for Portland Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre and Cincinnati Opera. Newbury’s extensive education work includes developing a new multi-media program with filmmaker Greg Emetaz for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
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Jonah Nigh
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Jonah Nigh joined the staff of Columbia University School of the Arts and Miller Theatre as a development officer in October 2010. He is responsible for managing a portfolio of major gift prospects as well as the Annual Fund campaigns for both the school and the theater. Nigh previously served as assistant director of development for OPERA America, artist representative for Elsie Management, program development associate for the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts and acting concert coordinator for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has also worked as a freelance grant writer for several nonprofit organizations. A former classical singer, Nigh earned his B.M. and M.M. in vocal performance from Lawrence University and New England Conservatory, and his operatic credits included engagements with the Aspen Music Festival, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Boston, among other companies. Nigh has served as a guest moderator/panelist for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Con Edison Musicians’ Residency Program and OPERA America.
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Gordon Ostrowski
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Gordon Ostrowski, assistant dean/opera producer, has served as administrator, artistic producer, stage director and teacher at Manhattan School of Music since 1991. He serves on the board of directors of the National Opera Association, which supports educational institutions that offer training in vocal performance and opera. He was recently elected to the position of vice president for programs, helping to plan the organization’s yearly conventions. He also serves on the board of directors of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, working with composer John Kander, to place promising young composers in opera residencies with professional opera companies. He has directed a full production of Die Zauberflöte and concert operas of Le nozze di Figaro, L’elisir d’amore, La traviata and Rigoletto for Opera Tuscia in Viterbo, Italy. He has also directed full productions of Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro for the New Opera Festival of Rome. Since 1998 he has taught acting style at the Chautauqua Opera. From 2002 until 2008 was the stage director for Centro Studi Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy. He has served on the board of directors of OPERA America and is past president of Opera for Youth, Inc.
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Anne Ricci
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Lyric sporano Anne Ricci has performed with various opera companies in and around New York City. In 2005, she made her Avery Fisher Hall debut with the National Chorale, singing the soprano solo in Aaron Copland's An Immorality. Ricci is the general managing diva (and a founding member) of Opera on Tap (OOT), a nonprofit organization that provides regular affordable operatic performances to New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago and Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, MI, residents to date, while at the same time provides opportunity and support to young singers caught between the educational world and the professional world. Founded in 2005, OOT continues to garner great press and has developed into a multi-tiered organization encompassing over 45 singers, 25 instrumentalists, five staff members nationwide and an active and engaged board of directors.
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José Rincón
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Artistic Services Manager José Rincón joined OPERA America in July 2008. He is responsible for managing OPERA America’s programs and resources for individual artists including the Career Guide for Opera, Making Connections, Salon Series and artistic programming for the annual opera conference. A singer at heart, Rincón has performed in productions of The Mikado, The Threepenny Opera, Orpheus in the Underworld and Don Giovanni. These days, he can be seen performing at Toto Karaoke and Marie’s Crisis. Rincón holds a B.A. in music from SUNY Potsdam and an M.A. in arts administration from Florida State University.
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Kelley Rourke
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Kelley Rourke is the dramaturg at The Glimmerglass Festival, where she has been on staff since 1994. She has been commissioned to write new English adaptations of several operas, including Sir Jonathan Miller’s production of The Elixir of Love for English National Opera (2010), Orpheus in the Underworld for Glimmerglass Opera (2007), and The Magic Flute (2005) and The Abduction from the Seraglio (2004), both for the In Series (Washington, D.C.). She has written supertitles for more than 40 operas, and her work has appeared at such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Florida Grand Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Orlando Opera, Arizona Opera and others. She has held various positions at OPERA America since 1998; she currently serves as editor of the organization’s magazine. Rourke holds degrees in piano performance and arts management.
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Jim Schaeffer
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In 2008, the Center for Contemporary Opera board appointed Jim Schaeffer as general director. Schaeffer possesses a unique combination of skills as a scholar in contemporary music, a professor, and a businessman and management expert. He retired from the Air Force after a career in a variety of flying, logistics and command assignments. In his last assignment, he served as the NATO liaison officer during the siege of Sarajevo. Following retirement, Schaeffer has had a varied career as the former executive director of Long Leaf Opera in North Carolina, where he brought that company to national acclaim after only three years; as the president of Spectron Electronics in Los Angeles; and an adjunct professor of management at North Carolina Wesleyan College, teaching in their evening adult degree completion program for the past 12 years. He is also a former professional bassoonist, holding principal chairs of orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. In his seven years working in opera, he has produced over 30 fully staged works, all but one from American.
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Marc A. Scorca
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Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO, and is responsible for the strategic leadership and management of the organization. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 2,500 organizations and individuals. An additional 16,000 subscribers now receive a variety of free and fee-based services. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has led several cross-disciplinary projects, including the Performing Arts Research Coalition, National Music Coalition and The First National Performing Arts Convention. Under his leadership, OPERA America has administered two landmark funding initiatives in support of the development of North American operas and opera audiences and launched an endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. Scorca has led strategic planning retreats for opera companies and other cultural institutions internationally, and has participated on panels for federal, state and local funding agencies, as well as for numerous private organizations. He also appears frequently in the media on a variety of cultural issues. Scorca attended Amherst College, where he graduated with high honors in both history and music.
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Stephen Wadsworth
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Stephen Wadsworth’s 2010—2011 season began with a new Boris Godunov at the Metropolitan Opera, continued with a Met revival of Iphigénie en Tauride and a production of The Bartered Bride shared by the Met’s Lindemann program and The Juilliard School, and ended with Terrence McNally’s Master Class on Broadway with Tyne Daly as Maria Callas. This season he directs Rodelinda at the Met, King Roger at Santa Fe and Don Giovanni at Juilliard, and begins a new translation of Beaumarchais’ Figaro plays commissioned by the McCarter Theater in Princeton. As The James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow and director of the post-graduate advanced training for singers at Juilliard and Head of Dramatic Studies for the Lindemann program, he teaches the full school year. He has directed at La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, the Edinburgh Festival and Netherlands Opera, as well as all over the U.S. He co-wrote A Quiet Place with Leonard Bernstein and has translated and adapted plays of Marivaux (published by Smith and Kraus), Molière and Goldoni.
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Megan Young
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Megan Young is an independent performing arts administrator and yoga teacher. From 2005-2011, Young served on the staff of OPERA America. She finished her tenure there as director of the artistic services department, overseeing all professional development programs for artists — including The Career Guide for Opera — and the administration of three new works grant programs. Young currently serves as events manager at The Glimmerglass Festival and teaches yoga in New York City. She holds degrees in voice performance (Ithaca College) and early music (The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick).
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Camille Zamora
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Soprano Camille Zamora has performed principal roles with companies including Los Angeles Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Houston Grand Opera, and has appeared as a soloist with ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Zamora is the founder of one of the country’s largest annual AIDS benefits, which in the decade since its inception has raised over four million dollars for men and women living with HIV/AIDS, and which provides the model for Sing for Hope’s Community Arts benefit concerts. She is a co-author of Sing for Hope’s Art U! curriculum. For her contributions to the field of arts activism, Zamora is honored to have performed at The United Nations and the Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Summit. Zamora received her Master’s degree and artist diploma from The Juilliard School.
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