Opera Conference 2023 concluded with a panel of members from across our field who will shared their key points of learning and reflections on our days together. We extended our gratitude to the Pittsburgh Opera for their tremendous effort on our behalf and appreciate the work of the OPERA America staff. Plus, learn where we’ll convene for Opera Conference 2024!
Michael Braxton has been Director of Development at Pittsburgh Opera since 2018 and manages the company’s $50 million comprehensive campaign, the largest in its history. A graduate of Princeton and Columbia Law School, Michael spent 14 years as a major gifts fundraiser at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was Senior Director of Strategic Academic Initiatives, before coming to Pittsburgh Opera as its chief fundraiser. Before Carnegie Mellon, Michael was a corporate litigation attorney. Over the course of his career, Michael has served on several non-profit boards and currently is a trustee of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.
Jennifer Bowman is dedicated to creating inclusive arts experiences.
As Director of Community & Learning at Houston Grand Opera, she leads the development of new works, programming that resonates with audiences and educators, performances for students and families, and initiatives that bring HGO in contact with the community.
She previously led education and community programs at The Kennedy Center for the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and the Center’s hip-hop, jazz, and chamber music divisions.
The native Texan’s career includes tenures with Folger Consort and Musical Academy of the West. She is a Sphinx LEAD alum and on the boards of Equity Arc, Sole Defined, and Music Academy of the West.
Steven Lankenau is the Senior Vice President of Boosey & Hawkes, the largest specialist classical music publishing company in the world. Major achievements include work on the international Bernstein and Britten centennial celebrations, and working with major living composers such as John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Anna Clyne. Prior experience includes working for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, creative consulting, and writings on music and the arts.
Kelvin Chan is a Netherlands-based Chinese American artist pursuing his core commitment to cultivating human connection through the arts as a performer, dramaturg, stage director, and arts leader. His credits in new music theater and opera include projects throughout the United States, in Poland, the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. He is the Founding General Director of the social impact arts organization, Vital Opera.
Rebecca Hass is the Director of Engagement Programs and Partnerships for Pacific Opera Victoria. She is the winner of the 2022 Opera Canada Ruby for her role as a change maker in the field, and the Creative Builder Award for the City of Victoria for 2021. An alumna of Opera America’s Leadership program and the Banff Indigenous Leadership program she is in demand as a speaker and consultant in whole artist development and civic engagement. A citizen of the Métis Nation of British Columbia, Rebecca is a mezzo soprano, theatre maker, broadcaster and podcast creator of What’s Up with Opera, now entering its second season.
Shawna Lucey is an acclaimed American theater and opera director, whose work has been seen at The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and other major houses around the world. Her legacy production of Tosca launched San Francisco Opera’s 99th season in 2021. It was followed in 2022 by her centennial celebration ground-breaking legacy production of La traviata, hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “A beautiful new Traviata meant to last for decades. Magnificent.”
Lucey made her directorial debut with Opera San José in 2018 with La traviata, brilliantly staged with skill and imagination, offering a compelling contemporary viewpoint. In 2023 she will launch OSJ’s season with a new production of Gounod’s Romeo & Juliet. Her directorial work has been seen across the US, from The Met to Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Santa Fe Opera, and many others. She also boasts an international reputation, staging works in Spain, Russia, and Germany, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Bolshoi Theater, and Schauspiel Hannover, among many others, and has assisted esteemed directors, including Stephen Lawless, Lee Blakeley, John Caird, Peter Schumann, and Francesca Zambello.
In addition to opera, Lucey steps outside the canon into theatre and musicals, staging works such as Gilbert & Sullivan’s rollicking The Pirates of Penzance, which BroadwayWorld lauded for its “contemporary flair, dousing the classic with a touch of modern Monty Python alongside Carol Burnett Show moments. A true contemporary comic delight faithful to the original Gilbert and Sullivan intent.”
Lucey holds BAs in Theater and Italian from the University of Texas at Austin and received her MFA in Directing & Movement from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute of the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow and will receive her Master of Science in Non-Profit Management from Columbia University in 2023. She has also served as an adjunct professor in Speech and Theater at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, encouraging the next generation of artists while teaching courses on acting, design, stage management, and directing. She serves on the Board of Directors of Team San José as well as the Board of the Theatre Preservation Fund in San José. Her second passion, nail art, can be viewed on her Instagram page @29flames
As Vice President of Marketing Communications & Digital Strategy, Frank Luzi leads Opera Philadelphia’s branding, sales, media relations, publications, guest experience, and Opera Philadelphia Channel streaming platform. He saw his first opera in 2012, three weeks after being hired by Opera Philadelphia. He was named one of Musical America's Top 30 Professionals of the Year in 2021, and currently serves as co-chair of Opera America’s Marketing & PR Network.
Steven Osgood has conducted the premieres of over two dozen operas, most recently Intimate Apparel by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage. Other notable premieres include Breaking the Waves, Song From the Uproar, Thumbprint, As One, The Long Walk, and JFK. He has been on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera since 2006, and will make his conducting debut in October, with Dead Man Walking. As Artistic Director of American Opera Projects from 2001 to 2008 he created the Composers & the Voice fellowship program. Osgood has been General and Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera Company since 2016.
Jaime Martino is an empathetic leader, an artist-driven producer, and Executive Director of Tapestry Opera. She was a member of the 2019 Opera America Leadership Intensive cohort and the 2020 TAC Leaders’ Lab, and she continues to work towards a leadership model centered in care and humanity. As co-founder and co-Artistic Director of the Aha Dance Collective in New Zealand, she created and produced award-winning dance works; as Director of Operations for Pride Toronto, she steered one of the largest celebrations of queer and trans communities in the world. Jaime believes deeply in the power of art to transform lives and the world.
Miguel A. Rodríguez is the President and Founder of Athlone Artists, and Co-Founder of Insignia Athlone Artists Management. Miguel spent over 20 years leading some of New England’s most acclaimed cultural organizations. Most recently he served as Executive Director of Boston Baroque, America’s oldest period-instrument orchestra. During his six-year tenure he raised the company’s profile by elevating the artistic level of its guest soloists, developed new community outreach initiatives, launched Boston Baroque Radio, and refreshed the image of the organization through innovation, improved branding and social media engagement.
His prior experience also includes senior executive positions with Opera Boston, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva and Scullers Jazz Club. In 2007 he was one of a small number of leaders selected by the Massachusetts Cultural Council to participate in the first Executive Leadership Program for Non-Profit Cultural Organizations at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2011 he was one of 20 to be selected nationally to join The 21st Century Fellows Program, a multi-year leadership development program for LGBT people of color.
Trained as an opera singer, Miguel studied voice at the University of Michigan with soprano Martha Sheil and tenor George Shirley. He continued his graduate work in voice under renown soprano Phyllis Curtin at Boston University, and went on to sing in many opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. Miguel has served on the Board of Directors of Early Music America (former President), SpeakEasy Stage Company, Coro Allegro and the New England Orchestra Consortium. He is an active member of the International Artist Managers’ Association (IAMA), Opera Managers Association International (OMAI), the North American Performing Artist Managers and Agents (NAPAMA), Opera America, the League of American Orchestras and the Association of Performing Arts Professionals.
Tamara Vallejos is an experienced marketer with organizations including Seattle Opera, the Aspen Music Festival and School, Opera Colorado, and The Juilliard School, where she currently serves as Director of Marketing in support of recruitment and admissions. Whether promoting a performance season or working in the education space, Tamara is most passionate about a data-driven, human-centered approach that prioritizes an audience and focuses on what they need to feel informed, empowered, and welcomed. She previously participated in OPERA America’s Mentorship Program for Women Administrators as a protégé in the 2019 cohort and is now a mentor in the 2022-2023 cohort.
Lauren Yokabaskas is the General Director and Co-Founder of Opera in the Pines, an alternative opera company committed to reinventing the opera experience in Maine. Opera in the Pines introduced their inaugural season in 2022 with two sold-out performances of The Diary of Anne Frank at the Maine Jewish Museum, and recently completed a sold-out run of Bar Crawl Bohème, an immersive, community-focused adaptation. As a soprano, she was engaged with Wichita Grand Opera, Portland Opera, The Chautauqua Opera Company, and Bare Opera, among others. This summer, she will join Music Academy as the Lehrer Vocal Institute Artistic Coordinator.
Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to 3,500 organizations and individuals. 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. In 2005, Scorca spearheaded OPERA America’s relocation from Washington, D.C. to New York City and the subsequent construction of the National Opera Center, which opened in 2012 and serves 80,000 guests each year. The Opera Center’s recital hall was dedicated as Marc A. Scorca Hall in 2015 in honor of Scorca’s 25th anniversary with the organization.
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. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has led several cross-disciplinary projects, including the Performing Arts Research Coalition and the National Performing Arts Convention (2004 and 2008). He is currently a member of the U.S. delegation to UNESCO. Scorca serves as an officer on the boards of the Performing Arts Alliance and the Curtis Institute of Music, and is on the Music Advisory Board of Hunter College (CUNY). Scorca attended Amherst College, where he graduated with high honors in both history and music.
