Opera Conference 2026 attendees were welcomed to Wilmington, Delaware, with remarks from OPERA America President/CEO Michael J. Bobbitt, OPERA America Board Chair Lee Anne Myslewski, and Brendan Cooke, general director of host company OperaDelaware. In addition, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer delivered a special message.
Michael J. Bobbitt joined OPERA America as president and CEO in January 2026. Bobbitt is a nationally recognized arts executive, producer, and artist whose career bridges public policy, organizational transformation, and creative practice. Before coming to OPERA America, he served as executive director of the Mass Cultural Council in Boston since 2021. As Massachusetts’ highest-ranking public official for arts and culture, he led strategy, operations, and cross-sector partnerships for a $29.7B creative economy. During his tenure, the agency secured $60.1 million in COVID relief; state appropriations grew from $18.2 million to $26.9 million; and the arts were explicitly embedded in statewide health, education, and economic policies.
Before public service, Bobbitt led two producing theaters. As producing artistic director of New Repertory Theatre (Massachusetts) from 2019 to 2021, he repositioned the company around inclusion and community engagement while growing audiences, ticket revenue, contributed income, and board giving. From 2007 to 2019, as artistic director of Adventure Theatre MTC (Maryland), he oversaw major audience growth, quadrupled fundraising, commissioned more than 50 new works, earned national media attention, merged with a theater academy to strengthen education pipelines, and pioneered sensory-friendly/autism-inclusive performances that became a national model.
Bobbitt’s work as a playwright, director, and choreographer includes adaptations and premieres such as Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, The Stephen Schwartz Project, The Yellow Rose of Texas, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Caps for Sale, Garfield: The Musical with Cattitude, Jumanji, Make Way for Ducklings, Big the Musical (TYA), and Monster Mash, the Musical. His work has garnered multiple Helen Hayes nominations, including one for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical. Directing and choreography credits span the National Philharmonic, Washington National Opera (with Washington Performing Arts), Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, the Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Center Stage, and others.
A trumpet and voice major in college, Bobbitt later studied theater at CAP21 (NYU Tisch) and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and dance at The Washington Ballet. He holds an M.B.A. in arts innovation and a B.A. summa cum laude in interdisciplinary studies, with executive education at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program. He has taught at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, The Catholic University of America, Howard University, George Washington University, and other institutions.
Lee Anne Myslewski, vice president of opera and classical programming for Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, oversees all aspects of Wolf Trap Opera, an artist-centric program whose alumni are singing in every opera house in the nation and the most prestigious houses in the world. She has participated in the casting and programming of operatic productions for 19 years and has heard close to 10,000 live auditions. In addition, Myslewski oversees classical music programming, which includes a chamber music series, a nationally syndicated radio program, and a more than 50-year partnership with the National Symphony Orchestra. Myslewski earned degrees in opera performance from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland and is proud to serve on the board of OPERA America.
Brendan Cooke was appointed General Director of OperaDelaware in June 2012. Cooke joined OD from the Baltimore Concert Opera, a company he founded in 2008. He holds a Master’s degree in Music from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Loyola University in New Orleans. Prior to his career in arts administration, Brendan was a freelance singer performing with opera companies throughout the U.S.
