Listening Sessions
Michael J. Bobbitt, president and CEO, OPERA America
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.