Michael J. Bobbitt, OPERA America’s new president and CEO, once co-wrote an opera libretto with his longtime collaborator, the composer Dr. John L. Cornelius II, based on the tale of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” But his connection to the performing arts runs far deeper than any single form of expression.

A Washington, D.C., native, Bobbitt studied the trumpet in grade school and sang in a school choir that traveled as far as the Louisiana bayou for the 1984 World’s Fair. He attended college on a trumpet scholar­ship before turning to dance and musical theater in New York City, later returning to the nation’s capital and making a natural pivot from performing to directing, playwriting, and administration. Through the years, Bobbitt never forgot his early passion for classical music and opera, and he arrives at OPERA America after several years serving as executive director of the Mass Cultural Council, just in time to “fall in love with opera all over again,” he says.

Opera America Magazine recently sat with Bobbitt to explore his connection with opera and his journey from the stage to the office. What follows is a transcript of that conversation, edited for length and clarity.

It’s a delight to speak with you, Michael. Can you tell us about your introduction to classical music?

Certainly! This takes me back — I grew up with my mother and grandmother. My father was distant. In our house, you mostly heard ’60s and ’70s Black music, funk and pop and disco. That was the heyday for those genres, back then. And as I was growing up, it was all Top 40 and pop and early rap, until I was handed a trumpet in third grade.

That’s when my listening shifted, when I “discovered” classical music. I remember I was especially drawn to the Romantic era, but I also loved earlier composers like Haydn and Hummel because of their trumpet concertos. I still remember listening to Wynton Marsalis’ recording and trying to mimic the perfect way he played those pieces.

And what about opera?

I’m quite sure it was in 1983 that I saw my first opera on an elementary school trip to New York City to see Porgy and Bess. We were just blown away. I don’t remember the particulars of the production, honestly, but I have this deep memory of coming away thinking that this was something so special. It was my first time really delving into the opera world, but it immediately sounded familiar.

Is that when your love of the performing arts began to develop?

In part, yes, but there was more to it. I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family. As a kid, it felt like everyone I knew was struggling with addiction and mental health issues and incarceration, and the music and arts programs I participated in during elementary school provided a way to quiet the noise that was happening at home. They got me out of the house and showed me that the world was bigger than my small neighborhood.

You went on to study voice in college, correct?

Yes, my scholarship to Susquehanna University was to play the trumpet, but I studied voice as well and sang in the choir and other choral groups. My first operatic performance was actually in a college production of The Pirates of Penzance.

And how did you make the jump from focusing on music to theater?

I think the formality of becoming a classical musician started to get to me during college. I was also far away from home in this mostly White environment at Susquehanna, which felt very rural after growing up in D.C. It was all a challenge, emotionally.

I’d begun to love theater and dance as well by this point, so I left and trained as a dancer at the Washington Ballet and a little at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. I attended the American Musical and Dra­matic Academy in New York, but I didn’t finish there, either, because I couldn’t really afford it. So, I started working. I booked gigs and performed in summer stock and regional theater and touring shows, mostly singing and dancing in the chorus.

What came next?

After I moved back to Washington, D.C., from New York City, my partner at the time and I decided to adopt a baby from Vietnam. I switched to teach­ing instead of performing so I could be home at more regular hours with my family. Soon, I started getting a lot of choreography jobs and also directing and writing opportunities, including an opportunity to work with Washington National Opera on a new chamber opera called Let Freedom Sing: The Marian Anderson Story [Bruce Adolphe, com­poser; Carolivia Herron, librettist].

And then from the director’s chair to an administrative office, correct?

Someone put it into my head that I should think about running a theater. And I thought, “I don’t know what that means,” so I dove into learning about governance and nonprofit management and finance and HR policies. I took every course I could find, including fellow­ships and workshops.

The rest is history — you became the executive director of Mass Cultural Council in 2021 and are now president and CEO at OPERA America.

I’m excited to fall in love with opera all over again. There’s just such breadth. I’ve seen and listened to some modern operas with gorgeous and contemporary music. And sometimes, when I’m looking for something more comfort­able and familiar, I find myself drawn to the classics. With how I’ve been feel­ing about the difficulties of the world lately, I’ve been especially drawn to com­edies. But I know there is so much more to discover.

In the end, I know that I was saved by the arts, truly saved by the arts, includ­ing opera. Part of my dream is to make sure that everyone who needs to be saved by the arts can have the access they need.