Backstage Brunch 2022: Event Hub
Nataki Garrett
A change-maker and trailblazer, Nataki Garrett is a nationally recognized director and the sixth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), the first woman to artistically lead a $44 million theater company, and OSF’s first Black female in this role. Born and raised in Oakland, stemming from a family of educators, artists, and community organizers — Garrett garnered a deep appreciation for theater and for telling the untold stories not typically seen on the main stage. Prior to her role at OSF, she served as acting artistic director at the Denver Center Theatre Company, as well as associate dean and co-head of the undergraduate acting program at CalArts School of Theater. Garrett’s forté and passion are in fostering and developing new work, including those that adapt and devise new ways of performing the classics. An example of her innovative approach to traditional theater is “Quills Fest,” Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s first immersive digital event using virtual reality technology, which she launched in November 2021. Garrett has directed and produced the world premieres of many well-known and important playwriting voices of our time, including Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dominique Morriseau, and Aziza Barnes.
Laura Kaminsky
Possessing “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times), Laura Kaminsky frequently addresses social and political issues in her work with a distinct musical language that is "full of fire as well as ice, contrasting dissonance, and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection” (American Record Guide). As One (2014; co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed) is among the most produced contemporary operas since its premiere. Other operas include Some Light Emerges, Today It Rains, Hometown to the World, and Finding Wright. She is co-librettist (with novelist Lisa Moore) and composer for February (2023). Awarded the 2016 Polish Gold Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyż Zasługi RP) by the president of Poland for exemplary public service and humanitarian work, Kaminsky has been recognized by the NEA, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, OPERA America, Chamber Music America, and USArtists International, among others. On the Purchase College/SUNY faculty, she is a composer-mentor for Juilliard School's Blueprint Fellowship program.
Rebekah Diaz
A certified diversity executive candidate with training in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University, Rebekah Diaz has a deep knowledge of the specific equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) needs of nonprofit arts and cultural institutions. Her strong background in performing arts as both a performer and professor combined with an expertise in programming from her years as a department head and executive leader in opera has provided her a unique understanding of the needs of cultural institutions, audiences, teams, and creatives. A leader in nonprofit arts and culture, she has been dedicated to implementing the tenets of equity, diversity, and inclusion into community engagement efforts, inclusive understanding among teams, and fostering positive, actionable change. Her original initiatives have focused on creating opportunities and connection through the arts for communities that have been traditionally underrepresented while also focusing on a platform of inclusion for individuals of all backgrounds.
Her goal is to continue to impact her community, and the broader nation, through initiating guidelines for positive change and guiding organizations in the goal to create a more equitable environment for all. Diaz Inclusion Consulting focuses on aiding nonprofit arts and cultural institutions on their path towards realizing their true EDI potential and impact through individual and group workshops, board and staff EDI committee guidance, mission statement direction, internal structure support, and EDI program development and creation.
Julia Noulin-Mérat
Julia Noulin-Mérat is the general director and CEO of Opera Columbus. Previously, she served for eight years as the associate producer at Boston Lyric Opera and was the co-artistic director of Guerilla Opera, having begun her tenure as their producer and director of production. She is the creative director for Hong Kong-based More Than Musical.
In addition, Noulin-Mérat has worked on over 400 opera, theater, and television productions, including 27 new operas and 22 new plays. Other projects include a TEDx talk on site-specific opera productions in the modern age; Neverland (China Broadway), a $20 million, 50,000-square-foot immersive theater piece in Beijing based on Peter Pan and directed by Allegra Libonati; PPE-adapted outdoor fall and spring festival productions (the Atlanta Opera) directed by Tomer Zvulun; an immersive Pagliacci (Boston Lyric Opera) production complete with fairgrounds inside directed by David Lefkowich; and Playground (Opera Omaha), a national touring operatic sound sculpture in collaboration with composer Ellen Reid.
Noulin-Mérat has served on the adjudication panel for OPERA America's Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize and was chosen to participate in OA's Mentorship Program for Women Administrators and Leadership Intensive.
With over 18 years of experience in the performing arts industry, and a big advocate for cultural equity in opera, Noulin-Mérat is a graduate of Boston University with a master's in business arts administration, an M.F.A. in set design, a diversity inclusion certificate from ESSEC Business School, a social media marketing specialization from Northwestern University, a fundraising development specialization from UC Davis, and a finance and leadership certification from Harvard Business School. Her work has been featured in Opera News, LiveDesign, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal to name a few.
Tamar-kali
Brooklyn-born-and-bred artist Tamar-kali is a second-generation musician with roots in the coastal Sea Islands of South Carolina. As a composer and performer, Tamar-kali has defied boundaries to craft her own unique alternative sound.
2017 marked her debut as a film score composer. Her score for Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated Mudbound garnered her the World Soundtrack Academy’s 2018 Discovery of the Year Award and was named one of the 25 Best Film Scores of the 21st Century by IndieWire.
2020’s Sundance Film Festival featured three films she scored, including Kitty Green’s The Assistant and Josephine Decker’s psychological drama Shirley, the latter whose soundtrack earned The Guardian’s Contemporary Album of the Month. Her most recent work, the opera short We Hold These Truths, directed by Peabody Award winner dream Hampton, premiered this March as the opener of LA Opera’s 2022 Digital Season.
Johanny Navarro
Johanny Navarro has worked on commissions for music soloists like Andrea González Caballero and organizations like Multicultural Music Group Inc. and Boston Opera Collaborative. She has also composed for ensembles like The Catholic University of America Symphony Orchestra, American Harp Society Inc., New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, Victory Players, and Coralia. Her music has been presented at Festival Casals, the Massachusetts International Festival of Arts, and the Puccini Chamber Opera Festival. Navarro has an ample catalog of diverse work and is deeply rooted in Afro-Caribbean musical aesthetics, essentially in Puerto Rican musical culture. Her opera ¿Y los Pasteles? Ópera Jíbara en dos actos is scheduled to premiere in July 2022 in Puerto Rico. Navarro is a resident artist at the American Lyric Theater in New York.
Katie Preissner (2018 Protégé)
Katie Preissner is the director of production and artistic services for Opera Colorado. After completing undergraduate degrees in vocal performance and communication studies at the Catholic University of America, Preissner shifted her focus from onstage to backstage. Wolf Trap Opera Company selected her for a stage management internship, which enabled her to launch a career in opera stage management, during which she worked for 16 opera companies of varying sizes across 12 states over a period of 11 years. In 2013, her nomadic stage manager days came to an end when she joined Opera Colorado as a production manager and stage manager, and she has seen her role expand over time to its current shape, in which she oversees all aspects of the production department while providing administrative support to the artistic leadership of the company. A 2018 protégé in the Mentorship Program for Women Administrators, Preissner keeps in close contact with her mentor and fellow protégés.
Katherine Baltrush Little (2021 Protégé)
Katherine Baltrush Little is a trained singer and musicologist and an experienced opera administrator and educator who has worked with both world-renowned and emerging artists for over a decade. As the associate operations director at San Francisco Opera, she manages daily operations for the organization’s resident artists and supports labor relations with the American Guild of Musical Artists and the American Federation of Musicians. Previously, she held posts at The Juilliard School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she served as the lead producer of operas, orchestral concerts, master classes, and more, as well as developing enhanced curricula for music students. Little also served at OPERA America, where she participated in the production of Opera America Magazine, conducted the Professional Opera Survey, and assisted with programming for the annual Opera Conference.
Mary Birnbaum (2021 Protégé)
Mary Birnbaum directs opera and theater, old and new, in New York (Rape of Lucretia, The Magic Flute, and Eugene Onegin at Juilliard; The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall) as well as internationally, from Taiwan (Otello) to Central America (L’elisir at the National Theatre of Costa Rica and La Bohème in Guatemala), Australia, and Israel, and across the U.S. (Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Opera Columbus, Virginia Arts Festival, Ojai Festival, Bard, and Boston Baroque). Her November production of Luigi Rossi's L'Orfeo was just named "Top Classical Music of 2021" by The New York Times.
In 2019, Birnbaum became only the third female director to open the Santa Fe Opera season, with a new production of La bohème. Concurrently, her production of Dido and Aeneas played Opera Holland Park in London and at Opéra de Versailles.
Currently associate director of the post-graduate artist diploma in opera studies program at Juilliard, Birnbaum also has taught acting for singers at Bard College and in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. A graduate of Harvard College, she trained professionally in physical theater at L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.
As writer and translator, Birnbaum’s English translation of The Barber of Seville, set in the 1990s in Florida, premiered at Opera Columbus in February 2020. She also has written and directed filmed and video adaptations of classical pieces, most recently Obscura Nox, a film of Mozart’s ”Exsultate, Jubilate” with interpolated music by the contemporary Canadian-Persian composer Iman Habibi, which is available on Helio Arts.
Alison Turner (2021 Protégé)
Alison F. Turner, treasurer of Opera Memphis’ Board of Trustees, is a native Memphian who enjoys a multifaceted life as a chorister, community leader, and entrepreneur in her aptly named neighborhood, called Soulsville, USA. Music is an integral part of the soul of Turner, who joined Opera Memphis in 2019 as a member of the chorus for The Falling and the Rising. She has sung with community-based choruses, including the Tennessee Mass Choir, Memphis Symphony Chorus, Dallas Symphony Chorus, and Freedom Singers Chorus. Turner serves as vice-president of Harmonic South String Orchestra, which puts stringed instruments in the hands of young musicians. She serves as treasurer of the SCORE CDC in South City, Memphis. Turner has owned an insurance agency, a mortgage brokerage company, and currently a tax preparation service. She graduated with honors from LeMoyne-Owen College with a B.A. in music, B.B.A. in business administration, and A.A. in general studies.