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OPERA America Board of Directors

Board Chairman

Anthony Freud - Houston Grand Opera (View Bio)

Officers

Peter Gelb - Vice Chairman - The Metropolitan Opera (View Bio)

Frayda Lindemann - Vice Chairman - Trustee, The Metropolitan Opera (View Bio)

Diane Wondisford - Vice Chairman - Music-Theatre Group (View Bio)

Carol A. Penterman - Treasurer - Nashville Opera Association (View Bio)

James W. Wright - Secretary - Vancouver Opera (View Bio)

Marc A. Scorca - President & CEO - OPERA America (View Bio)

Board Members

J.A. Blanchard (View Bio)

Gregory Carpenter, Opera Colorado (View Bio)

Rena M. De Sisto, Bank of America Charitable Foundation (View Bio)

David B. Devan, Opera Company of Philadelphia (View Bio)

Brian Dickie, Chicago Opera Theater (View Bio)

Allen R. Freedman (View Bio)

Catherine French, Catherine French Group (View Bio)

Louise Gaylord, Opera Santa Barbara Board (View Bio)

David Gockley, San Francisco Opera (View Bio)

Jake Heggie, Composer (View Bio)

Robert M. Heuer, Florida Grand Opera (View Bio)

Jay Lesenger, Chautauqua Opera (View Bio)

Christopher Mattaliano, Portland Opera (View Bio)

Charles MacKay, The Santa Fe Opera (View Bio)

W.R. (Bob) McPhee, Calgary Opera Association (View Bio)

Andreas Mitisek, Long Beach Opera (View Bio)

Allen Moyer, Scenic Designer (View Bio)

Norman Ryan, European American Music (View Bio)

Steven Sharpe, Opera Santa Barbara (View Bio)

Kevin Smith, Minnesota Opera (View Bio)

Gregory C. Swinehart, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (View Bio)

Alec C. Treuhaft, IMG Artists (View Bio)

Darren K. Woods, Fort Worth Opera (View Bio)


	Charles MacKay has overseen company operations at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) since he was named executive director in 1984 and general director in 1985, and he will assume leadership of The Santa Fe Opera in the fall of 2008. Before coming to St. Louis, MacKay held management positions at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., the “Festival of Two Worlds” in Spoleto Italy and The Santa Fe Opera. His first professional involvement in the field of opera was as a member of The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. During MacKay's tenure, OTSL has consistently won national and international acclaim for the presentation of innovative repertory, the development of education programs, and the discovery of young singers. MacKay has also focused his attention on the company’s operating endowment, having presided over its growth from $700,000 to $20 million in endowment and reserves, and on the management of an increase in the annual budget from $2.8 million to over $7 million with no accumulation of debt. Under MacKay’s direction, construction of the Sally S. Levy Opera Center, a new rehearsal and administrative facility, was completed in May 2006. He has been chairman of the board of directors of OPERA America since 2004, and has served as chairman of the Opera-Music Theatre panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions and a member of the board of the William M. Sullivan Foundation. Honors include: the Arts Management Career Service Award, a Missouri Arts Award; a Doctor of music honoris causa from the University of Missouri-St. Louis; and the St. Louis Arts & Education Council’s Excellence in the Arts Award.


	W.R. (Bob) McPhee joined Calgary Opera as general director and CEO in 1998. During his tenure, the company has moved from a $2 million to $5 million annual budget. Calgary Opera has become a leader in the country for the development and presentation of new works, and has presented four world premieres (with three more commissioned for 2011 and 2012) and two Canadian premieres (with another premiere planned for 2010). Previously, McPhee was general manager of Orchestra London, was general manager of the Edmonton Symphony, was managing director of the Edmonton Symphony Society and Edmonton Concert Hall Foundation and was president and CEO for Symphony and the new Winspear Centre for Music. He is a founding board member of the Calgary Arts Development Authority, past chair of Opera.ca and sits on the University of Calgary Fine Arts Faculty Advisory Committee. He received his Bachelor of Education (Music) and began his career as a performer, choral conductor and teacher.


	Norman Ryan is vice president at Schott Music Corporation and European American Music Distributors in New York. He was born in Riverhead, NY and earned a B.A. in music from Brown University where he studied piano, clarinet, and conducting. He holds certificates in filmmaking from New York University and in Italian language from Università di Siena. He has previously held positions at New York City Opera, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and G. Schirmer, Inc. He has served as creative consultant for the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Lincoln Center, and American International Artists, and as a contributing writer to Stagebill and Playbill magazines. He serves on the board of directors of the Music Publishers’ Association of America (MPA), American Opera Projects, The Fort Greene Park Conservancy, and was formerly on the Music Advisory Board for the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS. He joined Schott Music in January 2005.


	Since 2000, Alec Treuhaft has been a Senior Vice-president of IMG Artists LLC in New York, where he heads the vocal division and personally manages a select roster of singers and conductors including Renee Fleming, Susan Graham, Audra McDonald, David Daniels, Alan Gilbert, and Nicola Luisotti. He began his career in 1980 at Columbia Artists Management, where he specialized in transitioning American singers into their professional lives; among the artists still before the public whose careers he began were Dawn Upshaw, Heidi Grant Murphy, Paul Groves, and Dwayne Croft. Simultaneously with his work at CAMI he was the Casting Director for Pierre Audi and the Netherlands Opera (1990 - 94). He left both posts to serve as the Vice-president of A+R for BMG Classics North America, where he made recordings with Evgeny Kissin, James Galway, and Michael Tilson Thomas, among others. In 1997 he returned to CAMI for a second stint, again working with singers but adding orchestral touring management to his repertoire with several tours each for the Met Orchestra and the Concertgebouw. Treuhaft graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberlin College and its Conservatory of Music, with degrees in both English and Music; he also holds a Masters in Piano with from Indiana University. He has returned to both schools, along with many others, to offer professional seminars for both young singers and students interested in becoming the next generation of administrators and managers in the music business.


	James W. Wright has been general director of Vancouver Opera (VO) since 1999 and holds responsibility for all programming, artistic and administrative functions of the company, including strategic and artistic planning, fund development and government relations. During his tenure, VO has presented five company premieres; commissioned an opera based on Joy Kogawa’s novel Naomi’s Road; commissioned an opera, Lillian Alling, for the company’s 50th anniversary in 2010; initiated Community Forums and Opera Speaks; successfully introduced Music! Words! Opera! and posted operating surpluses in seven out of eight years. He is chair of the Opera.ca board, on the national board of Imagine Canada and serves on The Vancouver Foundation’s Arts and Culture Grants panel. He has worked in opera for 30 years.


	Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO, and is responsible for the strategic leadership and management of the entire organization. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 2,500 organizations and individuals. An additional 16,000 subscribers now receive a variety of free and fee-based services. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has led several cross-disciplinary projects, including the Performing Arts Research Coalition, National Music Coalition, and The First National Performing Arts Convention. 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 a $20 million endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. The establishment of the Information and Research Service, Artistic Service, and Trustee/Volunteer programs has expanded service to the entire field. OPERA America’s relocation from Washington, D.C. to New York City in December 2005 has increased communication and collaboration with and among members both locally and nationally. OPERA America supported the establishment of affiliated Opera.ca (Toronto) and Opera Europa (Brussels) and works closely with both organizations. 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. Scorca attended Amherst College where he graduated with high honors in both history and music.


	Anthony Freud was appointed Houston Grand Opera’s third general director and its first CEO in July 2005; he began his tenure in March 2006. From 1994 to 2005, he served as general director of the internationally respected Welsh National Opera (WNO), Wales’s national opera company and the largest provider of opera to regional England. From 1992 to 1994, Freud was the executive producer for Philips Classics, where he oversaw large-scale recording projects for such artists as Jessye Norman, Seiji Ozawa, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Bernard Haitink. Freud is an Honorary Fellow of both University of Cardiff and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.


	Since taking over as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in August 2006, Peter Gelb has launched numerous initiatives to reinvigorate North America’s largest opera company. He is strongly committed to revitalizing the Met theatrically while preserving its musical values. Gelb’s plans to connect opera with a wider audience include outreach programs and new media efforts. One of the most groundbreaking and successful is “Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD,” live performance transmissions shown in high definition in movie theaters across North America, Europe and Japan. At the age of 17, Gelb was an office boy for the late impresario Sol Hurok. He then became an assistant manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was manager of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz during his career revival in the 1980s. He later served as president of CAMI Video and of the international record label Sony Classical. He has won six Emmy Awards as a television producer and director, as well as a Peabody Award for Marsalis on Music, an educational television series.


	Diane Wondisford is producing director of the Music-Theatre Group (MTG) and this year will celebrate her 26th anniversary with the organization. During her tenure she has produced more than 80 new works, either on her own or with MTG's founder, Lyn Austin. Highlights of this extraordinary body of work include Diedre Murray and Cornelius Eady's Running Man, directed by Diane Paulus, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal's Juan Darien, nominated for five Tonys including Best Musical; and Tan Dun and Paul Griffith's Marco Polo, directed by Martha Clarke, and winner of the Grawemeyer Award. Upon Austin's death in October 2000, Wondisford succeeded her as producing director and continued the MTG tradition of commissioning, developing and producing unique works of music-theatre with writers Anne Carson, Robert Pinsky, Wendy Walters and Susan Wheeler; composers Derek Bermel, Douglas Cuomo, Tod Machover and Diedre Murray; and directors Robin Guarino, Diane Paulus and Sonoko Kawahara. Wondisford is a frequent panelist and speaker on new music-theatre and opera. She is a board member of A.R.T./New York and is the architect and co-director of the Summer Music Theatre Immersion Experience for the School of Drama at The New School.


	Darren K. Woods was appointed General Director of the Fort Worth Opera in July of 2001. Under his leadership, the Fort Worth Opera has increased subscription and donor bases and has received rave reviews for production quality. Expanding on Mr. Woods’ dedication to young artists, the Fort Worth Opera Studio was founded in the 2002-2003 season with four members who participated in main stage productions, performed for more than 100,000 children and received coaching and lessons from visiting guest artists. In May of 2007 Fort Worth Opera celebrated its first commissioned work: Frau Margot by Thomas Pasatieri, with a libretto by Frank Corsaro as well as celebrating the first annual Fort Worth Opera Festival.


	Brian Dickie began his opera career at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1962. He was artistic director of the Wexford Festival from 1967 to 1973 and simultaneously the first administrator of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. In 1981 he became general administrator of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, a post he held until 1988. He held the post of general director of the Canadian Opera Company from 1989 to 1993 and from 1994 to 1997 was artistic adviser to the Opéra de Nice and adviser to the International Youth Foundation during the formation of the European Union Opera. Since joining Chicago Opera Theater in 1999, Dickie has led the company to be one of the marquee tenants to open the Harris Theater in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, where the company has been performing since 2004.


	Catherine French is an independent consultant working with nonprofit music, arts and education organizations in the areas of executive search and leadership development. Her recent clients include the New World Symphony, Opera Pacific, Music Academy of the West, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the Omaha Performing Arts Society, Palm Beach Opera and Carnegie Hall. From 1980 through 1996, French was CEO of the American Symphony Orchestra League. An active volunteer for a variety of arts and cultural organizations, French is board chair of The Washington Chorus, a vice chair of the Board of Overseers of The Curtis Institute of Music and a member of the board of directors of The New York Pops. She is a founder and honorary member of the International Alliance of Orchestra Associations.


	Louise Gaylord has a distinguished record of service to cultural organizations and other nonprofit institutions. She currently serves on the board of directors of Opera Santa Barbara. She has been a trustee for numerous organizations, holding offices including president of Opera Volunteers International and the Houston Grand Opera Guild; vice president of the board of Sarasota Opera and Houston Grand Opera; impresario chairman of Stages Repertory Theatre (Houston, TX); and co-chairman and development chair of ProLiteracy Worldwide, among others. She has edited publications of The Blue Bird Circle for Pediatric Neurology (Houston, TX) and Houston Grand Opera.


	On January 1, 2006, David Gockley became the sixth general director of San Francisco Opera. Prior to his role in San Francisco, Gockley served as general director of Houston Grand Opera (HGO) for 33 years. Committed to the premise that opera is a living art form, he fashioned HGO into America’s leading commissioner and producer of new works, with 33 world premieres and six American premieres to its credit. In 1977, Gockley and composer Carlisle Floyd founded the Houston Grand Opera Studio to develop the talents of young singers. One of the crowning achievements of Gockley’s career was the 1987 opening of the Wortham Theater Center, a $72 million performing arts center built entirely with private funds. Gockley also launched HGO’s Community Connections Initiative (CCI), aimed at nurturing new audiences by taking opera to the center of the community. Under CCI, HGO produced eight “Plazacasts” — live feeds of opera performances projected on a giant outdoor screen. In 1998, Gockley and HGO unveiled the Multimedia Modular Stage (MMS), combining state-of-the-art computer images, “live” close-up video projections and MTV sensibilities to get a sense of intimacy in large outdoor settings.


	In 2007-2008, Robert M. Heuer celebrates 37 years in opera. His opera career began as the founding managing director of Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theatre and has continued for the last 27 years with Florida Grand Opera (FGO). He joined FGO as director of production in 1979, became assistant general director in 1983 and then became general director in 1985. As general director, Heuer led the effort resulting in the merger of the Greater Miami Opera and the Opera Guild of Ft. Lauderdale to create Florida Grand Opera in June 1994. In the fall of 2006, he oversaw FGO’s move into the Ziff Ballet Opera House in the new, multi-million-dollar Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. During Heuer’s seasons as general director, FGO has mounted well over 80 mainstage productions, including 25 operas never seen in South Florida.


	As artistic and general director of Chautauqua Opera since 1995, Jay Lesenger has introduced the Chautauqua audience to important 20th-century works such as Vanessa (Barber) and Two Widows (Smetana), as well as the American musicals A Little Night Music (Sondheim) and She Loves Me (Bock & Harnick). He also produced for the first time at Chautauqua overlooked Italian operas such as Macbeth and Stiffelio by Verdi and Maria Stuarda by Donizetti. He has been engaged by opera companies nationwide, including New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Pacific, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, The Atlanta Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Columbus, Kentucky Opera, Knoxville Opera, Mobile Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Opera Omaha and Orlando Opera, among others. A dedicated Manhattan resident, Lesenger is a nationally recognized teacher of acting for singers and for five years was an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor, where he directed the School of Music Opera Theatre. His is also a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan National Council Auditions and other vocal competitions.


	Dr. Frayda B. Lindemann is vice president of the Metropolitan Opera Association, as well as a member of the executive committee and a managing director of the board. In addition, she is a member of the board and chairman of the executive committee of Young Concert Artists, and she also supports the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program (LYADP) of the Metropolitan Opera. Each year, the LYADP discovers and nurtures a group of exceptionally gifted singers for individualized training through the resources of the Metropolitan Opera’s own music and artistic staffs, as well as from invited master teachers. From 1975 to 1977, she was an instructor in music at Columbia, and was also an editor of Current Musicology, a publication of Columbia University Press. For nine years after that, she was assistant professor of music history at Hunter. Lindemann’s other professional affiliations include the Palm Beach Civic Association (director), the American Musicological Society, the Alumni Association of Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the National Actors Theatre (board member) and the Parents Council at Brown University.


	Christopher Mattaliano was named Portland Opera’s fifth general director in July 2003. In this capacity, he is responsible for all artistic, financial and administrative aspects of the company. He brings to the company an intense artistic vision honed from his extensive stage directing experience at companies including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, L’Opéra de Montréal, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The Minnesota Opera, The Dallas Opera, Central City Opera, L’Opéra de Nice and the Norwegian National Opera, among others. He has directed world premieres of Hugo Weisgall’s Esther for the New York City Opera, jazz composer Fred Ho’s Journey Beyond the West for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Peter Westergaard’s The Tempest for the Opera Festival of New Jersey and the American premiere of Fleischman’s Rothschild’s Violin at the Juilliard Opera Center. Previous to this appointment at Portland Opera, Mattaliano was the artistic director of the Pine Mountain Music Festival.


	Designer Allen Moyer’s opera productions include Orfeo ed Euridice for the Metropolitan Opera, The Grapes of Wrath for The Minnesota Opera and Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, as well as productions for San Francisco Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Scottish Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Opera Colorado and Glimmerglass Opera. His productions for New York City Opera include The Mother of Us All, Il trittico, Il viaggio a Reims, Don Pasquale and La bohème (also broadcast on Live from Lincoln Center). Broadway credits include: Grey Gardens (2006 Hewes Award from the American Theater Wing), Little Dog Laughed, Twelve Angry Men, The Constant Wife, Reckless and The Man Who Had All The Luck. Off-Broadway credits include productions of new plays for Playwright’s Horizons, The Public Theater/NYSF, Second Stage, The Roundabout Theatre, Signature Theatre Company and The Drama Department. Moyer is the recipient of a 2006 OBIE Award for sustained excellence.


	Carol A. Penterman has been the executive director/CEO of the Nashville Opera Association since 1995. She is responsible for daily operations, staffing, programming, marketing, development, financial stability and strategic planning of this not-for-profit organization, which includes three subsidiaries, the Liff Opera Center LLC, NOA Foundation LLC and Nashville Opera Company LLC, with combined assets of over $12 million. In May 2009, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean cut the ribbon at the grand opening of Nashville Opera’s first permanent home, the Noah Liff Opera Center, a 26,000 square foot, multi-purpose venue. It won the Urban Land Institute 2009 Design Excellence Award. The judges commented “the Noah Liff Opera Center is the best kind of example of a nonprofit institutional adaptive reuse right in a neighborhood. You can already see the impact it’s having on the adjacent fragile neighborhoods. It is a catalyst for further reinvestment.” Penterman is a consultant with the Tennessee Arts Commission, specializing in board development, strategic planning, financial oversight and best business practices. She chairs the steering committee for the Nashville Arts Coalition, which handles lobbying activities directed at the Nashville Metro Council and TN Legislators, promoting increased funding for visual and performing arts in greater Nashville. Penterman is a member of the OPERA America board of directors and serves on the OPERA America Strategic Planning Advisory Committee. She received the OPERA America Bravo Award in 2006, the Francis Robinson Award for outstanding leadership in 2005 and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award in 1999. She is a frequent panelist for OPERA America and grant reviewer for The National Endowment for the Arts.


	Steven Sharpe has served as the general director for Opera Santa Barbara since April 2006. Prior to that, he served in a part-time capacity with the organization as general manager for two years and development consultant for two years. Sharpe began his nonprofit career as director of development and executive director for Pacific Pride Foundation / AIDS Project Central Coast from 1992-1995, where his accomplishments included founding the Heart & Sole AIDS Walk, which remains the organization’s largest annual fundraiser. From 1996-2000, Sharpe served as executive director for the Dream Foundation, helping to establish and build the nation’s first adult wish-granting organization. From 2000-2003 he served as general manager for Camerata Pacifica. Since 2004, Sharpe has served as the campaign coordinator for the Greater Santa Barbara Ice Skating Association, raising $3 million of a $6 million campaign to build a professional ice rink in Santa Barbara. Sharpe has provided strategic planning and fundraising consulting for a variety of organizations, including Antioch University, Children’s Creative Project, Community Youth Performing Arts Center, Community Counseling Center, Community Environmental Center, Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center and Summerdance Santa Barbara. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Santa Barbara Performing Arts League, and holds a B.A. from the University of California, Irvine.


	Kevin Smith was appointed general director of The Minnesota Opera in 1986, having previously served as general manager, company administrator and production stage manager for the company since joining the staff in 1981. In his current position as The Minnesota Opera’s president and CEO, Smith is responsible for all company affairs — artistic, financial and managerial. Since he became the company’s leader, The Minnesota Opera’s total annual audience has doubled, annual budget and season subscribers have tripled and total assets have grown 30 times. Smith has served as the chairman of the board of directors of OPERA America. Prior to coming to Minnesota, he was based in New York as a freelance production/stage manager and assistant director, working with numerous regional opera companies including Virginia Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Theatre of Rochester and San Francisco Spring Opera.


	Gregory C. Swinehart is the United States and North American Managing Partner of Deloitte’s Forensic & Dispute Services practice. Greg has spent twenty two years providing specialized economic, operational, and accounting consulting services to clients. Greg has been with Deloitte approximately fourteen years. Prior to joining Deloitte, he was a partner in a boutique consulting firm. Before getting his MBA and starting in the consulting world he was a product and process engineer at 3M. Prior to his current roles at Deloitte, he led practices in Minneapolis, New York and Chicago.


	Although J.A. “Gus” Blanchard retired from full-time employment at the end of 2002, he currently serves as non-executive chairman of the board of ADC Telecommunications of Eden Prairie. Previously, he held chairman & CEO positions at eFunds Corporation (2000-2002), Deluxe Corporation (1995-2000) and Harbridge Merchant Services (1991-1993). His work background also includes 25 years at AT&T and a brief stint at General Instrument Corp. An alumnus of Princeton and MIT Sloan School, he has served on the boards of Wells Fargo & Co. as well as ADC Telecommunications. Opera became his first musical love and passion as a result of the Texaco radio broadcasts in the 1950s. In addition to service with Minnesota Opera that began in 1996, he was a director of New York City Opera for five years, and has sought out opera performances in Europe, Asia and Australia in addition to numerous American venues. He and his wife, Mary, have two married daughters and reside in White Bear Lake, MN.


	Gregory Carpenter joined the staff of Opera Colorado as director of development in 2004 and became general director in 2007. He is responsible for overseeing artistic and administrative operations of the company, guiding a staff of seventeen full-time employees. As the director of development, he proved himself as an exemplary leader in the areas of fundraising operations, working with a 45-member governing board and overseeing a full-time professional staff of four. He has successfully generated revenue through special events, donor cultivation, community partnerships and corporate support. Carpenter was the chairman of the fundraising committee for the National Performing Arts Convention. Prior to joining Opera Colorado, he worked for three years as the manager of development with the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. There, he worked closely with the National Symphony Orchestra leadership and an 85 member board to achieve and exceed annual fundraising goals averaging $8.9 to $10.5 million.


	Rena M. DeSisto is head of marketing & corporate affairs for Europe, the Middle East & Africa; and Global Arts & Heritage executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In her marketing & corporate affairs role, DeSisto oversees the company’s marketing, sponsorships and philanthropy for the region. In her role of global arts & culture executive, she oversees the programming of Bank of America-related investments in nonprofit arts institutions and the communities they serve. DeSisto also oversees a grant program for nonprofit arts organizations to strengthen their ability to educate and serve their local communities. Previously, DeSisto was philanthropy executive with the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, and before that, marketing executive. She served as co-lead on the marketing and communications team that combined Bank of America with Fleet, and which launched the Bank of America brand in the Northeast States. She has also held the position of senior vice president for FleetBoston Financial Corporation, where she oversaw marketing, philanthropy and communications in Metropolitan New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.


	David B. Devan arrived at the Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP) in January 2006 following an extensive search to identify a managing director to oversee all income-generating departments, as well as board development and community programs. In March 2009, OCP’s Board of Directors unanimously supported his appointment as executive director. Since his arrival, Devan has worked closely with Board and administration on strategic planning initiatives and building partnerships within the community. Key achievements born out of these initiatives have included the first cycle of the education department’s Hip H’Opera collaboration with Arts Sanctuary’s after-school program; the successful partnership between OCP, Curtis Institute of Music and Kimmel Center Presents to produce a fully-staged opera each season at the Perelman Theater with joint marketing strength; OCP’s selection for a Wallace Foundation Excellence Award to support marketing programs; and a $5 million fundraising campaign supporting the company’s artistic goals, of which $4.1 million has been raised in a most difficult economic climate. A native of Canada, Devan attended Brock University in Ontario and Stanford's University's Graduate School of Business Executive Program.


	Allen R. Freedman Allen Freedman graduated from Tufts University in 1961 and from the University of Virginia Law School in 1964. He also attended New York University Graduate School of Business, studying accounting and banking. In 2000, Freedman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. Freedman founded Assurant Inc in 1978 and retired as CEO in 2000. He has also been a private equity investor since the 1970s. He previously served as chair of the Board for two public companies, Systems and Computer Technology Corp. and Indus, Inc. He has served as chair of the audit committee of two public companies, currently chairing the audit committee of Stonemor, MLP. He is designated as a “financial expert” by the Stonemor Board for the purposes of the audit committee. At Eaton Vance and Assurant, he is a member of the finance and portfolio management committees, which deal with investment policy and implementation. Freedman and his wife co-founded the annual Freedman Prizes at Hartwick College, which are intended to dramatically reposition the focus of this small liberal arts college in Oneonta, NY. In 2009-2010, over 30 student-faulty fellowships were awarded to stimulate undergraduate/tenured faculty participation in the undergraduate learning experience.


	Jake Heggie is the American composer of the acclaimed operas Moby-Dick, Dead Man Walking, Three Decembers, The End of the Affair and To Hell and Back, as well as the stage works For a Look or a Touch and At the Statue of Venus. The recipient of a 2005-2006 Guggenheim Fellowship, he has also composed more than 200 songs, as well as concerti, chamber music, choral and orchestral works. His songs, song cycles and operas are championed internationally by many of the most celebrated singers of our time, including Isabel Bayrakdarian, Joyce Castle, Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Ben Heppner, Kristine Jepson, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Kiri Te Kanawa and Bryn Terfel, to name a few. The operas - most of them created with the distinguished writers Terrence McNally and Gene Scheer — have been produced internationally on five continents. Since its San Francisco premiere in 2000, Dead Man Walking has received more than 150 international performances. Moby-Dick, which recently received its 2010 world premiere in Dallas, was commissioned by The Dallas Opera with San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, State Opera of South Australia and Calgary Opera. Upcoming projects include songs commissioned by Carnegie Hall, The Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, as well as "Ahab" Symphony, commissioned by University of North Texas at Denton, where Heggie will be guest artist-in-residence during the 2010/11 academic year.


	Andreas Mitisek has been the artistic and general director of Long Beach Opera since 2003. There he has conducted a number of productions including Elektra, Bluebeard's Castle, Volo di Notte by Dallapiccola, Jenůfa and The Ring of the Nibelung. He is also increasingly sought after as a guest conductor in North America, leading productions for Seattle Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Vancouver Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater and Yale Opera. A native of Austria, he served as music director of the Wiener Operntheater from 1990-1997, which earned critical and popular acclaim as the foremost contemporary opera company in Austria presenting the world premiere of The Eternal Triangle Trio by Farber, the Austrian premieres and Viennese premieres of Der Reigen by Boesmans, Der Revisor by W. Egk, Oedipe by Enescu, Le Grand Macabre by Ligeti, The Second Mrs. Kong by Birtwistle, Das Schloss by Reimann, Nixon in China by Adams, Death in Venice by Britten and The Devils of Loudon by Penderecki.