|
|
OUR LEADERSHIP
|
|
Willie Anthony Waters
Conductor, Artistic Director
|
Maestro Willie Anthony Waters is currently Artistic Director of Connecticut Opera. He has conducted numerous noteworthy productions for the company, including the Arena production of Aïda in 1991, Otello in 1997, Porgy and Bess in 1998 and Salome in 2003. He has been a guest conductor for the Arizona Opera, Cologne Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, L'Opéra de Montréal, Orlando Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opéra de Québec and opera companies and symphony orchestras in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Durban, South Africa. Among his orchestral engagements are performances with the Hartford Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic, as well as several European orchestras. Maestro Waters serves as Artistic Director/Opera of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild.
In 2002, Maestro Waters made his New York City Opera debut conducting Rigoletto and returned the next season for Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. He has conducted recordings with opera greats Simon Estes and Shirley Verrett, and two gala concerts (for Connecticut Opera and Opera Colorado) with renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. In March, 2005, he celebrated the 25th anniversary of his conducting debut with Connecticut Opera. In May, 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford/The Hartt School for his contributions to the musical life of the city of Hartford. Maestro Waters is a frequent guest panelist on the quiz of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, and hosts a monthly program, “Looking Through the Opera Glasses” on Beethoven.com. In July, 2008, he made his debut at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, conducting the Cape Town Opera production of Porgy and Bess.
In addition to this season’s Connecticut Opera productions of Don Giovanni, The Daughter of the Regiment and La bohème,he will conduct concert performances of Il trovatore with Eugene (OR) Opera, and will serve as music director of a summer training program for young singers sponsored by the Martina Arroyo Foundation in New York City.
 |
|
Linda Jackson
Managing Director
|
Linda Jackson comes to Connecticut Opera with over 25 years of experience working in the performing arts, 20 of them in the field of opera. In August 2001, she was appointed the General Director of Berkshire Opera Company when the company's President & CEO, Sanford Fisher stepped down for health reasons. From 1998 until moving to the Berkshires she served as the Executive Director for artist and stage director Robert Wilson's Byrd Hoffman Foundation, a foundation which supports the Watermill Center, a cultural arts center being established in Southampton, New York; during the 1997-98 season she worked as the Artistic Administrator for Opera Pacific; in 1997 traveled to 63 U.S. cities as the Company Manager for the New York City Opera National Company production of La boheme; from 1994-96 she was the General Manager for 651, an Arts Center at the Brooklyn Academy of Music presenting an international series of artists and producing The Outcast, an opera by composer Noa Ain; spent from 1981 to 1994 at the Chautauqua Opera in the following capacities: Production Stage Manager (1981-82), Production Manager (1983-84), Managing Director (1985-87), and finally General Director (1988-1994); served as Production Manager for Texas Opera Theater, the touring arm of Houston Grand Opera, from 1984-87; Production Stage Manager for Greater Miami Opera 1981-1984; Stage Manager for Houston Grand Opera from 1977-1980. Prior to beginning her career in Opera, Miss Jackson worked with several Off-Off Broadway companies including Jean Erdman's Theater of the Open Eye. She holds a degree in English and Theater Arts from Douglass College at Rutgers University.
|
