November, 2010—For Immediate Release
ANNAPOLIS AND THE MET IN SAME GROUP: We Are Judged By the Company We Keep.
The Annapolis Opera Company is now associated with New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Opera in OPERA America, the national service organization for professional opera companies.
OPERA America incorporated in 1970 under its first president, Robert Collinge, general director of Baltimore Opera. [Annapolis Opera was founded in 1972]. “There is no doubt in my mind that the flourishing dozens of new companies in the seventies were encouraged and enhanced by the presence of OPERA America. I am lucky to be within a family of peers who provide support systems. I cannot imagine leading MOT to its present growth without the advice and help of successful and imaginative colleagues who saved me more than once from ‘reinventing the wheel,” said David DiChiera, American composer, founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre, and 2010 NEA Honors recipient.
With the appointment of their first ever general manager, Jennifer Fletcher, Annapolis Opera felt it was time to take yet another step forward in the professional world of opera. In meeting the kinds of challenges opera companies face today—the difficulty of building and maintaining audiences and engaging the younger generation—Fletcher points to the need for making creative use of new technologies and the importance of forging strong community ties. “By taking advantage of the resources OPERA America provides to companies with first-time general managers, as well as utilizing the Opera Fund, which provides grant money for programs that encourage audience growth, we can benefit in the same way that our peers are as Professional Company Members,” states Fletcher. She is also something of a pioneer, being one of only 33 women general managers out of the 155 Professional Company Members of Opera America.
OPERA America has strived to work closely with the NEA to advance the art form. “It is important for our community to be aware of the power of opera in America, how it has been the fastest growing art form for nearly a decade, how it strengthens education, and helps to promote the visibility of each city’s arts community,” says Fletcher, who is now finishing her eighth week in her new position.
‘In addition to its annual conference, OPERA America facilitates a number of meetings and workshops for opera professionals. Developing a new generation of leaders has always been a priority, and in 2005, OPERA America introduced the Leadership Advance, a pre-conference seminar in which rising professionals learn from industry leaders about every aspect of managing an opera company. Participants also meet for early-morning sessions throughout the conference to discuss the previous day’s programming with guest faculty.’ – OPERA America Summer 2010 issue
Ms. Fletcher’s mentor, Darren K. Woods, the general director of Fort Worth Opera, has been a long time advocate of the great work of OPERA America and enrolled her in the Leadership Advance program for its inaugural season in 2005. “I am so proud that Annapolis Opera was unanimously voted in as a Professional Company Member at the recent Board of Trustees meeting for OPERA America,” says Fletcher. “Upon our great news, Francesca Zambello, the newly appointed General & Artistic Director of Glimmerglass Opera, wrote me to ask if we might collaborate on something in the future. Here is someone I have been admiring in the business for two decades that is now writing to me as her colleague. This is only the beginning for Annapolis Opera, and what a great beginning it is.”
Contact: Jennifer Fletcher, General Manager, 410-267-8135
