|
|
OUR LEADERSHIP
|
|
Willie Anthony Waters
Conductor, Artistic Director
|
Appointed Artistic Director of Connecticut Opera (Hartford) in July, 1999, Maestro Willie Anthony Waters has conducted numerous noteworthy productions and events for the company, including the Arena production of Aïda in 1991, Otello in 1997, Porgy and Bess in 1998, A Capitol Concert in Bushnell Park during the summer of 2000, and Denyce Graves in Concert (which opened the company's 60th anniversary season in the fall of 2001).
Maestro Waters has been a guest conductor for the Arizona Opera, Australian Opera, Cologne Opera (Germany), Edmonton Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Houston Ebony Opera, Manitoba Opera (Winnipeg), Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Carolina, Opera Colorado, L'Opéra de Montréal, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Orlando Opera, San Francisco Opera, Vancouver Opera, Kentucky Opera, and the opera companies of Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban, in South Africa. Among his orchestral engagements are performances with the Florida Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra (Munich), Essen Philharmonic (Germany), Brucknerhaus Orchester (Linz, Austria) and Indianapolis Symphony. Maestro Waters also serves as Artistic Advisor and Conductor of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, where he has conducted Otello, Tosca, Suor Angelica and Highway One, USA (William Grant Still), The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, and La Bohème, set during the Harlem renaissance of the 1920's.
In September 2001, Maestro Waters conducted a gala concert with Denyce Graves in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Opera Colorado in Denver. In November of 2002 Maestro Waters made his New York City Opera debut conducting Rigoletto. After rave reviews in the New York Times, he returned to New York City Opera in the fall of 2003 to conduct Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men.
Maestro Waters hosts a monthly radio program on Beethoven Radio, Through the Opera Glasses, and is a regular guest on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz during the renowned Metropolitan Opera live broadcasts.
The 2004 - 2005 Season marked the 25th anniversary of Willie Anthony Waters' conducting debut at Connecticut Opera. In the 2005-2006 season Maestro Waters will conduct Il trovatore, L'Italiana in Algeri, and the double bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Gianni Schicchi for Connecticut Opera. In September of 2006 he will conduct Aïda for Boston Lyric Opera's Opera on the Common.
 |
|
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.
|
