Opera Conference 2015

By invitation.

By invitation.

By invitation.

By invitation. Includes lunch.

Registration for Opera Advocacy Day’s meetings with members of Congress is now closed. Those on the waitlist can still participate in the Opera Advocacy Day morning session in the Rayburn House Office Building.


This is your opportunity to advocate on behalf of the arts as members of the 114th Congress take office. Represent opera on a range of issues, including support for the National Endowment for the Arts, preservation of charitable giving incentives and quick visa processing for foreign guest artists. All full conference registrants are encouraged to participate. Bus departs at 8:00 a.m. from the Washington Marriott Georgetown; Return buses at 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Day on the Hill Schedule
8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Arts Issues Briefing and Advocacy Training
Includes continental breakfast and conversation with NEA leadership.

12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Hill Meetings
The deadline for registration has now passed. Box lunch available for purchase ($21.99).

Suggested Resource:

• Join us for Opera Advocacy Day [video] 

The New Works Forum is a series of sessions that offers insight, practical knowledge and networking opportunities for creators and producers of new opera and musical theater works. The opera industry continues to identify and support the creators of new works while also working to address challenges and opportunities associated with producing in the 21st century. Advance registration required. No additional fee. 


1:30 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. Nurturing the Pre-commissioning Process
How can companies use their facilities and resources to help creators gain experience? Learn more about how composers, librettists and directors are developing ideas and concepts for new work before receiving a formal commission. LAWRENCE EDELSON, artistic and general director/ producing artistic director, Opera Saratoga/American Lyric Theater; CORI ELLISON, dramaturg; SARAH WILLIAMS, new works administrator, Opera Philadelphia; .

2:30 p.m. – 3:20 p.m. Risky Business
Risk and failure are inherent parts of creativity. Learn how creators and producers can track progress completely and honestly throughout the development process. At what point should a work, no matter how brilliant, go no further? Find out about strategies for assessing a work in its early phases, how to best preserve the effort that went into creating it, protecting the rights of all parties and learning from the experience. SANDRA BERNHARD, director of HGOco, Houston Grand Opera; FLOYD ANDERSON, artist relations and planning director, Minnesota Opera.

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Tragedy Is Easy; Comedy Is Hard
New works dealing with serious subject matter and socially relevant topics dominate season repertoire. But where are the contemporary comic or satirical operas in the modern canon, and why are they so difficult to create? MARK ADAMO, composer; MARK CAMPBELL, librettist; PEGGY MONASTRA, artistic director, G. Schirmer/AMP; KIM WITMAN, senior director, Wolf Trap Opera; KAMALA SANKARAM, composer.

The New Works Forum is made possible by a generous and deeply appreciated grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Suggested Resources:

• Trickster In a Suit of Lights [PDF]
• Operas Premiered Since 1980 with Comedic/Satirical Libretti [PDF]

The future of the art form is in the hands of today’s young leaders. Young opera professionals under the age of 35 are invited to meet one another and lay the groundwork for future collaboration. Gather for drinks and networking. Included with full conference registration. Advance registration required. Capacity is limited to 45.

You may know your publisher colleagues, but do you know your opera facts? Come meet and greet our publisher members and try your hand at a round of opera trivia. A fun time to be had by all. Advance registration required. 

Professional Company Member official representatives and members of the OPERA America Board of Directors will review important association business, elect members to the Board and recognize the accomplishments of leaders in the field who are celebrating their 10th and 25th anniversaries. No other individual may substitute for the official company representative at this meeting. By invitation only.  

Members of the Technical/Production network are invited to travel to nearby Takoma Park for a dutch-treat lunch at Busboys and Poets followed by a tour of the Washington National Opera's costume shop, storage and rehearsal facility. The network will travel as a group on the Metro, led by Network Chair KAREN QUISENBERRY. Tour hosted by WNO Costume Director MARSHA LEBOEUF. Advance registration required.

This meeting of the Board of Directors is open to all OVI members who wish to attend.

Join the composer-librettist teams for facilitated discussion about the works featured in Friday evening’s New Works Sampler. Learn about their creative process, hear their questions and ask your own. Key publishers in the industry will then offer a tutorial reviewing the steps for commissioning a new work. The New Works Forum is made possible by a generous and deeply appreciated grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Advance registration required. No additional fee. Participation in the Wednesday seminar is not required.