Robinson begins September 4, 2024,
following 16 years at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
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| Seattle Opera’s subsequent Normal and Creative Director, James Robinson. © David Jaewon Oh |
James Robinson is the following Normal and Creative Director of Seattle Opera, and the fifth particular person to steer the corporate in its 61-year historical past. Robinson begins his tenure on September 4, 2024, changing Christina Scheppelmann, who takes over as Normal and Creative Director of Brussels’ La Monnaie/De Munt in January 2025 following the completion of her contract with Seattle Opera.
Robinson involves Seattle from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL), the place he has served as Creative Director since 2008. Throughout his tenure, Robinson reworked OTSL into one of many nation’s most forward-looking opera festivals, commissioning 11 world premieres and presenting imaginative new productions of core repertoire. Many of those commissions have been acknowledged for his or her affect on the business and produced by homes around the globe. These embrace Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier, which was hailed in The New York Instances’ “The Better of Classical Music 2018,” and Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fireplace Shut Up in My Bones, the latter of which opened the 2021/22 season on the Metropolitan Opera, changing into the primary work by a Black composer to seem on that stage.
As a stage director, Robinson has developed a wealthy portfolio, having directed at the least 75 new productions on the world’s high theaters and over 30 world premieres. He has additionally seen success with productions of normal repertoire. Robinson’s manufacturing of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess opened the 2019/20 season on the Metropolitan Opera, and later received a Grammy Award for Finest Opera Recording. And in January 2004, Robinson directed a blockbuster manufacturing of Georges Bizet’s Carmen at Seattle Opera that offered extra tickets than any opera in firm historical past.
“We’re thrilled to have a frontrunner of James’s caliber be a part of us as Normal and Creative Director of Seattle Opera,” stated Jonathan Rosoff, chair of the search committee. “An achieved stage director and administrator, James is widely known as a number one artistic drive on this business, and his productions have appeared at most of the world’s most revered opera homes. Between his steadfast management, his spectacular report of innovation, and his deep data of opera, we’re assured that James will make a direct affect at Seattle Opera and lead the corporate into an thrilling and creative new period.”
“I couldn’t be extra excited to be becoming a member of the large workers and board at Seattle Opera,” stated Robinson. “Seattle is an opera city. It has opera in its DNA, and I’m honored to have the ability to construct on that wealthy custom. I can’t wait to get to work creating artwork with and for the passionate audiences which have made Seattle Opera into the corporate it’s right this moment.”
One secret to Robinson’s success has been his community-based method to programming, which begins on the grass-roots stage lengthy earlier than inventive choices are finalized. Together with former OTSL Normal Director Timothy O’Leary, Robinson spearheaded OTSL’s New Works, Daring Voices commissioning program, which aimed to inform numerous, modern-day tales in partnership with the native St. Louis group.
“Like politics, all arts are native,” stated Robinson. “It’s important to incorporate the group in decision-making processes, working with them to determine tales they need to see on stage. That is an space the place Seattle Opera has established itself as a frontrunner, and I stay up for persevering with this work with communities throughout the Pacific Northwest.”
“Jim Robinson is certainly one of our biggest visionaries—as a director, a commissioner of recent work, and a producer,” stated O’Leary, who now serves as Normal Director of the Washington Nationwide Opera. “He cares deeply that work is not only nice artistically, but additionally resonates with the viewers, and plenty of of his commissions have been field workplace hits, attracting new and numerous audiences.”
Robinson’s work with corporations of all sizes and with a variety of assets has given him a eager perception into how opera corporations can create artwork in a sustainable method. Throughout his time at OTSL, Robinson mounted productions of the best high quality whereas sustaining fiscal duty, streamlining the corporate’s workflow to permit for a extra environment friendly allocation of assets. He additionally helped foster robust donor relationships that resulted in a $45-million legacy present in early 2020, then the biggest within the firm’s historical past.
That potential to forge relationships has enabled a few of Robinson’s most distinguished inventive collaborations. “I’ve my opera profession as a result of James Robinson,” stated Terence Blanchard, whom Robinson first approached about commissioning an opera greater than twelve years in the past. “Jim noticed one thing in me that I didn’t see in myself. His capability to make connections that others can’t see has allowed him to create new and thrilling work. Having him as the brand new Normal and Creative Director on the Seattle Opera is nothing in need of a coup.”
When he arrives in September, Robinson will take over Seattle Opera’s $25-million price range, overseeing an annual season that options 5 mainstage productions and a slate of group packages, courses, and public occasions. Since its founding in 1963, Seattle Opera has turn into a cornerstone of the humanities economic system within the Pacific Northwest, using greater than 800 folks in 2023. Acknowledged as an business chief in efforts to diversify opera, Seattle Opera developed its Racial Fairness and Social Impression plan in 2019 to information decision-making in any respect ranges of the group. Seattle Opera can be a devoted proponent of recent American opera, mounting the world premieres of A Thousand Splendid Suns (’23) and the upcoming Jubilee (’24), in addition to co-productions like X: The Life and Instances of Malcolm X (’24), which set an organization report for essentially the most single tickets offered to any modern opera.
“I’m very glad that James shall be taking the reins of this excellent firm,” stated Christina Scheppelmann. “James has a formidable observe report as a stage director and his intensive community will current large alternatives for collaboration. I’m certain he’ll accomplish nice issues at Seattle Opera, along with this wonderful workers and supportive board. Seattle Opera is in good arms.”
