Robinson begins September 4, 2024,
following 16 years at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Seattle Opera’s subsequent Basic and Creative Director, James Robinson. © David Jaewon Oh |
James Robinson is the following Basic 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 Basic 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 trade and produced by homes world wide. 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, turning 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 prime theaters and over 30 world premieres. He has additionally seen success with productions of ordinary 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 bought extra tickets than any opera in firm historical past.
“We’re thrilled to have a frontrunner of James’s caliber be part of us as Basic and Creative Director of Seattle Opera,” mentioned Jonathan Rosoff, chair of the search committee. “An completed stage director and administrator, James is well known as a number one artistic drive on this trade, and his productions have appeared at lots of the world’s most revered opera homes. Between his steadfast management, his spectacular document 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 ingenious new period.”
“I couldn’t be extra excited to be becoming a member of the super workers and board at Seattle Opera,” mentioned 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 in the present day.”
One secret to Robinson’s success has been his community-based strategy to programming, which begins on the grass-roots degree lengthy earlier than inventive selections are finalized. Together with former OTSL Basic 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 neighborhood.
“Like politics, all arts are native,” mentioned Robinson. “It’s important to incorporate the neighborhood in decision-making processes, working with them to establish tales they need to see on stage. That is an space the place Seattle Opera has established itself as a frontrunner, and I sit up for persevering with this work with communities throughout the Pacific Northwest.”
“Jim Robinson is one in all our best visionaries—as a director, a commissioner of recent work, and a producer,” mentioned O’Leary, who now serves as Basic 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 firms of all sizes and with a variety of assets has given him a eager perception into how opera firms can create artwork in a sustainable method. Throughout his time at OTSL, Robinson mounted productions of the best high quality whereas sustaining fiscal accountability, streamlining the corporate’s workflow to permit for a extra environment friendly allocation of assets. He additionally helped foster sturdy donor relationships that resulted in a $45-million legacy present in early 2020, then the most important within the firm’s historical past.
That potential to forge relationships has enabled a few of Robinson’s most outstanding inventive collaborations. “I’ve my opera profession because of James Robinson,” mentioned 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 Basic and Creative Director on the Seattle Opera is nothing wanting 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 neighborhood applications, courses, and public occasions. Since its founding in 1963, Seattle Opera has change into a cornerstone of the humanities economic system within the Pacific Northwest, using greater than 800 individuals in 2023. Acknowledged as an trade chief in efforts to diversify opera, Seattle Opera developed its Racial Fairness and Social Influence 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 document for probably the most single tickets bought to any modern opera.
“I’m very completely satisfied that James shall be taking the reins of this glorious firm,” mentioned Christina Scheppelmann. “James has a formidable observe document as a stage director and his intensive community will current super alternatives for collaboration. I’m certain he’ll accomplish nice issues at Seattle Opera, along with this superb workers and supportive board. Seattle Opera is in good palms.”