AOC welcomes new and returning members to our Board of Directors

AOC’s Annual General Meeting was held Tuesday November 23, 2021, and saw the election of a new and renewed slate of directors.

Newly Joining

Heather Kitchen

Heather Kitchen : A native of Toronto, Heather Kitchen is an arts administrator and teacher with more than 45 years of professional experience. Joining Calgary Opera in January 2019, she serves as General Director and CEO. Heather teaches in the MFA and Graduate Certificate Program in Arts Leadership and Cultural Management at the University of Connecticut.

Alexandra Skoczylas

Alexandra Skoczylas: Opera Atelier’s Executive Director since 2015, Alexandra Skoczylas is a strategic arts sector leader with general management experience grounded in two decades building audience-focused marketing, communications, and audience development programs.

Aria Umezawa

Aria Umezawa: With her quirky, irreverent style, Aria Umezawa’s work evokes wonder and challenges the long-established traditions of opera and classical music. She was the first stage director to be awarded an Adler Fellowship with San Francisco Opera in fifteen years. Upcoming engagements include two productions of Madama Butterfly with the Canadian Opera Company and Hawaii Opera Theater, and Acis and Galatea with Philharmonia Baroque at Tanglewood and Caramoor. Aria is a Co-Founder of Amplified Opera.

AOC Welcomes Back:

Michael Hidetoshi Mori, General Director, Tapestry Opera, 8th year
Ian Rye, CEO, Pacific Opera Victoria, 6th year
Patrick Hansen, Associate Prof, Director of Opera Studies, McGill University 6th year
Dean Burry, Assistant Professor and Theory/Composition Co-Coordinator, Queens University, 6th year
Marion Newman, Mezzo Soprano and Independent Artist, 4th year
Chantal Lambert, Directrice de l’ Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, 4th year
Amy Mushinski, Director, Public Affairs & Community Partnerships,The Canadian Opera Company, 3rd year
Bruce Munro Wright, Vancouver, BC, 3rd year
Jennifer Szeto, Co-founder, Musique 3 Femmes, 2nd year

Membership

The Association for Opera in Canada offers a broad range of services and benefits to its members and affiliates at all levels. Through our unique arrangement with OPERA America, when you join Association for Opera in Canada, you also gain access to a broad range of OPERA America benefits and services as well, extending the value of your membership throughout North America and around the world.

Support

Your support helps us deliver our mandate to advance the interests of Canada’s opera and music theatre community and to create greater opportunity for opera audiences and professionals alike. Together, we can create and sustain an environment that makes opera and music theatre central to Canadian life.

AOC welcomes new and returning members to our Board of Directors