Piedmont Opera’s Board Chairman, Robin Miller, and UNCSA’s
Dean of Music, Wade Weast, announced today that James Allbritten, the current
Artistic Director for Piedmont Opera and 20-year Music faculty member of UNCSA,
will be leaving the school to become the General Director for Piedmont Opera.
He will replace Frank Dickerson, who, after leading the
opera as its Executive Director for the past five years, will retire effective
June 30th, 2014.
When Dickerson announced his retirement, Piedmont Opera
looked to other opera companies of similar size around the country and
considered the leadership structure that was most common and successful.
Allbritten’s extensive artistic leadership experience at both Piedmont Opera
and UNCSA coupled with his strong desire and ability to lead the company made
him a perfect candidate.
“Jamie’s talent, vision, and experience enable Piedmont
Opera to continue its mission and recognition as a highly regarded regional
opera company,” stated Miller. “We have been very fortunate to have a long and
valued relationship with UNCSA, that has and will continue to benefit both the
arts community and supporters in Winston-Salem and throughout the Triad.”
Allbritten will be responsible for the overall leadership of
business operations, including fundraising, budgeting and financial control. He
will continue his artistic duties.
Allbritten joined the faculty of the School of the Arts in
1993, where his duties included Artistic Director of the A.J. Fletcher Opera
Institute, as well as music director of the Cantata Singers and interim music
director of the Symphony Orchestra. He concurrently served as Piedmont Opera’s
Artistic Director since 2004.
Weast said,
“I am happy for Jamie to have this professional opportunity, but of course we
hate to lose him as a full-time faculty member. His contributions to the School
of Music over the past 20 years, and to Fletcher Opera Institute since it was
founded in 2001, have been enormous. The good news is that he will remain here
in our community, applying his talent and expertise to enhance local opera.”
“UNCSA has
long enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Piedmont Opera, and the
school expects that relationship will continue,” Weast added.
Allbritten
came to UNCSA as a part-time faculty member to conduct the Cantata Singers, but
after his first concert, Dean Robert Yekovich immediately took steps to
expand his contract. He was the first Artistic Director of the A.J. Fletcher
Opera Institute and is largely responsible for its success and the success of
its many graduates. When UNCSA was in need of an interim orchestra
conductor, Mr. Allbritten stepped up and served in that capacity for almost
four years.
He has
been recognized numerous times by his peers as an outstanding teacher, and his
students rave about his musicianship, expert teaching and enthusiasm. In 2013, he was named the recipient of an Excellence in
Teaching Award, an honor he had received twice before. In August, he was
honored by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts at UNCSA as being a
“class act: one who employs best practices in arts education.” In December, the
School announced the establishment of a $500,000 James Allbritten Distinguished
Visiting Artist Professorship for Fletcher Opera Institute.
Allbritten
will conduct Piedmont Opera’s upcoming performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
South
Pacific on March 14, 16 and 18, 2014 at the Stevens Center of the
UNCSA. Tickets are available at 336.725.7101 or at piedmontopera.org
James
Allbritten Bio
Originally from Louisville, Ky., James Allbritten began his
conducting studies at Indiana University under Jan Harrington, Robert Porco and
Thomas Dunn. While there, he also worked
with Glyndborne Festival Opera conductor Bryan Balkwill and MET stage directors
Hans Busch and James Lucas.
As artistic director and principal conductor for Piedmont
Opera, he has led performances ranging from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro to Puccini’s Turandot
to the opera house premiere of Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza. Of
Piedmont Opera’s Un ballo in maschera,
Opera News said, “The musical excellence for the entire evening was the work of
the conductor, James Allbritten … His tempos were well chosen, attacks were
precise, and the coordination and balance with the singers was exemplary.”
Last summer, Allbritten led the premiere of Kenneth
Frazelle’s Triple Concerto for the
Meadowmount School of Music in New York. He was also the music director for the
Vocal Arts Festival for the Colorado College. Last December, he returned for a
third year to conduct Handel’s Messiah
for the Mozart Club. In addition, he has
led performances for Opera Theater of the Rockies, Opera Carolina, the Carolina
Chamber Symphony and the Winston Salem Symphony. Also an accomplished singer,
he studied with Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Giorgio Tozzi and Margaret Harshaw.
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