Peter Mark
Artistic Director

Since his Virginia Opera debut in 1975 – conducting the pilot production of La Traviata with rising star Diana Soviero as Violetta – Artistic Director Peter Mark has presided over Virginia Opera's growth into one of the finest and largest opera companies in the nation. Under his guidance, Virginia Opera has identified and presented some of the nation's most promising young singers – from Jeannine Altmeyer, Ashley Putnam, Frederick Burchinal, John Aler, Rockwell Blake, Randy Locke, and Jake Gardner to Renée Fleming, Barbara Dever, Sujung Kim, Frank Porretta, Grant Youngblood, Fabiana Bravo, Randall Scarlata, Tracie Luck, and Thomas Truhitte. He has brought directors from the theatre and opera world to Virginia including Gian Carlo Menotti, Gordon Davidson, Arvin Brown, Dorothy Danner, Bernard Uzan and Lillian Groag in new productions designed by some of the nation's top opera and theater designers.

Maestro Mark will conduct his 100th Virginia Opera production – Il Trovatore – this season, having led nearly 700 highly-successful performances on the Virginia Opera stage during his career. As conductor, he has brought the artistic achievements of Virginia Opera to the international stage, conducting the company's productions and presenting the company’s singers in South America, London, New York, and most recently Shanghai, where he conducted the city’s first Italian-language Tosca – on newly built, Virginia Opera-designed scenery – to open the brand new Opera House of the Oriental Arts Center, China’s first. In celebration of the impact of those performances, and the importance of the occasion, he was featured on the cover of the national Opera News of China.

Among Virginia Opera's most recognized productions are four operas by Maestro Mark's wife, distinguished Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave, and the Virginia Premieres of Strauss’ Elektra and Salome, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Tristan & Isolde, Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, and Handel's Agrippina. Maestro Mark has conducted the British premiere of Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (telecast throughout the United Kingdom by Granada Television); 10 sold-out performances of Porgy and Bess at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (which opened that famed house's 1992 season) and La Bohème for its centennial production at the Torre del Lago Puccini Festival in Italy. He has also conducted for New York City Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria in Canada, and the National Opera of Mexico at the Bellas Artes.

He is featured as conductor on three commercial recordings of Virginia Opera productions: Mary, Queen of Scots, A Christmas Carol and, most recently, Handel's Julius Caesar.

Prior to his career as conductor and impresario, Maestro Mark, who began his musical career as a boy soprano at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, enjoyed a successful career as an orchestral, chamber music, and solo violist. He held leadership positions with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and toured extensively throughout the former Soviet Union, South America, and Great Britain as a soloist.

Paul A. 'Gus' Stuhlreyer, III
General Director & C.E.O.

Gus Stuhlreyer came to Virginia Opera in August 2003 with an extensive career in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, and as an independent consultant to nonprofit organizations throughout the nation. His areas of expertise include managing change and growth, strategic planning, earned and individual contributed income development and board and donor cultivation. Previous professional positions held include managing director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, managing director of the Cincinnati Opera, general director of Dayton Opera and executive director of the Cincinnati Ballet. Mr. Stuhlreyer holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. Mr. Stuhlreyer oversees an annual budget of $6 million, a staff of 35, and provides vision and leadership to ensure that the company achieves its artistic mission, implements balanced annual operating budgets, and meets its goals for fundraising, financial stability, public visibility and long-range planning. Mr. Stuhlreyer works closely with Maestro Peter Mark with respect to production and artistic activities.

Joseph Walsh
Associate Artistic Director

Joseph Walsh conducted Virginia Opera’s highly successful premiere production of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah in 2006 and took the podium again last season for The Pirates of Penzance. He has conducted productions at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, including Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in honor of the anniversary of the composer’s 250th birthday, and Puccini’s greatest comic opera Gianni Schicchi. Additionally, Mr. Walsh has conducted Virginia Opera performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro, The Merry Widow, and The Magic Flute in prior seasons. He has been involved in musical preparation for more than forty Virginia Opera productions since joining the company in 1995, including most recently, Carmen, Agrippina, La Traviata, Romeo and Juliet, Norma, Turandot, Tristan and Isolde and Faust Mr. Walsh is also the company’s resident Chorus Master and was recently praised by Celia Porter of The Washington Post for his ability to produce choral singing that is “as perfect as human voices can be in tone quality, diction, blend, dramatic conviction and intonation.” In recent seasons, Mr. Walsh prepared Virginia Opera’s chorus for the inaugural concert of the new Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News in a program with Michael Crawford, as well as festive evening joining the forces of Richmond’s three major arts organizations, the Richmond Ballet, The Richmond Symphony and Virginia Opera in performances of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He recently served as Musical Director for a concert entitled An Evening of Moonlight and Music at The Huntington Art Collections, Museum and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California, featuring artists and selections from Virginia Opera’s The Merry Widow. He has been instrumental in the development of Virginia Opera’s Spectrum Resident Artist Program, an intensive training program for young artists and co-founded the company’s STAR program (Student Training and Artistic Residency), which offers an internship in opera to gifted vocal students from The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia. Mr. Walsh has been involved in the commissioning of several productions for the company’s Education and Community Outreach Program, including Seymour Barab’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Cinderella, as well as John David Ernest’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which has been revived in the company’s touring program this season. Mr. Walsh has judged the Middle Eastern District of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions in Washington, D.C. and has served on the coaching faculties of the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

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