About the Virginia Opera
John-Paul Schaefer, Interim General Director and CEO
Adam Turner, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor
Virginia Opera Association, Inc., in its 50th year of operation, is known and respected nationwide for the identification and presentation of the finest young artists, for the musical and dramatic integrity of its productions, and for the ingenuity and variety of its education and outreach programs. The Company has a working budget of $5.3 million with over 28 mainstage performances, reaching nearly 50,000 attendees. In March of 1994, by unanimous vote of the Virginia General Assembly, Virginia Opera was named The Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth of Virginia in recognition of the organization’s contribution to the Commonwealth and to the world of opera.
Organized in 1974 by founding chair Edythe C. Harrison, Virginia Opera was launched with two productions in the Norfolk Center Theater. Shortly thereafter, Peter Mark was appointed Artistic Director, a position he held for over 35 years. Peter Mark was named Artistic Director Emeritus in 2012. John-Paul Schaefer, Interim General Director and CEO, currently leads the company. Adam Turner was appointed Artistic Director in 2018.
Virginia Opera’s statewide expansion began by producing in Richmond in 1977 with the encouragement of Governor Mills Godwin and Mrs. T. Fleetwood (Anna) Garner. Under their leadership, The Richmond Friends of Opera was formed to present Virginia Opera productions annually in the capital city. By 1983, the Richmond and Central Virginia Board of Virginia Opera was formed and a Richmond office was opened. In November 1992, the Company presented its first mainstage performance at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University in Fairfax. This development was hailed as “one of the major local operatic events of the year” by The Washington Post and deemed a special day in music history for the Washington D.C. area by Opera News.
Virginia Opera has presented some of the nation’s most promising singers on its stages including Diana Soviero, Ashley Putnam, John Aler, Rockwell Blake, Renée Fleming, Barbara Dever, Grant Youngblood, Fabiana Bravo, Lawrence Brownlee, Nmon Ford, Jake Gardner, Mary Elizabeth Williams, David Portillo, Ginger Costa-Jackson, David Pershall and Nadine Sierra. Attracting acclaimed directors from the theater and opera world, audiences have enjoyed the work of Gian Carlo Menotti, Gordon Davidson, Greg Ganakas, Arvin Brown, Dorothy Danner, Lillian Groag, Sam Helfrich, and Stephen Lawless, among others, in new productions designed by the nation’s top opera and theater designers. Virginia Opera has continued its tradition of commissioning/co-commissioning new works as illustrated by the world premieres of A Christmas Carol, Harriet – The Woman Called Moses, Simón Bolivar, Pocahontas, Rappahannock County, and the upcoming Loving v. Virginia premiering April 2025.
The company produces four mainstage productions including performances at the Edythe C. and Stanley L. Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Arts Center in Richmond, and at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax. Virginia Opera is the only opera company to perform a full season of opera in multiple mainstage venues and to reach more than 150,000 students and community members each year through its innovative Education and Community Outreach Program. While remaining committed to securing the highest caliber of vocal talent, the Opera will invite brilliant conductors and directors, assisted by the next generation of gifted artists, to challenge audiences and create new opera experiences.
Adam Turner
Artistic Director and Chief Conductor
Currently in his seventh season as Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of Virginia Opera (following four seasons as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor), Maestro Adam Turner garners critical acclaim for the breadth of his repertoire, artistic vision, and polished technique. Of his performance of Street Scene with Virginia Opera, Opera News hailed the “sensitive conducting” of Adam Turner “who demonstrated an affinity for a score as stylistically diverse as the characters in the plot” and of his conducting of Der Freischütz, Opera News hailed: “Conductor Adam Turner … ensured crackling rhythms as much as lyrical spaciousness, resulting in a performance that felt vital and spontaneous throughout.” In the 2024-2025 Season at Virginia Opera, Turner will be on the podium for all of the 50th Anniversary’s productions (Don Giovanni, Carmen, & Così fan tutte), in addition to leading the world premiere of Loving v. Virginia by Damien Geter and Jessica Murphy Moo. Also this season, Turner will conduct Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s “POPS! Concert Series,” leading programs of “Dancing in the Street: Music of Motown” and “An Evening with Adrienne Warren.”
In recent seasons, he has conducted Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Madama Butterfly, La bohème, Three Decembers, Le nozze di Figaro, The Pirates of Penzance, Fellow Travelers, and La Traviata at Virginia Opera. Appearing with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in the “POPS! Concert Series” he has led programs including “To Whitney with Love,” featuring American Idol-finalist LaKisha Jones, “Never Break the Chain,” featuring the music of Fleetwood Mac, “Broadway Rocks,” and “Music of the Bee Gees.” He was also recently at the helm for Central City Opera’s productions of Street Scene, Kiss Me, Kate and The Light in the Piazza, Toledo Opera’s Roméo et Juliette and Il trovatore, as well as his debuts with the Pacific Symphony for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Portland Symphony Orchestra’s concert “Classical Broadway.”
In his inaugural season as Artistic Director of Virginia Opera, Maestro Turner conducted performances of Street Scene, Don Giovanni, L’elisir d’amore, and Madama Butterfly, in addition to Jack Perla’s An American Dream. Since then, he has conducted the company’s productions of Der Freischütz, The Seven Deadly Sins, Pagliacci, La bohème, Samson et Dalila, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Der fliegende Holländer, Il Postino, Aida, and Tosca. On top of his productions at Virginia Opera, he conducted The Seven Deadly Sins for the Buffalo Philharmonic, Eugene Onegin with Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Three Decembers with San Diego Opera (with the legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade), and Madama Butterfly for Central City Opera. He also conducted the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s “POPS! Concert Series” consisting of shows entitled “Queens of Soul,” “Music of Neil Diamond,” “Dancing & Romancing,” “Serpentine Fire: The Music of Earth, Wind, and Fire,” “Havana Nights with the Mambo Kings,” and “The Streisand Songbook” with Ann Hampton Callaway. He also collaborated with renowned conductor John DeMain on Washington National Opera’s production of Kurt Weill’s final stage composition Lost in the Stars, having been named inaugural recipient of the Julius Rudel/Kurt Weill Conducting Fellowship by the Kurt Weill Foundation in 2015.
