Laura Lee Everett Joins OPERA America Staff

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, today announced that Laura Lee Everett has joined its staff as artistic services director, effective immediately.

Everett comes to OPERA America from the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she served as studio manager for 10 years. Everett also brings two decades of opera production and stage management experience, having worked at opera companies nationwide, including Anchorage Opera, Aspen Music Festival and School, Opera Columbus, The Dallas Opera, Eugene Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Baltimore Opera and Wolf Trap Opera Company. She has collaborated with some of the most renowned conductors, directors, designers and singers in contemporary opera. In addition to overseeing productions at the nation’s leading opera companies, Everett has long been passionate about mentoring young artists, having trained as a singer and pianist at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She has an extensive and dedicated history of working on new operas and world premieres with many of today’s most prolific composers and librettists. Everett began her affiliation with OPERA America on the Technical/Production Committee in 1998 and has been involved with the Singer Training Forum since its inception in 2004.

At OPERA America, Everett will lead the Artistic Services department, which provides programming, technical assistance, funding and professional development to opera singers, composers, librettists, publishers, managers, directors and designers, and technical production and artistic staff at hundreds of North American opera companies, colleges, universities and conservatories. The many offerings of the Artistic Services department include the online resource Career Guide for Opera, Salon Series performances of contemporary American opera, Making Connections professional development sessions, Opera Fund granting programs, annual conference programming and industry forums, such as those for new works, singer training and technical/production staff.

“I am honored and excited to begin this new role with OPERA America,” said Everett. “Through my career, I have developed valuable working relationships with so many wonderful colleagues in the opera industry and I look forward to working with them on a national level. As an organizational member of OPERA America for the last 15 years, I have experienced how the services they provide and the relationships they help foster are essential to the healthy growth of the industry. OPERA America is vital in exploring, creating and nurturing those relationships on a national and global level.”

“We are thrilled to have Laura Lee join the OPERA America staff,” stated Marc A. Scorca, president and CEO. “Her experience in, love for and dedication to opera will strengthen the organization and our service to members as we enter an exciting new chapter in our history with the opening of the National Opera Center this September.”

Everett will continue to work for the Maryland Opera Studio through May 2012, when she joins the OPERA America staff in New York City full-time.

For more information about OPERA America and its services, visit www.operaamerica.org.

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