Opera Director
Universally acclaimed as one of Europe’s most original and progressive directors, and widely celebrated as the founder of the global #OperaHarmony movement, auteur-director Ella Marchment has also taken on leadership roles for international arts organisations and spoken and lectured at world-renowned companies and conservatoires, including Opera Europa in the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, The Royal Opera House in London, The Juilliard School in New York, and The Royal College of Music in London. Her work has been broadcast nationally on BBC Radio 3, and internationally on Opera Vision.
Represented by Day Macaskill of Cruickshank Cazenove Limited in London, Ella’s career has seen her working successfully as both a director and an arts-company manager, and she is currently the Artistic Director of Opera Festival of Chicago, Director of Opera and Associate Professor at Shenandoah Conservatory, Artistic Director of Opera in the Rock, and has been the Director of the International Opera Awards since 2017. Additionally she was part of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama vocal faculty from 2019-2021, the head of opera and an Instructor at Northern Illinois University from 2020-2021, and a 2020-2021 Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity associate artist. She is also a founding member and creative associate of the campaign group and charity SWAP’ra—Supporting Women & Parents in Opera. During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Ella founded an international community group called #OperaHarmony which developed new operas remotely for broadcast worldwide on Opera Vision, and since the war in Ukraine broke out has been working in partnership with San Francisco Opera, Opera Vision Opera Lviv, Polish National Opera, Teatro Opera dell’Roma, Finnish National Opera, The Royal College of Music, Opera Europa, and Shenandoah University to record a Ukrainian Opera called The Golden Crown for distribution on World Opera Day. The filmed works were showcased worldwide by OperaVision. She is currently writing a book on arts management for Nick Hern Books, and is in the first year of an online distance PhD at Bristol University writing a treatise on gender inequity in the opera industry.
Ella has worked throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and America, and her directing credits include L’inganno felice (Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Festival of Chicago); Il Tabarro, Segreto di Susanna (Opera Festival of Chicago), Native American Inspirations (La Biennale di Venezia); (Scalia Ginsburg (Opera in the Rock); Little Women (Opera Holland Park); The Turn of the Screw and Mad King Suibhne (Bury Court Opera); International Opera Awards Ceremony (ENO London Coliseum and Sadler’s Wells Theatre, for the International Opera Awards); Operatic Mass Actions (European City of Culture, AUT DK); SWAP’ra Gala (Opera Holland Park); Tryl / Magic Flute (Copenhagen Opera Festival); Sideshows (Sadler’s Wells Studio); Il Letto and Hathaway (Buxton International Festival, Copenhagen Opera Festival, Grimeborn); L’occasione fa il ladro (CCF Glasgow, Teatro Signorelli, Teatro di Cortona); Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (Teatro Tuoro sul Trasimeno); King Roger (a film for Random Acts / Channel 4); Salon Russe (National Portrait Gallery); Il Tabarro (LSO St Luke’s); Macbeth and Un ballo in maschera (Opera Integra); María De Buenos Aires (The Vaults London, for a A Curious Invitation); Louise and Otello (Buxton International Festival); An Evening with Lucian Freud (Leicester Square Theatre); Stand and Deliver (King’s Head Theatre); Rock Tosca (Tête à Tête Festival); Façade and Eight Songs For a Mad King (Rose Theatre Kingston, Arcola Theatre, St Petersburg Philharmonia); Triptych (Mariinsky II); and a triple- header production of The Bear, Red as Blood, and Bare (Rose Theatre Kingston, Sage Gateshead, Greyfriars Kirk, St Cyprian’s).
Upcoming productions include Highway One (Opera in the Rock), The International Opera Awards (Teatro Real, Madrid), and Midsummer Nights Dream (Shenandoah Conservatory)