The Dallas Opera

  • My Cart
  • Contact
    • Home > Hart Institute > 2019 Participants

    Madeline Tsai

    (Taiwan)

    Chi-Chen Madeline Tsai is a versatile musician who has been trained as a conductor, pianist, singer, organist, and timpanist. She was the only Asian female invited to the Solti International Conducting Competition in Hungary, where she won the People’s Choice Award. Following this award, she conducted the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra in Bulgaria and the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. She has also conducted the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Berlin, the Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lithuanian State Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Radio Orchestra Bucharest. As a coach and accompanist, she assisted Grace Bumbry for her masterclasses on Aida and Cavalleria Rusticana in Vienna. Ms. Tsai is currently completing a doctorate in orchestral conducting at the University of Cincinnati.

     

    2019 Hart Institute Concert Performance Selections

    Lisa Bury

    Lisa Bury, was recently appointed to The Dallas Opera’s newly created position of Chief Advancement and Strategy Officer. Lisa previously served in senior positions at the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Interim Chief Development Officer, Seattle Opera as Director of Development as well as at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Florida Grand Opera. Lisa Bury earned both an M.B.A. and a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Southern Methodist University. She holds additional degrees from Ithaca College in New York and Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Ms. Bury has a previous connection to The Dallas Opera. In 1991, she worked as an intern to Director of Production John Gage. A long-time member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) where she has acted as both a presenter and committee chair, Ms. Bury has also been a presenter at OPERA America, the League of American Orchestras, the Tessitura Conference, and the Association of California Orchestras, for which she also served as a board member and development committee chair.

    Ian Derrer

    The Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO

    Ian Derrer
    Ian Derrer

    Ian Derrer is a passionate advocate for connecting audiences with the musical core and profound storytelling of opera. This commitment to creating an engaged and curious community around the centuries-old art form has served him well as The Dallas Opera’s (TDO) Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO, a post he has held since 2018.

    As general director, Derrer annually oversees a season of four mainstage and two family opera productions, the annual Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors, the biennial National Vocal and Lone Star Vocal Competitions, the Robert E. and Jean Ann Titus Family Recital, the People’s Choice Concert, and several other concert and community presentations by The Dallas Opera Orchestra, as well as education and community engagement at a company with an average annual budget of $17.5 million.

    Now in his seventh season as General Director and CEO, Ian Derrer is credited with ushering in an era of leadership marked by financial stability; artistic creativity and excellence; diversity and inclusivity in all areas of the company, from the Board and staff to guest artists and musicians; and an expanded commitment to engaging the communities of North Texas.

    With an impressive background in singing and administration, he brings a unique understanding of opera that has placed an emphasis on highlighting major vocal talents of the day—such as Joyce DiDonato, John Holiday, Will Liverman, Lucas Meachem, Latonia Moore, and Angela Meade in mainstage productions, and Benjamin Appl, Angel Blue, Ying Fang, and Lawrence Brownlee in recital. He has navigated the challenging task of offering the best available productions of classic opera repertoire with innovative new stagings and productions in order to expand the catalogue with solid fiscal responsibility. This balance has demonstrated a marked increase in the region’s interest in opera.

    Critical acclaim from both the Dallas Morning News and national media outlets has been increasingly positive since Derrer assumed his leadership of TDO. One Dallas Morning News critic noted that the 2023 new production of Das Rheingold was “one of the most impressive Dallas Opera stagings I’ve seen over the last quarter century.” The company’s recent world premiere of the TDO-commissioned The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “production that took flight…. fully embracing and exploring opera’s superpowers to speak inner thoughts aloud.” 2024’s Elektra was heralded by the Dallas Morning News as “Stunning—visually, vocally, and orchestrally, opening night was a triumph.”

    Other highlights of Derrer’s tenure at The Dallas Opera to date include successfully negotiating several new multi-year collective bargaining agreements; renewing the contract of music director Emmanuel Villaume; and the recent appointment of Paolo Bressan as Chorus Director and Head of Music. While safely navigating the two-year pandemic, Derrer led the launch of TDO’s ground-breaking digital initiative, thedallasopera.tv, which brought worldwide audiences a vast array of digital programming and performances designed to engage with opera when live performances were not possible. TDO now maintains a strong digital presence that has since evolved into engaging content on its social media channels, livestreaming mainstage productions, and offering TDO’s recent catalogue for free on-demand viewing during the summer months.

    An enthusiastic fundraiser, Derrer has grown TDO’s annual fund through new and increased gifts, including the largest individual unrestricted gift in the company’s history; secured multi-year production sponsorships; diversified the Board and staff; and has overseen efforts to increase both the number of donors, as well as subscribers and individual ticket buyers—all of which has resulted in increased participation among new patrons.

    Prior to joining The Dallas Opera as General Director and CEO, Ian Derrer was the General Director of the Kentucky Opera from 2016-2018, where he presented the Kentucky public with many important debuts, expanded opportunities for young artists, planned a mainstage season with all-female directors, and set goals to grow both new audiences and gifts to help reduce the company’s reliance upon a small hand full of major donors.

    Derrer’s start in opera took a circuitous route. Born in Illinois and raised in North Carolina, he worked professionally as a singer, stage manager, and assistant director for influential regional and national companies which provided a wealth of experience that eventually led to his first administrative position as rehearsal and music coordinator for New York City Opera in 2004. That engagement was followed by eight years with Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he was promoted to the position of director of production and head of the rehearsal department before becoming artistic administrator of The Dallas Opera in 2014, a post he held for two years.

    He holds degrees from Brooklyn College (Master of Fine Arts in Performing Arts Management and Master of Music in Voice Performance): Northwestern University (Master of Music in Opera Production); and Southern Methodist University (Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance).

    John Harpool

    John Harpool, has been with The Dallas Opera for seven years and currently serves as Director of Budgeting and Acting CFO for The Dallas Opera. As a highly respected finance specialist for Hewlett-Packard/Electronic Data Systems (EDS), he was tapped for the role of Dallas Opera Budget Manager in 2011 and was promoted to Budget Senior Manager, until assuming his current role in May 2017. Prior to joining TDO, Mr. Harpool specialized in financial support, planning and analysis during his twenty-one years with Hewlett-Packard, Enterprise Services Unit / Electronic Data Systems (EDS), with a strong emphasis on operations and management support. Mr. Harpool’s responsibilities have included reporting and monitoring of the account’s multi-million dollar annual capital plan; audit requests; ad hoc reporting; trend analysis; forecast consolidation and analysis; invoicing and off-shore analysis.

    Thomas Maddrey

    Thomas Maddrey is the founding partner and lead attorney for Maddrey PLLC, a boutique firm dedicated to art and entertainment law, with a specific emphasis on visual and performing arts. His clients include artists, performing arts organizations, collectors, galleries, museums, and other creative individuals and groups. Additionally, Thomas regularly briefs the US Supreme Court and other courts around the country on issues affecting creatives, with a focus on copyright and licensing issues.

    Emmanuel Villaume

    The Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director

    “Emmanuel Villaume’s conducting is intense, passionate, and detailed, yet always considerate of the singers…”—The Guardian (London)

    Emmanuel Villaume
    Emmanuel Villaume

    French conductor Emmanuel Villaume has served The Dallas Opera (TDO) as its Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director for more than a decade. Since assuming this position in 2013, he has led dozens of performances of both beloved classics and newer works with the company at the Winspear Opera House, including the world premiere of the TDO-commissioned and critically acclaimed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in 2023, Elektra, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Hansel & Gretel, Rigoletto, Das Rheingold, The Magic Flute, The Golden Cockerel, Moby-Dick, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Le nozze di Figaro, Carmen and more, as well as the company premieres of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Der Ring des Polykrates, and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta.

    In addition, he serves on the artistic faculty for TDO’s annual Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors, and often leads the People’s Choice and other annual concert performances with The Dallas Opera Orchestra. He will conduct Orpheus and Eurydice in the 2024/25 season.

    Recognized for his equally insightful and dramatic interpretations, Maestro Villaume has also served as Music Director of the PKF-Prague Philharmonia since 2015, and he regularly guest conducts with leading opera companies worldwide, such as the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Paris Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, the Mariinsky Opera, and Venice’s Teatro La Fenice in Europe, and the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco, LA, St. Louis and Santa Fe operas in the U.S.  Widely regarded as one of today’s premier interpreters of 19th- and 20th-Century French repertoire, he is also known for the Italian operas of Bellini, Verdi, Puccini, and Menotti.

    In symphonic repertoire, Villaume has led some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in Europe, the Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Munich Radio Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Further afield, Villaume has led performances in Australia with the Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane symphony orchestras, as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Japan, China National Opera Orchestra (the latter for the 2008 Olympic Games), and the Royal Opera House Muscat. He has recorded regularly for major labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Warner classics.

    Emmanuel Villaume is the past Music Director of Spoleto Festival USA (2001-2010) and former Chief Conductor of both the Slovenian (2008-2013) and Slovak Philharmonic (2009-2016). He studied music at the Conservatoire in his hometown of Strasbourg, France. He continued his education at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving degrees in literature, philosophy, and musicology, before his appointment as Dramaturg of Strasbourg’s Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg at the age of 21. Maestro Villaume resides in Paris, Los Angeles, and Dallas.

     

    Updated May 2024

    Image: Kyle Flubacker