The Dallas Opera

  • My Cart
  • Contact
    • Home > Hart Institute

    Nicole Paiement

    Martha R. and Preston A. Peak Principal Guest Conductor

    Nicole Paiement’s website

    Nicole Paiement
    Nicole Paiement

    Nicole Paiement has gained an international reputation as a conductor of contemporary music and opera. Her numerous recordings include many world premiere works.

    Maestro Paiement’s 2012 Dallas Opera debut conducting Peter Maxwell Davies’ 1979 thriller, The Lighthouse earned rave reviews. Subsequently, Paiement was appointed Principal Guest Conductor at The Dallas Opera. Paiement has since returned to Dallas to conduct performances of Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers, as well as the critically acclaimed and highly anticipated world premiere of Joby Talbot’s opera Everest, Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Douglas Cuomo’s Arjuna’s Dilemma. In 2018, Paiement conducted the US premiere of Michel Van Der Aa’s Sunken Garden and most recently in 2022 conducted Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers.

    Founder and Artistic Director of San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, Paiement has conducted many new productions, including: world premieres of Lou Harrison’s final version of Young Caesar, Dante De Silva’s commissioned opera Gesualdo, Prince of Madness (presented as a graphic opera), Luciano Chessa’s commissioned opera A Heavenly Act, the commissioned chamber version of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, the premiere of the re-orchestration of Terence Blanchard’s Champion in collaboration with SFJAZZ Center; West Coast premieres of John Rea’s re-orchestration of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck and Philip Glass’ Orphée; Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts; Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar; Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias; Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel; American Premieres of Adam Gorb’s Anya 17 and Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness; the San Francisco Bay Area return of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking; a new production of Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse; Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles; and Jonathan Dove’s Flight.  In 2017/18 Paiement conducted a new double bill of Jake Heggie’s At the Statue of Venus and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti in collaboration with SFJAZZ, as well as Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince. Opera Parallèle made its debut at Phillip Glass’ Days & Nights Festival in the 2018/19 season with Glass’ In the Penal Colony. That season also featured Paiement conducting the world premiere performances of Today it Rains, a commissioned opera by Laura Kaminsky based on the life of Georgia O’Keeffe, and the return of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince. In 2021, Paiement was conductor for the company’s groundbreaking film project, Everest – A Graphic Novel Opera. The 2021/22 season saw Paiement lead the West Coast premiere of Lembit Beecher’s Sophia’s Forest, and complete Glass’ Cocteau trilogy with a new production of La Belle et La Bête at SFJAZZ.

    Ms. Paiement is a very active guest conductor. In 2019, she made her debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago with Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, as well as performances with the Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival (2016 – 2018) and a debut at Seattle Opera with Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Other prior engagements include Talbot’s Everest with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Puts’ Silent Night at The Atlanta Opera and Washington National Opera for the world premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s The Dictator’s Wife. In 2019 Paiement also conducted the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s If I Were You with Merola Opera Program, San Francisco. Mo. Paiement made her debut at Opéra de Montréal with the Canadian premiere of Benjamin’s Written on Skin in January 2020 and with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in November 2020.

    In 2022, Mo. Paiement returned to The Dallas Opera for a new production of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, and made her UK premiere with the English National Opera conducting It’s a Wonderful Life by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer. Paiement also returned to the UK in June 2023 to conduct Talbot’s Everest with the BBC Symphony at the Barbican Center, London. Also in the 2022/23 season Mo. Paiement returned to L’Opéra de Montréal with Ainadamar by Golijov and made her concert debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, Italy. For Opera Parallèle, Paiement conducted the premiere of a new chamber orchestration of the Moravec/Campbell opera The Shining in June 2023.

    The 2023/2024 season will include the world premiere of The Emissary (by Kenji Oh & Kelley Rourke) with Opera Parallèle in October 2023  followed by Birds & Balls at SFJAZZ in April 2024. Paiement also returns to the Dallas Opera in March 2024 for Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, as well as a debut with the Volksoper Vienna in June 2024, conducting both a symphonic concert and The Gospel According to the Other Mary by John Adams. Paiement will also return to L’Opéra de Montréal in the 2024/25 Season.

    Paiement has served as the Artistic Director of the BluePrint Project at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) where she has commissioned, premiered, and recorded works from many living American composers. At SFCM, she holds the Jean and Josette Deleage Distinguished Chair in New Music. Paiement previously served as the Director of Ensembles at the University of California – Santa Cruz (UCSC), where she was awarded the UCSC Eminent Professor Award in 2014. She received the Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship in 2015 in recognition of her outstanding contributions and achievement in artistic scholarship and teaching.

    Paiement was awarded American Composer’s Forum’s “Champion of New Music Award” for her outstanding contributions to contemporary music in 2016. In addition to being a leader in the world of contemporary opera, Ms. Paiement is also a specialist in early 20th Century French music and regularly conducts music from the Baroque and Classical repertoire.

     

    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.

    Anh Le

    USA

    Anh Le is the Publications and Brand Manager at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Prior to moving to St. Louis, she served as the Communications Associate for The Santa Fe Opera and the Associate Director of Marketing at Yale Rep. A lifelong arts lover, she has also worked with companies including the Yale School of Music (New Haven, CT), Opera Holland Park (London), and A.R.T. (Cambridge, MA). Anh received her BA from Harvard University in 2012, where she was awarded the Robert E. Levi Prize for excellence in arts administration. In 2015, she also received an MFA in Theater Management from the Yale School of Drama.