Exec & Artistic Directors

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Mr. Hoomes has been the artistic director of Nashville Opera since 1995. Also a free-lance stage director, he has directed over 150 productions of opera and music theatre in the US, South America, and Canada. The New York Times declared his Nashville Opera world premiere of Elmer Gantry “An Operatic Miracle...in Nashville.” A June 2010 Opera News feature article acknowledged, “Hoomes has proved himself one of the most interesting stage directors in the regional market today with a seemingly limitless knowledge of repertoire.”

Since receiving his Masters Degree at Indiana University, Mr. Hoomes has worked for many professional opera companies including Opera Lyra Ottawa, Teatro Colón, Cincinnati Opera, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and Opera Columbus.

Mr. Hoomes has directed, among numerous other productions, Salome, Rigoletto, Tosca, The Pearl Fishers, La Bohème, Carmen, and Der Rosenkavalier for Nashville Opera; Madama Butterfly and Carmen for Kentucky Opera; Die Fledermaus and Susannah for Indianapolis Opera; The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, and La Bohème for Opera Carolina; Don Giovanni, Elmer Gantry, and Salome for Florentine Opera; Don Giovanni for Opera Cleveland; Ernani and Jenufa for Sarasota Opera; and Turandot for The Opera Festival of New Jersey, Nashville Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Memphis, and The Opera Company of North Carolina.

Recently Mr. Hoomes staged the world premieres of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry, which was recorded on Naxos Records, and songwriter Marcus Hummon’s chamber opera Surrender Road at Martha Rivers Ingram Hall in Nashville. He also directed the Southeastern professional premiere of two contemporary pieces, Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse. In fall 2009 Mr. Hoomes directed the Tennessee premiere of The Fall of the House of Usher by composer Philip Glass, a groundbreaking multi-media production, critically acclaimed both by the Wall Street Journal and Opera News.

THE DIRECTORS

Carol Penterman has been the executive director/chief executive officer of the Nashville Opera Association since 1995. She is responsible for daily operations, staffing, programming, marketing, development, financial stability and strategic planning of this not-for-profit organization which includes three subsidiaries, the Liff Opera Center LLC, NOA Foundation LLC, and Nashville Opera Company LLC, with combined assets of over $12 million.

In May 2009 Nashville Mayor Karl Dean presided as sword fighters slashed the ribbon at the grand opening of Nashville Opera’s first permanent home, the Noah Liff Opera Center, a 26,000-square-foot, multi-purpose venue. It won the Urban Land Institute 2009 Design Excellence Award. The judges commented “the Noah Liff Opera Center is the best kind of example of a nonprofit institutional adaptive reuse right in a neighborhood. You can already see the impact it’s having on the adjacent fragile neighborhoods. It is a catalyst for further reinvestment.”

Ms. Penterman is a consultant with the Tennessee Arts Commission, specializing in board development, strategic planning, financial oversight, and best business practices. She chairs the steering committee for the Nashville Arts Coalition, which handles lobbying activities directed at the Nashville Metro Council and Tennessee Legislators, promoting increased funding for visual and performing arts in greater Nashville.

Ms. Penterman is a member of the OPERA America Board of Directors and serves on the OPERA America Strategic Planning Advisory Committee. She received the OPERA America Bravo Award in 2006, the Francis Robinson Award for outstanding leadership in 2005, and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award in 1999. She is a frequent panelist for OPERA America and grant reviewer for The National Endowment for the Arts.