Leadership and Staff

staff

John Hoomes CEO
Artistic

Director Mr. Hoomes is the CEO and artistic director of Nashville Opera. Mr. Hoomes has been the artistic director of Nashville Opera since 1995.

As a freelance stage director, he has directed over 200 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 from Indiana University, he has worked for many professional opera companies including New York City Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Teatro Colón, Kentucky Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Lake George Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Florentine Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera New Jersey, The Opera Company of North Carolina, Pensacola Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Memphis, Arizona Opera, Opera Carolina, Opera Cleveland, Opera Columbus, and Sarasota Opera.

Mr. Hoomes has directed a wide variety of opera productions including: Tosca, Andréa Chenier, La Bohème, Carmen, Die FLedermaus, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro, La Fanciulla del West, Salome, Don Giovanni, Ernani, Jenufa, Otello, Aïda, and Turandot.

Mr. Hoomes staged the world premiere of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry, as well as a second new production of the same work for Florentine Opera (recorded on Naxos Records and winner of 2 Grammys; also named the #1 opera CD release by Opera News), and the world premiere of songwriter Marcus Hummon’s chamber opera, Surrender Road at Martha Rivers Ingram Hall in Nashville.

Hoomes also directed the “Southeastern professional premiere” of five contemporary pieces: Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse, David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Romulus Hunt by Carly Simon, Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and an acclaimed production of Daniel Catán’s opera Florencia en el Amazonas. Mr. Hoomes later remounted Nashville Opera’s production of Florencia en el Amazonas for the New York City Opera in the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center.

In January 2017, he staged Nashville Opera’s third world premiere, THREE WAY, by Robert Paterson and David Cote. Nashville Opera’s world premiere production of Three Way was then remounted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in June 2017 in collaboration with American Opera Projects.

 

John Hoomes
CEO & Artistic Director

Dean Williamson
Music Director


Keri Alkema 
Chief Strategy & Operations Officer 

Jennifer Zhender 
Chief Development Officer 

Claudia McCauley 
Director of Development 

Nikki Slater 
Development Associate 

Randall Williams 
Director of Production 

AnnMarie Mizzoni 
Production Manager and Senior Facilities Director 

Robert Helvey 
Technical Director 

Aarron Hunt
Event and Facilities Director 

Stephen Carey 
Director of Education & Engagement, Chorus Master 

Sarah Antell 
Education & Engagement Associate, Social Media Content Creator 

Anne Dickson Rogers 
Director of Artistic Administration 
Orchestra Contractor 

Good Circle Marketing 
Marketing/PR/Social Media 

Steven McCoy 
Patron Services Manager 

Margaret Carpenter 
Administrative Assistant 
Friends of Nashville Opera Liaison 

Carol Penterman 
Special Projects & Executive Advisor 

To contact Nashville Opera Staff, please phone the Noah Liff Opera Center (615) 832-5242 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sing Bravely

Nashville Opera is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nashville Opera is supported, in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534 awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.