MassOpera Unveils New Collaborative Executive And Artistic Leadership Team

MassOpera has revealed a new era of collaborative leadership with the appointment of Brenda Huggins and Marcus Schenck as Executive Creative Producers. This innovative co-leadership model reflects MassOpera's ongoing commitment to equity, culturally and socially resonant creative projects, and sustainability in the performing arts.

Under this new shared structure, Huggins and Schenck will jointly oversee MassOpera's artistic vision, community partnerships, and organizational strategy, ensuring that the company continues to foster inclusive opera experiences that reflect the diversity of contemporary society.

Founder and former Artistic Director of MassOpera, Dana Lynne Varga says about this leadership transition, "I am thrilled to pass the MassOpera Baton to Brenda Huggins and Marcus Schenck. Both of these wonderful arts leaders have a rich history in the city of Boston and are perfectly poised to do incredible things with the company. It is bittersweet to move on after seventeen years at the helm, but I can rest assured that the company is in excellent hands. I wish all the best to this fantastic leadership team!"

Artistic Vision and Priority Areas

Under the collaborative leadership of the new executive producing team, MassOpera will advance a dynamic artistic vision centered on new works development, site-specific productions, and the growth of education programs and civic partnerships. The company will foster original operas and reimagined classics that highlight historically underrepresented artists, composers, and stories, while building sustainable community arts spaces and resources for local creators. A deepened commitment to civic partnerships-collaborations with community organizations, schools, and public institutions-will further position opera as a living, participatory part of Greater Boston's cultural fabric.

Leadership bios:

Brenda Huggins

is a stage director, dramaturg, puppetry artist, and arts administrative leader with over 18 years of experience working at the intersection of opera, theatre, and community-engaged performance. She currently serves as the Director of the Center for Performing Arts at the Colleges of the Fenway, leading programs across five Boston institutions and expanding student participation through strategic partnerships and innovative artistic initiatives.

Huggins has directed and produced work as the Artistic Director of the NEMPAC Opera Project (2023-2024), directed numerous productions with Opera del West, and served as Resident Dramaturg and Director of Community Engagement with Guerilla Opera. She has also worked as an assistant director and dramaturg with White Snake Projects and served as an assistant director with Boston Lyric Opera during the 2023-2024 season. Her artistic practice integrates classical repertoire, new works, devised performance, and puppetry through a civically engaged lens. As an independent creative producer of community-based projects, she has received support from the Boston Foundation's Live Arts Boston program, the Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund, the arts councils of Brookline, Worcester, Somerville, and Cambridge, and the City of Boston's Office of Arts and Culture.

Previously, she served as Learning and Leadership Manager at OPERA America (2017-2019), launching national initiatives for arts leaders and teaching artists. She holds an M.F.A. and M.A. from Emerson College in Theater Education and Applied Theater, and dual B.A. degrees in music and theater from Western Connecticut State University.

Marcus Schenck

Marcus Schenck is a Boston-based baritone, actor, music educator, and arts administrative leader with a decade of professional experience in opera, theatre, and community-oriented programming. While both on- and offstage, his work focuses on accessibility, creativity, and integrity.

As a performer, Schenck has collaborated with companies such as Odyssey Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Company of Middlebury, Raylynmor Opera, Sioux City Symphony, Lowell House Opera, Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, and Third Citizen Theatre Company. Behind the scenes, he co-founded and served on the leadership team for Promenade Opera Project, as the Executive & Artistic Director from 2019-2021 and previously as the General Director from 2017-2019. His music education experience spans teaching multiple cohorts at the Boston Conservatory Summer Vocal/Choral Institute, devising semester curricula for group musical theatre classes and private voice students at All Newton Music School, as well as maintaining a small private studio. He has also had the honor of Assistant Directing the 2018 production of Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

In his artistic practice, Schenck particularly enjoys the work of transforming canon works with innovative and imaginative settings, as well as the process of supporting and building new works alongside living composers and creators, long inspired by the work and mentorship from Catherine "Kay" Payn. He holds an M.M. from The Boston Conservatory in Voice Performance, a Post-Masters Fellowship in Accessibility Resources in Music from Berklee College of Music, and a B.M. in Voice Performance from Bucknell University.