OPERA America Welcomes New Officers And 14 New Members To Its Board Of Directors

OPERA America has announced the election of Susan G. Marineau as the 14th chair of its Board of Directors.

 

Marineau serves as the current chair of The Santa Fe Opera, after serving as board president from 2015–2020. Her leadership at The Santa Fe Opera was recognized in 2022 when she received a National Opera Trustee Recognition Award for her service. She also serves on the board of San Francisco Opera and, previously, was a trustee of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

 

Marineau joined OPERA America's board in 2018 and served as vice chair of governance for the past two years. She and her husband, Phil, have been lead supporters of OPERA America for over a decade. Through their Marineau Family Foundation, they established OPERA America's Opera Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors program in 2020 to incentivize opera companies to engage women in key artistic roles.

 

Along with Marineau's appointment to chair, Estevan Rael-Gálvez, a trustee of The Santa Fe Opera and executive director and project investigator for Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of the Indigenous Enslaved, has been elected as the new vice chair for governance. Rael-Gálvez joins Vice Chairs Héctor Armienta, composer and artistic director of Opera Cultura, and Lee Anne Myslewski, vice president of opera and classical programming at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts; as well as Treasurer Ian Rye, CEO of Pacific Opera Victoria, and Secretary Michael Egel, general and artistic director of Des Moines Metro Opera.

 

OPERA America also welcomes a new class of 14 board members that includes artists, administrators, educators, and trustees drawn from the national opera field:

 

• Angel Blue, Soprano
• Cheryl Slay Carr, Board President, Nashville Opera
• Antonio C. Cuyler, Professor, University of Michigan
• Barbara Lynne Jamison, General Director and CEO, Kentucky Opera
• Christopher Koelsch, President and CEO, Los Angeles Opera
• Karen J. Kubin, Trustee, San Francisco Opera
• Mont Levy, Trustee, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
• E. Loren Meeker, General and Artistic Director, OPERA San Antonio
• Andrew Morgan, General Director, Hawai'i Opera Theatre
• Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Artistic and General Director, Tapestry Opera
• Sylvia Neil, Board Chair, Lyric Opera of Chicago
• Julia Noulin-Mérat, General Director and CEO, Opera Columbus
• Maggey Oplinger, General Director and CEO, Florentine Opera
• Barbara Augusta Teichert, Trustee, Los Angeles Opera and Opera Philadelphia

 

In addition to joining the Board of Directors, Mont Levy was appointed chair of OPERA America's National Opera Center Board. Mont joined the National Opera Center Board in 2020 and is a fervid philanthropist of the arts and culture in St. Louis, where he serves as treasurer of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

 

OPERA America is pleased to welcome two new board members to the National Opera Center Board:

• Nicholas King, Founder and Executive Director, After Arts
• Alan E. Muraoka, Scenic Designer

 

“We are thrilled to welcome Susan G. Marineau, Estevan Rael-Gálvez, and Mont Levy into their new roles, along with this new cohort of board members. Their combined leadership and perspective will help guide OPERA America and the field as we continue to emerge from the pandemic,” stated OPERA America President/CEO Marc A. Scorca.

 

The work of OPERA America's 37-person Board is informed by seven programmatic Councils with an additional 38 individuals from across the opera field. These Councils were created in 2021 to expand the representation of OPERA America's diverse membership and incorporate the expertise of additional administrators, artists, trustees, and other experts in shaping and evaluating OPERA America's programs.

 

OPERA America extends its profound thanks to Carol F. Henry for her service as board chair from 2021‒2023 and for her continued service as immediate past chair. Carol provided steady leadership of the board as OPERA America returned to full service after the pandemic and extended its services to companies and artists through an unprecedented period of rebuilding and growth.

 

 

NEWLY APPOINTED LEADERS

Susan G. Marineau

Board Chair

Susan G. Marineau is the chair of The Santa Fe Opera. She also currently serves on the board of the San Francisco Opera. In a long career of service, she has been a board member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the University of San Francisco, and the Women's Foundation of California. Marineau was also the president of the board of the Chicago Foundation for Women and founding president of Friends of Battered Women and Their Children.

Marineau has worked as an advertising copywriter, buyer for a large retailer, and marketing consultant. She now has a studio in Stinson Beach, California, where she paints when her opera duties allow. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana and her M.B.A. from Loyola University in Chicago.

Estevan Rael-Gálvez

Vice Chair, Governance

An anthropologist, historian, and Indigenous slavery scholar, Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez is currently the executive director of Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Americans Enslaved, an unprecedented initiative to build a digital repository/database centered on the lives of millions of Indigenous people whose experiences were shaped by slavery.

 

Rael-Gálvez has led a career as a senior executive at national nonprofit organizations and government agencies. He served as senior vice president of historic sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C.; executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center; and state historian of New Mexico. In 2015, Rael-Gálvez launched Creative Strategies 360°, a consulting firm that supports transformative work within communities, governments, educational institutions, and cultural-based organizations. He has served on several commissions and boards, including those of The Santa Fe Opera, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the School for Advanced Research, and the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee.

Mont Levy

National Opera Center Board Chair

Mont Levy retired in 2018 after more than 20 years as a wealth advisor at Buckingham Wealth Strategies and a member of the firm's Executive Committee. He held served as CEO of Buckingham's sister organization, BAM Advisor Services. Previously, he worked as the vice president of finance and administration at Grand Center Inc., a nonprofit arts and entertainment urban development organization in St. Louis, and as a partner with Follman/Levy Acquisition Group. Levy is a passionate and engaged advocate for the arts and a civic leader in St. Louis. He is a commissioner to the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, for which he served as chair from 2019 to 2021. He also serves as the treasurer of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and chair of OPERA America's National Opera Center Board. In addition, Levey serves on the boards of the Forsyth School, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and the American Jewish Committee.