1 week Ago By David Salazar
OPERA America President and CEO Marc A. Scorca is stepping down from his position at the end of December 2025. Scorca was hired in 1990 by then-OPERA America Chair Ardis Krainik to lead the organization.
He will shift to the role of Senior Fellow for one additional year after his successor takes over in January 2026. “Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of my first internship at the Metropolitan Opera. I will be in the middle of my 35th year as president and CEO of OPERA America and the 20th since our relocation from Washington, D.
C., to New York,” recounted Scorca. “After careful reflection, I’ve decided to pass the torch to a new chief executive who will build on the strong foundation we have created together to support opera across the country and around the world.
” During his tenure, Scorca expanded membership from 120 opera companies to over 200 companies and 350 ensembles, businesses, conservatories, and other affiliated institutions. He also spearheaded a $14.5 million campaign, the largest in the organization’s history, to move OPERA America from Washington D.
C. to New York City and establish the National Opera Center. The company has also awarded $22.
5 million in grants throughout Scorca’s tenure and in the early 2000s he established the Opera Fund and has expanded to other initiatives to support women and BIPOC composers and librettists. Scorca also led the Fellowship Program for new leaders in the opera industry with approximately 10 percent of all general directors in the field being graduates of the program. “For 35 years, Marc has been the most extraordinary standard bearer for American opera.
He has inflected the careers of so many in the field, guiding, mentoring, connecting, and joining the dots across the world of opera,” added Matthew Shilvock, general director of San Francisco Opera and a former OPERA America board member. “I was profoundly fortunate to be a member of the OPERA America Fellowship Program in 2002, which opened the door to the field in a way I could have never imagined possible. Since that time, Marc has been an absolute constant in my career, always available with an unending generosity of spirit and time, and I cherish his friendship.
” The transition committee will be led by the chair of OPERA America Board of Directors Lee Anne Myslewski and former OPERA American Board Chair Timothy O’Leary. “For many of us in the industry, there simply is no OPERA America without Marc Scorca,” Myslewski added. “His leadership and service to our ever-changing field has been constant and incredibly transformative.
His accomplishments are too many to list, and our gratitude for his initiative and unwavering focus is massive.” Categories.
