Peter Mark
Artistic Director

Peter Mark is the Founding General and Artistic Director of Virginia Opera and of International Opera Alliance, as well as an International Opera Coach, Masterclass Teacher, and Conductor. Since his Virginia Opera debut in 1975 – conducting the pilot production of La Traviata with rising star Diana Soviero as Violetta – Maestro Peter Mark has presided over Virginia Opera's growth into one of the finest and largest opera companies in the nation. Under his guidance, Virginia Opera has identified and presented some of the nation's most promising young singers – from Jeannine Altmeyer,  Frederick Burchinal, John Aler, Rockwell Blake, Randy Locke, and Jake Gardner to Renée Fleming, Barbara Dever, Frank Porretta, Grant Youngblood, Fabiana Bravo, Lawrence Brownlee, Nmon Ford, Thomas Truhitte, Jeniece Golbourne and Mary Elizabeth Williams. He has brought directors from the theatre and opera world to Virginia including Gian Carlo Menotti, Gordon Davidson, Arvin Brown, Dorothy Danner and Lillian Groag in new productions designed by some of the nation's top opera and theater designers.

Maestro Mark conducted his 100th Virginia Opera production – Il Trovatore – this season, totaling 700 highly-successful performances led by him on the company’s stage during his career.  See vaopera.org/100 for singer and press quotes. As conductor, he has brought the artistic achievements of Virginia Opera to the international stage, conducting the company's productions and presenting the company’s singers in South America, London, New York, and China, where he conducted Shanghai’s first Italian-language Tosca to open the brand new Opera House of the Oriental Arts Center, China’s first, and was featured on the cover of China’s national Opera News.

Among Virginia Opera's most recognized productions are four operas by Maestro Mark's wife, distinguished Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave, and the Virginia Premieres of Strauss’ Elektra and Salome, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Tristan & Isolde, Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, and Handel's Rodelinda and Agrippina. Maestro Mark has conducted the British premiere of Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (telecast throughout the United Kingdom by Granada Television); Porgy and Bess at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, La Traviata and Masked Ball for Krakow Opera, and La Bohème for its centennial production at the Torre del Lago Puccini Festival in Italy. He has also conducted for New York City Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria in Canada, and the National Opera of Mexico at the Bellas Artes.

He is featured as conductor on three commercial recordings of Virginia Opera productions: Mary, Queen of Scots; A Christmas Carol; and Handel's Julius Caesar.

Prior to his career as conductor and impresario, Maestro Mark, who began his musical career as a boy soprano at the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera, enjoyed a successful career as a solo violinist and violist. He held leadership positions with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and toured extensively throughout Europe, South America, and Great Britain as a soloist.

His recent work through the International Opera Alliance has focused on the identification and training as well as career-building opportunities for extraordinarily gifted young international opera singers.

Paul A. 'Gus' Stuhlreyer, III
General Director & C.E.O.

Gus Stuhlreyer came to Virginia Opera in August 2003 with an extensive career in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, and as an independent consultant to nonprofit organizations throughout the nation. His areas of expertise include managing change and growth, strategic planning, earned and individual contributed income development and board and donor cultivation. Previous professional positions held include managing director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, managing director of the Cincinnati Opera, general director of Dayton Opera and executive director of the Cincinnati Ballet. Mr. Stuhlreyer holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. Mr. Stuhlreyer oversees an annual budget of $6 million, a staff of 35, and provides vision and leadership to ensure that the company achieves its artistic mission, implements balanced annual operating budgets, and meets its goals for fundraising, financial stability, public visibility and long-range planning. Mr. Stuhlreyer works closely with Maestro Peter Mark with respect to production and artistic activities.

Joseph Walsh
Associate Artistic Director

Joseph Walsh conducted Virginia Opera’s highly successful premiere production of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah as well as The Pirates of Penzance over the past two seasons. He returns to the podium this season for The Elixir of Love, after having returned from Italy where he conducted Puccini’s one-act comic opera Gianni Schicchi this past summer at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival.  Mr. Walsh has served as principal conductor for three summers at the ACMF, including leading performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute in honor of the anniversary of the composer’s 250th birthday celebrations during the summer of 2006.  Additionally, Mr. Walsh has conducted Virginia Opera performances of Tales of Hoffmann, Eugene Onegin, Lucia di Lammermoor, Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro, The Merry Widow, and The Magic Flute in recent seasons. He has been involved in musical preparation for more than fifty Virginia Opera productions since joining the company in 1995, including most recently, Tales of Hoffmann, Carmen, Agrippina, Romeo and Juliet, Norma, Turandot, Tristan and Isolde and Faust and Die Walküre.  From 2002 to 2008, Mr. Walsh served as Virginia Opera’s Assistant Artistic Director, actively involving him in the company’s artistic planning and administration.  He has been instrumental in the development of Virginia Opera’s Spectrum Resident Artist Program, an intensive professional training program for young artists and co-founded the company’s STAR program (Student Training and Artistic Residency), which offers an internship in opera to gifted vocal students from The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia. In 2005, Mr. Walsh prepared Virginia Opera’s chorus for the inaugural concert of the new Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News in a program with Michael Crawford, as well as a festive evening joining the forces of Richmond’s three major arts organizations, the Richmond Ballet, The Richmond Symphony and Virginia Opera in performances of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He regularly serves as Musical Director for the Virginia Stage Company’s annual production of A Christmas Carol. Mr. Walsh has been involved in the commissioning of several productions for the company’s Education and Community Outreach Program, including Seymour Barab’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Cinderella, as well as John David Ernest’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.   Mr. Walsh has judged the Middle Eastern District of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions in Washington, D.C. and has served on the coaching faculties of the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

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