William Powers, a 53-year-old resident of Mt. Lebanon, will become the general director of the Pittsburgh Opera July 1.<\/p>\n
Like a lot of teenagers in the mid-to-late 1980s, William Powers was taken with REM, U2, the Clash and other bands that could be found on MTV or pouring out of boom boxes.<\/p>\n
But he soon found himself mixing a little Berlioz with Bono and Camille Saint-Saens with Michael Stipe.<\/p>\n
Thanks to \u201can extraordinary high school teacher\u201d who opened Powers\u2019 eyes and ears to the arias of \u201cRigoletto\u201d when he was growing up in the suburbs of New York City, he decided to journey to Manhattan to take in a performance of \u201cLa Boheme.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really captivated me,\u201d Powers recalled. \u201cI had an extraordinary visceral response.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cIt nurtured a burgeoning passion for (opera) and it has not left since.\u201d<\/p>\n
His obsession having become his profession, Powers\u2019 love of opera has taken him from the Juilliard School to jobs with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Berkshire Opera Company in Massachusetts, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and the Pittsburgh Opera.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, it was announced that Powers, a 53-year-old resident of Mt. Lebanon, will become the general director of Pittsburgh Opera as of July 1. He\u2019ll be succeeding Christopher Hahn, who has been the company\u2019s general director since 2008. <\/p>\n
Since 2021, Powers has been the executive director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, which features musicians aged 14 to 20 from around the region.<\/p>\n
In a news release announcing Powers\u2019 hiring, Pittsburgh Opera Board President Gene Welsh said Powers was \u201cuniquely qualified to lead Pittsburgh Opera into the future,\u201d citing his familiarity with \u201cour company, our city and our patrons.\u201d Welsh also pointed to Powers\u2019 \u201cability to successfully helm performing arts organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hahn said, \u201cThere is no one I would rather turn the reins over to than Bill Powers. Having worked with him for well over a decade, I have witnessed and benefitted from his expertise, judgment and counsel. His work ethic and integrity are second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powers explained that when he was at Juilliard, he was interested in the idea of being a singer, but soon gravitated toward the administrative side of the arts. His wife, Sari Gruber, is a soprano who has appeared with many national and international opera companies and teaches at Carnegie Mellon University. <\/p>\n
Having been on the performance side, \u201cI think it\u2019s something that resulted in greater awareness and sensitivity\u201d in what artists deal with when they stand in front of an audience, Powers explained.<\/p>\n
One of Powers\u2019 goals when he becomes the Pittsburgh Opera\u2019s general director at mid-year is getting more young people to come to performances. He noted that music education has sometimes gotten lost in the shuffle in some school districts, and there are no longer retail outlets like Tower Records with an overflowing stock of classical music to pique the curiosity of younger listeners. But he also sees many talented young people participating in the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, and \u201cthere is still a place for it, and I certainly hope we can find ways to expand.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the years ahead, Powers also sees the Pittsburgh Opera\u2019s seasons blending newer works and smaller-scale pieces along with familiar, beloved operas that have been traditional draws for audiences. <\/p>\n
Powers noted, \u201cPittsburgh Opera has a long, distinguished lineage of general directors. This company has accomplished great things in its first 87 seasons. I look forward to building on the legacy of artistic excellence, while helping ensure Pittsburgh Opera\u2019s continued long-term fiscal stability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Powers, a 53-year-old resident of Mt. Lebanon, will become the general director of the Pittsburgh Opera July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13501,182,47163,7526,73,75,74,15364],"class_list":["post-96134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-almanac","tag-local-news","tag-main-menu","tag-mt-lebanon","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-south-hills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}