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“I call myself an operavangilist. I go around preaching the good word (about opera),” says Jennifer Fletcher, recently hired to be the first ever general manager of the Annapolis Opera Company. A former professional singer, Fletcher has always been passionate about opera. At the age of 10 she told her mother, an opera fan, that she wanted voice lessons because she was disappointed with being cast as a member of the chorus when auditioning for the school play, Oklahoma! The following year, she was given a lead role in Peter Pan.
A mezzo soprano, Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from San Diego State and a Master of Music from New England Conservatory in vocal performance with an emphasis in stage direction.Not totally satisfied with a focus on performance, Jennifer began looking for different ways to support the art form. She became interested in the administrative side of opera production while working for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the marketing department and then being involved in a world premiere while working for the Fort Worth Opera as their company manager. “As company manager, I worked with all departments including production, development, marketing, finance, and education and outreach,” she says. “I had close working relationships with senior management and the board of trustees, which gave me insight into all the inner workings of how an opera company can run effectively,” says Fletcher.
She is excited about her new job and the opportunity to utilize her previous experiences to introduce Annapolis to its professional opera company. Fletcher, who grew up in Southern California and who loves both football, jazz, and live concerts, is excited to be back on the East Coast and to live in Annapolis which is “such a culturally and historically rich city. The business of opera is very exciting for someone like me,” says Fletcher who is one of only 33 women general managers out of 135 Professional Company Members of Opera America, “Because I simply get to surround myself
with creative people, music that transcends us all, and I get to impact the community by introducing them to an art form that is the ultimate performance art.”
—Nadja Maril
