Friday, January 15, 1:00 pm
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
FREE EVENT
Join Brian DeMaris (conductor, educator and President and General Director of Arizona Opera) for a witty and fun lecture on European and American Operetta ranging from Gilbert and Sullivan to the early years of Broadway. This presentation includes selections from “The Pirates of Penzance” performed by members of the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio.
Getting Here
Instructor
Brian DeMaris
Equally at home in opera, musical theatre, symphony, ballet and pops, and involved with the development of over two dozen new works, Brian DeMaris has led productions with Anchorage Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Columbus, El Paso Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, Syracuse Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Charlottesville Opera, American Lyric Theatre and American Opera Projects. He has served as Principal Conductor of Anchorage Opera, Music Director of Mill City Summer Opera, and was previously associate conductor of the New York City Opera, assistant conductor at Florida Grand Opera and Glimmerglass Opera, and served on the music staff of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He has led concerts with the St. Cloud Symphony, Music St. Croix, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Symphoria, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and has performed at the United Nations, the Aspen Music Festival, Boston’s Jordan Hall, New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, and in recitals, competitions, and master classes throughout the United States and abroad. He has served as Director of Opera and Musical Theatre at Ithaca College, Professor and Artistic Director of Music Theatre and Opera at Arizona State University, and was appointed President and General Director of Arizona Opera in 2025.