Leadership

Nashville Opera Staff

Edwin Bryan

Ticketing Services Manager

Margaret Carpenter

Administrative Assistant

Lori Eubank

Business Manager

Karen L. Haas

Director of Artistic Administration

Stuart Holt

Director of Education

Reed Hummell

Director of Sales & Marketing

Susan McIntyre

Development Director for Major Gifts

Lynn Newcomb

Development Director for Institutional Giving

Cara Schneider

Art Director

Andrea Smith

Public Relations Director

Jessica Sneed

Facilities Manager

Amy Tate Williams

Chorusmaster/Accompanist

Randall Williams

Director of Production

Board of Directors

Executive Committee

Mrs. Elizabeth D. Papel

President

Mr. Joseph N. Barker

Immediate Past President

Mr. Thomas J. Aaron

Vice President, Finance

Ms. Paula T. Roberts

Secretary

Felicia Carson Gates

Nashville Opera Guild President

Mr. Thomas G. Andrews, Sr.

Mrs. Barbara T. Bovender

Mr. Douglas Cruickshanks, Jr.

Mr. Zachary Liff

Mr. Raymond Pirtle

Mrs. Mary Ellen Rodgers

Mr. Michael Saint

Mr. Alan R. Yuspeh

Board

Mr. Gary Abellard

Ms. Sue Atkinson

Mrs. Jennifer Bottorff

Mrs. Ann Peldo Cargile

Mr. Ramon L. Cisneros

Mrs. Elizabeth S. Courtney

Mr. Charles W. Dunn

Mrs. Judy Fisher

Mr. Craig Gardella

Mr. John Glennon

Mr. Donald Holmes

Mr. Nikos Hontzeas, intern

Mrs. Martha R. Ingram †

Mr. G. Brian Jackson

Mr. B. David Joffe

Mr. Robert O. Martin

Ms. Melissa M. McGuire

Dr. Hazel R. O’Leary

Mr. Jeffrey B. Smith

Mrs. Elizabeth S. Tipping

Dr. William O. Whetsell †

Mr. W. Fred Williams

Dr. Theodore E. Wiltsie

Mr. Uzi Yemin

† Life Board Members

Advisory Board

Dr. Joseph H. Allen

Mrs. June Bogle

Dr. Jan Lewis Brandes

John Auston Bridges

Mrs. Betty Brown

Dr. G. Helen Brown

Mrs. Ann S. Bumstead

Mrs. Marion Pickering Couch

Mrs. Ruth Roberts Cowan

Dr. Leslie Douglas-Churchwell

Dr. Thomas R. Duncan

Mrs. Jean Eskind

Mr. Richard H. Frank

Mr. John E. Gillmor

Mr. J. Michael Hayes

Mrs. Joanne Hayes

Dr. Henry C. Howerton

Mr. James V. Hunt, Jr.

Ms. Jocelynne McCall

Mr. James L. McGregor

Mr. Scott H. McKean

Mrs. Ann Marie McNamara

Mr. Robert E. McNeilly, Jr.

Mr. J. William Myers

Mrs. Shelley C. Page

Mr. Richard E. Ragsdale

Dr. Richard P. Schneider

Mrs. Beverly Small

Mrs. Irma Spies

Mr. Bruce D. Sullivan

Mrs. Sue Swensson

Mr. M. Andrew Valentine

Mr. Edwin M. Walker

Mr. Jonathan Weaver

Mrs. Gudrun West

Mrs. Mary G. Wieck

Mrs. Gail Williams

John Hoomes

Artistic Director

Mr. Hoomes has been the artistic director of Nashville Opera since 1995.  Also a free-lance stage director, he has directed over 150 productions of opera and music theatre in the US, South America, and Canada.  The New York Times declared his Nashville Opera world premiere of Elmer Gantry “An Operatic Miracle...in Nashville.”  A June 2010 Opera News feature article acknowledged, “Hoomes has proved himself one of the most interesting stage directors in the regional market today with a seemingly limitless knowledge of repertoire.”

Since receiving his Masters Degree at Indiana University, Mr. Hoomes has worked for many professional opera companies including Opera Lyra Ottawa, Teatro Colón, Cincinnati Opera, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and Opera Columbus.

Mr. Hoomes has directed, among numerous other productions, Salome, Rigoletto, Tosca, The Pearl Fishers, La Bohème, Carmen, and Der Rosenkavalier for Nashville Opera; Madama Butterfly and Carmen for Kentucky Opera; Die Fledermaus and Susannah for Indianapolis Opera; The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, and La Bohème for Opera Carolina; Don Giovanni, Elmer Gantry, and Salome for Florentine Opera; Don Giovanni for Opera Cleveland; Ernani and Jenufa for Sarasota Opera; and Turandot for The Opera Festival of New Jersey, Nashville Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Memphis, and The Opera Company of North Carolina.

Recently Mr. Hoomes staged the world premieres of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry, which was recorded on Naxos Records, and songwriter Marcus Hummon’s chamber opera, Surrender Road at Martha Rivers Ingram Hall in Nashville.  He also directed the Southeastern professional premiere of two contemporary pieces, Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse.  In fall 2009 Mr. Hoomes directed the Tennessee premiere of The Fall of the House of Usher by composer Philip Glass, a groundbreaking multi-media production, critically acclaimed both by the Wall Street Journal and Opera News.

Carol Penterman

Executive Director & CEO

Carol Penterman has been the executive director/chief executive officer of the Nashville Opera Association since 1995.  She is responsible for daily operations, staffing, programming, marketing, development, financial stability and strategic planning of this not-for-profit organization which includes three subsidiaries, the Liff Opera Center LLC, NOA Foundation LLC, and Nashville Opera Company LLC, with combined assets of over $12 million. 

In May 2009 Nashville Mayor Karl Dean presided as sword fighters slashed the ribbon at the grand opening of Nashville Opera’s first permanent home, the Noah Liff Opera Center, a 26,000-square-foot, multi-purpose venue.  It won the Urban Land Institute 2009 Design Excellence Award.  The judges commented “the Noah Liff Opera Center is the best kind of example of a nonprofit institutional adaptive reuse right in a neighborhood.  You can already see the impact it’s having on the adjacent fragile neighborhoods.  It is a catalyst for further reinvestment.”

Ms. Penterman is a consultant with the Tennessee Arts Commission, specializing in board development, strategic planning, financial oversight, and best business practices.  She chairs the steering committee for the Nashville Arts Coalition, which handles lobbying activities directed at the Nashville Metro Council and Tennessee Legislators, promoting increased funding for visual and performing arts in greater Nashville. 

Ms. Penterman is a member of the OPERA America Board of Directors and serves on the OPERA America Strategic Planning Advisory Committee.  She received the OPERA America Bravo Award in 2006, the Francis Robinson Award for outstanding leadership in 2005, and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award in 1999.   She is a frequent panelist for OPERA America and grant reviewer for The National Endowment for the Arts.