James Allbritten
Conductor
James Allbritten, Conductor James Allbritten is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of both the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Piedmont Opera. Recent productions include Robert Ward’s Pulitzer Prize winning opera The Crucible, which was sadly the last time the composer saw his work. Allbritten helped celebrate composer Benjamin Britten’s 100th birthday this year with a production of Owen Wingrave for the Fletcher Opera institute. He looks forward to his first encounter with the music of Richard Wagner in the fall as Piedmont Opera produces The Flying Dutchman. James is originally from Louisville, KY, and he began his operatic career with Kentucky Opera. While a student in Louisville, he was invited to participate as one of the youngest artists in the San Antonio Arts Festival, where he was apprenticed to Boris Goldovsky. His conducting studies began at Indiana University under Jan Harrington, Robert Porco, and Thomas Dunn. While there he also worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera conductor Bryan Balkwill, and MET stage directors, Fritz Busch and James Lucas. He moved to North Carolina in 1993 to join the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where his duties include Artistic Director of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, conductor of the Cantata Singers and The UNCSA Symphony Orchestra. He has led performances of works from Pergolesi’s Lo frate ‘nnamorato through Rorem’s Our Town. He has also led performances for Opera Theatre of the Rockies, including the award-winning production of The Marriage of Figaro, Opera Carolina, the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Carolina Chamber Orchestra. Allbritten spent four seasons as Music Director for NCSA’s Illuminations Festival on the Outer Banks, and led the UNCSA Festival Orchestra at Côte Vermeille and for the Flâneries Musicales d’Ete de Reims in France. A veteran of so many happy summers at VAS and last year’s VAF, he is happy to be back in the Springs. Maestro Allbritten has received numerous prestigious awards for his role as a musician and educator and has recently been named General Manager of the Piedmont Opera.