Thursday, December 5, 2002
Opera appoints new director
SPRINGFIELD — The Board of Trustees of Glimmerglass Opera has announced the appointment of Joanne Cossa as the company's general director, effective April 1, 2003.
Cossa is currently executive vice-president of Symphony Space, a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization in New York City. She succeeds Esther Nelson, general director of Glimmerglass Opera since 1996, who retired at the end of the 2002 Festival Season.
During her 14-year tenure at Symphony Space, Cossa oversaw a substantial increase in the diversity of the organization's programming, which includes music, literature, theater, film, dance, and education; the successful completion of a $24 million capital campaign; and a major renovation and expansion of the company's physical plant and infrastructure.
Prior to that, from 1981 to 1988, she was executive director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, which she led during a similar period of significant growth and accomplishment, including several national and international tours and the release of eight recordings.
"After an extensive search, we are pleased and fortunate to have found in Joanne Cossa an experienced arts administrator with ties to both upstate and metropolitan New York," said Robert B. Schlather, chairman of Glimmerglass Opera's Board of Trustees. "She will make an excellent general director, bringing to the position strong administrative and development skills, an abiding interest in opera, and an eagerness to take Glimmerglass to even higher levels of achievement. I look forward to welcoming Joanne to Cooperstown and to working with her in behalf of Glimmerglass Opera."
Born and raised in upstate New York, Cossa studied theater at Syracuse University and music at Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is married to Frank Cossa, an art historian, playwright, and filmmaker, who teaches at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
Cossa said, "Glimmerglass is magical: the enchanting productions, the exquisite Alice Busch Opera Theater, the setting on that beautiful lake - even the name. I'm very excited to be joining artistic director Paul Kellogg and the entire team that's built such an extraordinary organization."