(Santa Fe, NM) - I met librettist Mark Campbell in 2015, while he and composer Mason Bates were finalizing their Grammy-winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. I also had the honor of being at its Santa Fe Opera world premiere in 2017. During the pandemic, he even wrote a piece for OI. But with the arrival of a new regime in Washington, and the hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center by Trump, a political lapdog, and a new board of loyalist supporters, I wanted to know how Mark felt about Washington National Opera’s production of Jobs, which closed two weeks ago…

(Santa Fe, NM) - We’re especially excited to share this chat with Emma Scherer, who we’ve known since her time at The Santa Fe Opera, working closely with Charles MacKay, while also running the company’s Executive Office and Board Relations. We met in 2015, when I had the opportunity to onsite consult with SFO public relations and apprentice artists that season. I was immediately impressed by everything Emma did and how she did it; a professional’s professional who kept everything and everyone moving forward, towards that day’s business goals, with an eye to the evening’s performance and everything that meant for Mr. MacKay and countless others. Fast-forwarding to the present, Emma has been The Santa Fe Symphony’s Executive Director since September 2021 and is preparing for the company’s 40th season in 2023/4. However, on the way there, Emma and collaborators launched the Art + Sol | Santa Fe Winter Arts Festival in February 2023…

(Washington DC) - While listening to a recent Monocle 24 on Saturday podcast, we caught Monocle’s DC correspondent Chris Cermak interviewing Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, National Endowment for the Arts Chair. Cermak’s questions for Dr. Rosario Jackson were focused on the post-pandemic state of the performing arts. We’re bringing this interview forward since it covers topics regularly discussed on the OI platform…