Our People
Executive Team & Leadership Members
Becca Allen, Executive Director
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Mezzo-soprano and teaching artist Becca Allen has been sought after for her artistic expertise on and off stage. Becca’s background in artistic administration ranges from opera to publishing to competitive ballroom dance. Her professional theater career started at just six years old, and she has honed a myriad of skills during her lifetime in the arts such as performance, management, event planning, professional development, vocal and acting teaching, theater production, design, and marketing. A proud member of the LGBTQI+ community, she is committed to sharing diverse stories and uplifting endeavors that reflect the many voices of Boston.
Becca has leveraged her strengths in projects with groups such as Boston University, West End Lyric, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Sigma Alpha Iota, University of Redlands, Songbird Studios, among others. Her performance highlights include Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Carmen (Carmen), Bradamante (Alcina), Jo, Meg, and Cecilia March (Little Women), and the Narrator/Mysterious Man (Into the Woods). An active member of the Boston choral and early music scene, Becca can be heard in the operatic quartet of the First Church in Chestnut Hill, and will be making her Messiah debut with the Handel and Haydn Society this fall. Her inbox is always open to questions, thoughts, or good jokes: becca.allen@bocopera.org
Ken Yanagisawa, Music Director
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Japanese-American conductor Ken Yanagisawa is the Music Director of the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Assistant Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony. He made his Japanese debut conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Kansai Nikikai and the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Japan in February 2023, and most recently conducted a production of Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung for the Boston University Opera Institute. Formerly a Conducting Apprentice with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Ken has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Berlin Academy of American Music, and Plymouth Philharmonic as cover conductor. He has also served as Kapellmeister with the Berlin Opernfest for the past three years, working on productions of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Puccini’s Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and made his European debut with the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2018.
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Andrew Barnwell, Development Manager
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Almost always working at one keyboard or another, Andrew Barnwell is a pianist, educator, and arts administrator passionate about community-driven performances. Andrew finds chamber music especially fulfilling and is a founding member of Trio Gaia, New England Conservatory’s Graduate Trio in Residence. The trio won 1st prize at the 2022 WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition, as well as prizes in the 2022 Premio Trio di Trieste International Music Competition, 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, and the 2019 Plowman National Chamber Music Competition. The trio has crafted weeklong residencies for the Panama Jazz Festival, the Virginia Arts Festival, and PRIZM International Music Festival in support of its mission to invite students into the experience of connecting through chamber music. Early in his career,
Andrew developed a love for event planning, and as a student at the New England Conservatory (NEC) he sought opportunities to plan, organize, and execute. Most recently, Andrew produced “In Good (ac)Company,” a 5-day virtual concert series in response to the pandemic that presented 13 randomly paired duos of NEC students and alumni. During Andrew’s many hours avoiding his to-dos, he can usually be found searching street-by- street for the best bakeries in town—recommendations are gladly accepted.
Board of Directors
PRESIDENT
Drew Mittelman
VICE PRESIDENT
Jack Silversin
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MEMBERS
Josh Daniels
Wendy Quiñones
Jonathan Saxton
Margaret Suby
Stephen Graves
Tim Williamson
Greg Smucker, Co-Artistic Director Emeritus
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Greg Smucker is a director and teacher of theater and opera. He studied with the late Wesley Balk, a noted pioneer in the field of singer-actor training. Greg was co-founder and artistic director of 15 HEAD, a critically acclaimed experimental theater company in Minneapolis and served as managing director of Theatre for Young America in Kansas City, a professional theater for children. Greg served for seven years on the faculty of the Opera Studies Department at New England Conservatory of Music and is currently a faculty member of the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. As a freelance director, Greg has directed productions and workshops for theaters and opera companies in Boston and the Twin Cities.
Patricia-Maria Weinmann, Co-Artistic Director Emeritus
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Patricia-Maria Weinmann has worked with many national opera companies and festivals including Utah Opera, Opera on the James, Syracuse Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Seagle Music Colony, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Boston, Ashlawn Opera Festival, the American Opera Project, Opera Providence, and Mississippi Grand Opera. She has collaborated on a number of premier performances including Daniel Pinkham’s The Cask of Amontillado, the staged orchestral premier of Scott Wheeler’s The Construction of Boston and Wheeler’s Democracy as a work-in-progress for the American Opera Project in New York. Recent directing engagements have included Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night, Hansel and Gretel, Cosi fan tutte, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Cole!, Cenerentola, Carmina Burana, L’elisir d’amore, Sweeney Todd, Don Pasquale and Faust and Marguerite (BOC). Over the past 20 years, Weinmann served on the faculties of both Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory of Music. As a guest director and coach for Utah Opera’s Young Artist Program and a faculty member of American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, she continues to train some of the most promising young singers in the United States and abroad.