People

PEOPLE

CO-FOUNDER AND GENERAL DIRECTOR, LORRIE HALL former professional singer, grant writer and non-profit arts consultant was the Executive Director of Rogue Opera from 2003 – 2009 leading the organization through a major fundraising and capacity building process until her departure. Lorrie has performed as a dramatic soprano in southern Oregon in numerous Rogue Opera main stage and Opera in the Schools productions including Mrs. Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, the Witch and Mother in Hansel and Gretel, Peep-Bo in The Mikado, Bertha in The Barber of Seville and in many concerts and events.

Ms. Hall co-founded Brava! Opera in 2010 with Willene Gunn. In the 2011-2012 season they focused on creating a National James M. Collier Vocal Competition (now in it's 10th year) and an opera workshop with scenes concert featuring local singers. The next season they added two small chamber operas featuring regional singers. By 2019 Brava! Opera was reaching thousands of audience members and singers each year with their National Vocal Competition, Opera Workshop with Scenes Concert, San Francisco Adler Fellows Concert, an annual professional opera production with two performances that featured national singers, many of whom are now performing in major opera houses around the world.

Prior to moving to Medford in 1999, Lorrie lived in San Antonio, Texas where she was pursuing a music degree at the University of Texas-San Antonio and performing with the San Antonio Choral Society and Symphony. Formerly a physical therapist for 18 years and an Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Georgia School of Physical Therapy and Adjunct Faculty at the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry, she now focuses on Brava! Opera and her work as a non-profit arts consultant in the Rogue Valley, Olympia, Washington and Los Angeles.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lorrie Hall, President
Ellie Holt-Murray, Treasurer
Alan Balzer, Secretary
Lauren Cypher, Member
Dr. Michael Hall, Member

CO-FOUNDER, PREVIOUS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, WILLENE GUNN served as a member of the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 30 years, as Director of the Conservatory Opera Program. Upon her retirement in the spring of 2005 the Conservatory conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. Ms. Gunn taught voice at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and staged operas in workshops at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Nevada. She directed over 90 major works by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Bernstein and other major composers for Nevada, Sacramento, Arizona Operas, Rogue Opera and the San Francisco Opera Center and other companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate of the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Ms. Gunn performed extensively on the West Coast as a dramatic mezzo-soprano with the San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Oakland and Nevada Opera companies in Aida, Falstaff, Peter Grimes, The Medium, The Consul and numerous others. Her symphonic repertory included Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. She performed in operetta, musical comedy and legitimate theater, in roles ranging from most of the mezzo-soprano roles in Gilbert and Sullivan, the alto leads in The Sound of Music, Carousel, and South Pacific, and as Hecuba in The Trojan Women. She produced and directed over 35 productions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and in 2000 the Conservatory awarded her the Sarlo Award for Excellence in Teaching. While at the Conservatory, she directed over 100 scenes a year in the opera workshops.

In southern Oregon, Ms. Gunn served as Artistic Director of Rogue Opera from 2006-2009 directing the highly-acclaimed Merry Wives of Windsor, The Magic Flute and La Bohème. She co-created Rogue Opera’s Opera in the Schools program OperAntics! and created, directed and produced three Opera Workshop with Voices from the Valley Opera Scenes Concerts during her tenure. Ms. Gunn’s textbook, Teaching Opera, The Role of the Opera Workshop …With Scene Catalogue, written in partnership with Kathryn Cathcart, was published by Leyerle Press in February, 2008.