(Above: Andrew Bisantz at the podium as Eugene Opera performs Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata; photo by Paul Carter)
Edited by Randi Bjornstad
The Eugene Opera Board of Directors has voted unanimously to extend Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Andrew Bisantz’s contract through the 2026-27 season.
In this role, Bisantz will continue to oversee all artistic aspects of the company, including programming, production, and casting, as well as musical leadership of the Eugene Opera Orchestra and all related musical activities. With this contract extension, he becomes the longest-serving conductor and artistic leader of the company in its history.
This year, Bisantz will conduct both of Eugene Opera’s productions in its 48th season: Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto, not seen on the Hult Center Stage in nearly two decades, and Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters, a deeply moving contemporary opera making its local premier.
Bisantz made his debut with Eugene Opera in 2008, conducting Jacque Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). He was named the company’s Music Director in 2010, adding Artistic Director status in 2017. Under his leadership, Eugene Opera’s repertoire has expanded greatly to include numerous works by living composers as well as less frequently performed works of the great operatic masters.
During his tenure, the company has seen the premiers of Nixon in China, Dead Man Walking, La fanciulla del West (the Girl of the Golden West), Sweeney Todd, Turn of the Screw, Eugene Onegin, Little Women, María de Buenos Aires, As One, The Little Match Girl Passion, Lucy, and Eugene Opera’s first-ever production of Baroque opera, George Frideric Händel’s Acis and Galatea.
About the contract extension, Bisantz calls himself “thrilled.”
“Eugene Opera has been my artistic home for 16 years, and I’m deeply humbled that I’ve been entrusted with a hand in the company’s future,” he said. “I look forward to working with our wonderful new executive director Kari Welch and the board of directors to ensure this company remains essential to its community — not only providing world-class opera for Eugene and Springfield, but also securing the future of this incomparable art form and its enduring stories for the next generation of opera lovers.”
In his decades-long career, Bisantz has led over 80 productions with a repertoire spanning both operatic masterworks but also new contemporary works. He also makes regular appearances to lead other venerable opera productions, among them Florida Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, Savannah Opera and Voice Festival, and Glimmerglass Opera.
Bisantz also is in demand as a symphony conductor, including the Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras in New York State, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony. In 2023, he also became Principal Opera Conductor and Professor of Conducting at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee (Massachusetts), a role that overlaps with his duties in Eugene.
