About OTNV

First organized by Arlington music lovers in 1961, the company has grown from amateur productions by volunteers to innovative, professional opera productions. Incorporated in 1967, Opera Theatre is the second oldest opera company in continuous production in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area.

We present quality opera productions at affordable prices. Many of our operas are sung in English.

Tomorrow's singers at leading opera houses need a more intimate stage on which to launch their careers, and Opera Theatre provides such a venue. Jennifer Larmore, Alessandra Marc, Thomas Moser, and Fabiana Bravo are some of the singers who starred in our productions on their way to appearances with larger companies both here and abroad.

We take special pride in our children's opera and outreach to schoolchildren in the area. Recent productions include Charlotte's Web, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Nightingale, The Cricket in Times Square, and The Araboolies of Liberty Street.

Opera Theatre invites you to join the family of opera lovers in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area. We bring to life the lesser-known works of famous composers and new American operas. Over the past 20 years, 75 percent of our productions have been area premieres.

Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia is supported by the Arlington Commission for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Opera Guild of Northern Virginia, private foundations, and corporate and individual donors.

John Edward Niles, Artistic Director

John Edward Niles became the Artistic Director/Conductor of OTNV in 1981. Since then, he has been at the forefront of producing operas not previously heard in the Greater Washington area--over 75 percent of OTNV's productions have been area premieres.

Mr. Niles is the son of the American composer John Jacob Niles and freelance journalist Rena L. Niles. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in 1967 and a Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati in 1969. Mr. Niles has been awarded grants from the American Symphony Orchestra League and the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation. He also received an NDEA Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship to study advanced conducting in Hamburg, Germany. He has studied with such notable conductors as Richard Lert, Haigh Yaghijian, Hans Swarvosky, Erich Kunzel, Julius Rudel, and John Nelson.

After receiving his degree from the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Mr. Niles went on to conduct at the Ithaca (N.Y.) Opera Association, Salt City Playhouse (Syracuse, N.Y.), Bel Canto Opera (New York City), Virginia Opera (Norfolk), Cavalier Productions and COLVA Productions (Arlington, VA), JMJ Productions (Washington, D.C.), and European-American Productions (Hanover, Germany). He was invited to conduct at the Auschwitz 50th Anniversary Memorial in Kracow, Poland and was the Musical Director of Euro-Fest in Prague in July 2002. Mr. Niles has also been the director of the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre, Woodbridge, Virginia, since 1978.

General Director: Adrien Finlay
Director of Education and Community Outreach: Kelly Smith Jones

Board of Directors

Jean Shirhall, President
Laura Walton Crouch, Vice President
Betty Schmidt, Treasurer
Lisa Bicksel, Secretary
Carol Erion
Adrien Finlay
Lewis Freeman
Kelly Smith Jones
Katherine Osborne
Linda White
John Edward Niles, Ex-Officio