Artistic Leadership

Carole Charnow, General Director

Carole Charnow received her BA from Emerson College and her MA in stage directing from London University. For fifteen years she worked as a professional director, singer, and Equity TV, film, and stage actress in London, England. As joint artistic director of Moving Target Theatre Company, she produced five UK premieres, including Rebel in Paradise by Howard Zinn. The company’s original commission of Olwen Wymark’s Brezhnev’s Children, published by Samuel French, was performed at the Young Vic Theatre in London and the Edinburgh Festival.

Ms. Charnow returned to Boston in 1996 to take up her position at Opera Boston, and has presided over a period of unprecedented growth and artistic achievement. She has produced over forty operas to date, twelve of which were named amongst the "Best Opera in Boston" by The Boston Globe. Carole produced H.M.S. Pinafore on the USS Constitution, and South Pacific on the USS Cassin Young, two signature free events, which attracted over 20,000 audience members. As co-director of Opera Unlimited, she has produced several acclaimed American and regional premieres including John Adams’ Nixon In China, Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face, and Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America.

Gil Rose, Music Director

Gil Rose is recognized as one of a new generation of American conductors shaping the future of classical music. His orchestral and operatic performances and recordings have been recognized by critics and fans alike. In 1996, Gil Rose founded the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the leading professional orchestra in the country dedicated exclusively to performing and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Under his leadership, BMOP's unique programming and high performance standards have attracted critical acclaim and earned the orchestra eight ASCAP awards for adventurous programming as well as John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music. Since 2003, Mr. Rose has also served as Music Director of Opera Boston, an innovative opera company in residence at the historic Cutler Majestic Theatre.

As a guest conductor, Mr. Rose made his Tanglewood Festival debut in 2002 conducting Lukas Foss' opera Griffelkin, a work he recorded for Chandos and released in 2003 to rave reviews. In 2003 he debuted with the Netherlands Radio Symphony conducting three world premieres as part of the Holland Festival. He has led the American Composers Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the National Orchestra of Porto as well as several appearances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

In June 2003, BMOP and Opera Boston together launched the much-celebrated Opera Unlimited, a ten-day contemporary opera festival featuring five operas and three world premieres. Mr. Rose led the world premiere of Elena Ruehr's Toussaint Before the Spirits, the New England premiere of Thomas Adés’ Powder Her Face, as well as the revival of John Harbison's A Full Moon in March with "skilled and committed direction" according to The Boston Globe. In 2006 the Opera Unlimited Festival presented the North American premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America to critical acclaim.

Also recognized for interpreting standard operatic repertoire from Mozart to Bernstein, Mr. Rose's production of Verdi's Luisa Miller was hailed as an important operatic event. The Boston Globe recognized it as "the best Verdi production presented in Boston in the last 15 years." The Boston Phoenix has described Mr. Rose as "a Mozart conductor of energy and refinement". Mr. Rose's recording of Samuel Barber's Vanessa for Naxos has been hailed as an important achievement by the international press. He was chosen as the "Best Conductor of 2003" by Opera Online. He made his Chautauqua Opera debut in 2005 with a production of Lucia di Lammermoor.

Also recognized for his recordings of American orchestral repertoire, Gil Rose's discography includes world premiere recordings of music by George Rochberg, Eric Chasalow, Tod Machover, Steven Mackey, Lee Hyla, Steven Paulus, Bernard Rands, Elena Ruehr, Reza Vali and Evan Ziporyn. Upcoming releases include works by composers Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison and Gunther Schuller. His world premiere recording of the complete orchestral music of Arthur Berger was chosen by The New York Times as one of the "Best CD's of 2003."

Mr. Rose received his undergraduate training at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. His Master of Fine Arts degree and Artist Diploma are from Carnegie Mellon University, where his teachers were Samuel Jones, Juan Pablo Izquierdo and Robert Page.