Director of Arizona Opera leaving for Minnesota post

The director of the Arizona Opera Company is leaving for a position as president and general director of Minnesota Opera effective May 1.

“It’s a bittersweet moment, but mostly good,” said Ryan Taylor, who helped reinvent the nonprofit financially and artistically.

Taylor inherited Arizona Opera and its $3.2 million in long-term debt in 2013.

“The interesting thing is that I was not looking for a job.” Taylor said. “The firm called me. I’m happy here.

“The big difference is that the company in Minnesota is the one that gave me my first professional opportunity as an artist,” Taylor said. Taylor participated in Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program in the 2000-2001 season.

“It feels like I’m going home … I really don’t know that there are other markets that would have been as enticing.”

In his time with Arizona Opera, Taylor helped slash debt with the Million Dollar May campaign that enabled the 2013-14 season, a four-year sponsorship agreement with CopperPoint Mutual, and innovative programming in the Arizona Bold initiative. Arizona Bold brought little or unknown repertoire to the stage, including regionally and historically relevant performances such as “Arizona Lady” in October and mariachi opera “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon)” the year before.

“He helped turn the company around with extraordinary vision and ability,” said Arizona Opera chairman and longtime board member Robert Tancer. “Artistically, he gave us an image and a purpose in terms of connecting what we do on stage with the community we live in. He was the ideal general director during the period he was here.”

Tancer said “Cruzar” was an example of “a very bold, innovative step. In that we attempted an outreach to our Hispanic community here. We brought people into the opera house we’ve never seen before.”

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Tancer said Taylor also helped to improve the relationship of the Phoenix-based but Tucson-born company to its home city.

“I think our prior administration tended to have minimum contact with Tucson,” Tancer said. “But Ryan and the staff have been energetic and visible in Tucson …we hope to see that continue.”

Tancer said he anticipates that the successful revenue models of sponsorship and fundraising will continue as well. The newly assembled transition committee to find a new director meets Tuesday to begin the search.

“We have an agenda that I think transcends any general director, to be an active participant in the life of the communities we serve,” Tancer said.

Plans for the 2017-18 season of Arizona Opera are in place, though the season has not been announced, said Taylor. That leaves only one season in the Bold initiative to be determined.

Tancer said he hopes the new director will “complete the concept of Arizona Bold … and then go on and develop a vision that will be appropriate to that time.”

“I think change is always a moment of reflection and sort of, wistfulness,” Taylor said. “But so far everyone has been incredibly gracious and is more concerned about looking forward and seeing what our next steps are and making sure the future is secure.”

“We’ll miss him.” Tancer said. “But we wish him well.”