Active as an opera fanatic and factotum for over two decades, Rob Ainsley has explored every facet of the art form across the country, and lives to pass on his enthusiasm to others. He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, Mannes College of Music, and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. Since then, he has been Co-founder

and Principal Conductor of the Greenwich Music Festival, a guest Chorus Master at English  National Opera, Associate Music Director at Portland Opera, Head of Music Staff and Chorus Master at Minnesota Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and a faculty member at Westminster Choir College’s CoOPERAtive Program.

He is now the Artistic and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival, one of America’s most renowned summer festivals and New York State’s second largest opera company, located in Cooperstown, New York. Prior to this appointment, he was Director of the Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artists and the American Opera Initiative, seeking out and training the

finest young American singers, composers, and librettists for international careers. His artists have performed on the world’s leading stages, won the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, been finalists in Operalia, and performed at the 2018 White House State Dinner for the President of France.

A frequent recitalist, he has performed with some of the world’s leading singers at many national institutions, including the White House, Supreme Court, Smithsonian Museums, National Gallery, Kennedy Center Honors, Wolf Trap National Park, embassies, and diplomatic residences. In 2020, he was featured in recital with world-famous soprano Renée Fleming as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Met Stars Live in Concert” series.

He has conducted his own realizations of seventeenth-century operas, collaborated on a string of world premieres, raved about art song in a recital series of his own creation, and lectured on everything from Adams to Zemlinsky. Through it all, he has inspired hundreds of young artists and thousands of audience members to share his passion, and prides himself on the friendships he has formed along the way.

Mary Birnbaum, whose stage direction the New York Times called “viscerally overwhelming” (The Rape of Lucretia at Juilliard) and “genuinely insightful...vibrant” (The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall), has directed new productions of music theater internationally, from France to Taiwan, Central America, Australia, and Israel, and across the U.S. at Santa Fe Opera (La

bohème), New York Philharmonic, Opera Columbus, Virginia Arts Festival, Montclair Peak Performances, Ojai Festival, Seattle Opera, Boston Baroque and more. She recently directed Rigoletto for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and her production of Chris Cerrone & Stephanie Fleischmann's IN A GROVE was "the highlight of the Prototype Festival" and the NYT “Best of Classical 2025”. In 2023, Birnbaum was named General & Artistic Director of Opera Saratoga where she has directed Guys and Dolls, an immersive version of IN A GROVE, and a new

translation of La vie parisienne. Birnbaum teaches acting to opera singers at The Juilliard School, and coaches for the Lindemann Young Artists Program at the Metropolitan Opera. Recently, she was named one of Musical America's "30 Top Professionals of 2025."

www.marybirnbaum.com