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ROBERT
M. HEUER
General Director & CEO
Robert M. Heuer’s opera career began as the founding
Managing Director of Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theatre and has
continued for twenty-seven seasons with Florida Grand Opera.
He joined Florida Grand Opera as Director of Production in 1979,
became Assistant General Director in 1983, and then became General
Director in 1985. As
General Director, Mr. Heuer led the effort resulting in the merger of
the Greater Miami Opera and the Opera Guild of Ft. Lauderdale and the
creation of Florida Grand Opera in June of 1994.
During
Mr. Heuer’s seasons as General Director and CEO, the FGO has mounted
well over 81 main stage productions, including 25 operas never
previously seen in South Florida. Among
these productions are Richard Strauss’ Salome; Ariadne auf Naxos;
Britten’s The Turn of the Screw;
Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione
di Poppea; Handel’s Giulio
Cesare in Egitto; Janacek’s Kátya
Kabanová; Marc Blitzstein’s Regina;
and the American premieres of Rossini’s Bianca
e Falliero in 1987 and Ede Donath’s Szulamit.
Under
Mr. Heuer’s leadership, the Company has developed one of the most
important young artist programs in the country with the purpose of
providing a bridge for singers from the educational to the professional
arena. In the 2002-2003 season, the Opera’s Young Artists Studio was
expanded as the FGO Ensemble, to include Resident Artists.
Mr.
Heuer is at the forefront of the community effort to build the new
performing arts center in Downtown Miami. Mr. Heuer spearheaded the
purchase of a 43,000-sq. ft. site immediately across the street from the
new opera house, which will accommodate the James Byrd Anderson, Jr.
Opera Center. The Opera
Center will house the Company’s rehearsal studios, production office
and studios, costume shop, artist apartments, administrative offices and
a 485-seat theater.
Mr. Heuer has served as a board member of OPERA America and as the
organization’s Vice-Chairman. Mr.
Heuer has also served both as Chairman and Panel Member on the
Opera/Music Theatre Challenge Grant Program and Opera/Music Theatre
Grants Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a member of
the State of Florida Music Grants Review Panel.
In 1988, the Florida Commissioner of Education appointed him to
the Florida Alliance for Arts Education, which is an affiliate of the
National Education Program at the Kennedy Center. The Republic of
Austria awarded him the Grand Decoration of Honor in 1990 in recognition
of his commitment to producing the operas of Mozart; and most recently,
he was recognized in 2001 with the Narot Humanitarian Award, presented
by Temple Israel of Greater Miami. A native of Detroit, he received his
BA in Speech/Theater from Wayne State University.
October
2005
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