Jobs & Auditions

Reports To: MANAGING DIRECTOR
Type: FULL-TIME
FLSA Classification: EXEMPT

View full job description here.

Opera Colorado seeks a mission-driven arts marketing and communications professional who embraces the mission, artistic vision, and core values of Opera Colorado. He/She/They should be a strategic and creative thinker and possess a high level of emotional intelligence. The candidate should be a results-oriented individual, capable of leading a department of two full-time professional marketing staff and managing both institutional and programmatic marketing efforts—supporting three mainstage productions at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and more than thirty events annually. The candidate should possess superior written and verbal skills and be able to write compellingly about opera and the arts.

The Company
Opera Colorado is a dynamic, growing opera company, located in Downtown Denver whose productions are recognized for their extraordinary artistry and innovation encompassing a broad range of repertoire, including contemporary works. The Company has become known for its outstanding Education and Community Engagement Programs, supported by a vibrant Artist In Residence program, focusing on the development of young American talent through main stage performance, community education programs, and state-wide touring productions.

As a recipient of a Bloomberg Philanthropies Grant and a participant in the AIM (Arts Innovation Management Program), Opera Colorado is embarking upon a strategic planning process that highlights expansion of programming at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House as well as community based activities, capitalizing on a 23% increase in audience and record ticket sales and fundraising during its 2018/2019 season.

Opera Colorado was founded in 1981 by Nathaniel Merrill, a distinguished name in the world of opera, with the goal of establishing a grand opera company in Denver, Colorado. Before coming to Denver, Mr. Merrill spent 28 years as the resident stage director at The Metropolitan Opera in New York, and he led Opera Colorado until 1998. In 1998 Stephen Seifert was named Interim Executive Director and served in that capacity until 2001, when Peter Russell was named General Director. He led Opera Colorado through six years of artistic growth and developed the plans to move to our magnificent new performance space, the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in 2005. In 2007 Gregory Carpenter was named General and Artistic Director. Under his leadership, the company has achieved consistent growth in artistic vision and community engagement, and now presents a mix of traditional and contemporary repertoire, including world premieres, and engages new American talent as well as attracting major international artists.

Position Overview
The Director of Marketing & Communications is a key member of the senior leadership team and is responsible for leading programmatic and institutional marketing efforts. The Director works collaboratively with the senior leadership team to identify opportunities and build strategies to grow capacity, with a focus on sustaining current audience, growing new audience, and building visibility and awareness throughout our community. The Director will develop and lead the implementation plan, which includes oversight of public relations, advertising, publications, content creation, social media, and promotions. In service of these goals, the Director of Marketing & Communications is an energetic, strategic, and creative thinker, deeply committed to emotionally resonant storytelling in line with the art form of opera itself. The Director is responsible for continually evolving the Opera Colorado brand identity through building strategic, diverse, and inclusive relationships while creating a voice to share our story and values. This position applies key elements of creative, art, and editorial direction to all aspects of the marketing department and works to provide communication for all program areas at Opera Colorado. The Director of Marketing & Communications oversees a Marketing Manager and Multimedia Producer.

Duties and Responsibilities

Senior Leadership
•Contributes to the work of the senior leadership team in creating a positive and creative day-to-day work environment for the staff that inspires open communication, teamwork and a culture of respect. Serves as a model of leadership, enthusiasm, and good humor.
•Develops plans in support of organizational strategies and objectives, and initiates recommendations for improvement of strategies based on research and analyses.
•Provides Managing Director with financial analysis, reporting, budgets, and forecasts for all marketing expense activities (i.e. advertising, printing, web, etc.).
•Leads reporting staff in achieving goals and completing critical tasks.
•Participates in weekly staff meetings to review administrative strategies to achieve established goals and outcomes.
•Supervises the marketing staff and oversees the annual performance review process.

Institutional Marketing
•Collaboratively identify opportunities, build strategy, and implement communications for Opera Colorado’s institutional marketing and public relations strategy with a focus of long-term audience development; increased public awareness of the company’s community and industry impact; and supporting strengthened relationships between Opera Colorado and patrons, donors, board, and other key groups.
•Strengthen Opera Colorado’s existing brand identity, solidifying standards for written and visual communication, setting the tone for messaging, and ensuring brand consistency across the organization. This includes informing the evolution of the Opera Colorado brand, as necessary.
•Support the company mission and vision to engage new and diverse audiences by continuously analyzing Denver’s changing demographics, refining target markets, and creating relevant messaging for increasing Opera Colorado’s awareness in diverse communities throughout the Denver Metropolitan Region.
•Manage Opera Colorado’s media relations strategy, building relationships with local and national media outlets and journalists to ensure continued press coverage.
•Organize promotional activities such as appearances by artists at public events, in service of raising awareness of Opera Colorado with the general public.

Programmatic Marketing
•Collaboratively develop and implement Opera Colorado’s communications for programmatic marketing strategy, including campaigns and publications for all programming areas including mainstage productions, education programs, special events, and fundraising events.
•Generate partnerships with other arts and cultural institutions throughout the Denver metro area for collaborative promotional and audience development programs.
•Advocate for and implement a focus on patron-centered experience.
•Measure campaign success through quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Advertising and Creative Services
•Oversee the process of design, copy, and technical work for all department deliverables from inception to final approvals, with the support of the Marketing Manager,Multimedia Producer, and contractors.
•Supplement dwindling arts coverage in local media outlets with strategic in-house editorial content—including video, photo, audio, and written pieces—with the support of the Multimedia Producer and freelance creatives.
•Work collaboratively across all departments to develop marketing assets for fundraising,education, and community engagement activities, as well as spotlight the many on-stage and behind-the-scenes stories of Opera Colorado through in-house editorial content.
•Negotiates contracts with vendors for services such as advertising, printing, ticketing andother support services.

Personal Characteristics
•A mission-driven individual with a belief in and commitment to Opera Colorado’s mission, artistic vision and values.
•A good listener and strategist; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to analyze and formulate disparate information into a sound, well-organized plan.
•A flexible and creative individual who can find alternative ways to reach objectives when barriers arise; a skilled negotiator.
•A team builder/peace keeper – confident and competent, with strong skills in management and leadership; one who understands the subtleties of motivating and directing a diverse group of personalities with different work styles.
•Emotionally mature with a good sense of humor and the flexibility and sensitivity to work with diverse personalities and situations.
•Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Non-Profit Management or and arts related area.
•A minimum of five years of experience in Arts Communications, Marketing, Advertising, PR with demonstrated record of driving audience growth and maximizing ticket sales required – knowledge of opera a plus.
•Strong organizational, leadership, communication and management skills.
•The ability to translate strategic thinking into action, with strong understanding of technology and multi-channel marketing.
•Keen sense of design and sales copywriting.
•Strategic thinker with ability to work both independently and as part of a high-performing cross functional team.
•Demonstrated ability to work in an open, respectful and collaborative environment
•Knowledge of Tessitura Ticketing Software preferred
•Ability to organize and prioritize projects, meet deadlines, and sustain productivity.

To be considered for the position:
Please email your resume, cover letter, and a list of three references to humanresources@operacolorado.org with the subject line: Director of Marketing & Communications Search – Last Name, First Name

Compensation: Compensation, including a generous benefits plan, is competitive and will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Materials must be received by August 23, 2019 to be considered by the search committee. No phone calls please.

Opera Colorado invites local singers to participate in upcoming chorus auditions for its 2019-20 season. Productions in the season include Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Puccini’s Tosca. Performances for all three productions will be presented at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at Denver Performing Arts Complex in downtown Denver.

Chorus auditions will take place on Wednesday, August 21, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at the Opera Colorado Opera Center, located at 4121 S Navajo Street, Ste 100, in Englewood.

Auditions will be sung for Opera Colorado Chorus Master Sahar Nouri.
Opera Colorado will audition male and female voice types, with preference given to tenor and baritones/basses.

Singers should prepare two selections from art song or opera repertoire to
perform at the audition; it is preferred that one of these is in a foreign language. Repertoire should be memorized. A pianist will be provided.

Singers selected for participation in one or more production will need to be available for weekday evening and weekend rehearsals. The start and end dates of rehearsals for each production are indicated below.

Chorus members are compensated with a modest stipend and two complimentary tickets to the production’s final dress rehearsal, and receive an exclusive discount on performance tickets.

REHEARSAL/PERFORMANCE DATES
The Barber of Seville Chorus
September 27 – November 10, 2019

Pagliacci Chorus
February 3 – March 1, 2020

Tosca Chorus
March 30 – May 10, 2020

CHORUS AUDITION DETAILS
Date: Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Opera Colorado Opera Center, 4121 S Navajo Street, Ste 100, Englewood, CO 80110

HOW TO APPLY FOR AN AUDITION: For more information or to schedule an audition, please email auditions@operacolorado.org and include an updated resume.