General Director: Mark Streshinsky

Mark Streshinsky has created many productions for West Edge Opera starting in 2003 with Eugene Onegin and continuing with productions of Legend of the Ring, Xerxes, Ariadne auf Naxos and many others. Nationally, Mark has been on the staging staffs of several large companies including San Francisco Opera, The Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera and New York City Opera. He has directed his own productions for Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Seattle Opera, Dallas Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Boston Baroque, Cincinnati Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. For the Reina Sofia Opera House in Valencia, Spain he directed Massenet’s Manon. Mark has worked with students at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Yale Graduate School of Opera and the Peabody Institute. For The Crucible in Oakland, Mark created Machine – a fire opera for which he wrote the libretto and directed and produced the huge fiery production. An advocate and supporter of new opera, Mark has directed two major world premieres: Anna Karenina by David Carlson and Colin Graham for Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and most recently, Rev 23 by Julian Wachner and Cerise Jacobs for White Snake Projects in Boston.

Music Director: Jonathan Khuner

Jonathan Khuner has been Musical Director of West Edge Opera since 1986 and served as Artistic Director from 1994 to 2009. He has conducted over 65 of our productions. He has also worked as assistant conductor at the San Francisco Opera for over thirty years, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for over fifteen years, and has served as well on the musical staff of Chicago's Lyric Opera since 1992.  In 2013 he conducted the first Wagner opera ever performed in the nation of Albania: Tannhӓuser, at the National Theater in Tirana, and the Wagner Mini-Ring at Minnesota Concert Opera.

Mr. Khuner also has conducted performances of the New Israeli Opera, the San Francisco Opera Center, West Bay Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, California Opera (Fresno), Verismo Opera, Opera Virago, and the Tel Aviv Symphony. He has also appeared with the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, Santa Fe Opera, Miami Opera, Opera Barga in Italy and the Israel Philharmonic.  Besides directing performances, he often lectures for San Francisco Opera, serves a faculty member at Bay Area opera workshops, and accompanies recital performances.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Judith Workman, President

James Parr, Vice President

Gertrude Allen, Secretary

Paul McKaskle, Treasurer

Norm Abramson

Claudia Conrad

Brian M. Rosen

Terri Stuart

administrative and Production STAFF

Valden Kamph, Director of Operations

Lily Hill, Bookkeeper

Terry McKelvey, Director of Finance