Our People
Executive Team & Leadership Members
Alexis Peart, Executive Director
A multifaceted operatic mezzo-soprano, teaching artist, and arts administrator, Alexis Peart is a fierce advocate for diversity in opera and accessibility in arts education. As a performer, Ms. Peart’s range stretches from baroque to contemporary, with recent roles including Brittomara in Jake Heggie’s If I Were You, Taller Daughter in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, and Ada Lovelace in the world premiere first reading of Elena Ruehr’s The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.
Ms. Peart has presented a variety of DEIA-focused lectures and moderated discussions as a part of the 2020 Gender Equity in Music Conference and the SUNY Fredonia Masters in Music Education Program. She has also worked closely with the Eastman School of Music, Boston University, Sigma Alpha Iota, Washington Concert Opera, and Thompson Street Opera Company on their DEIA practices and community engagement programming. Ms. Peart is a New York State certified K-12 music teacher, teaching students throughout Rochester, NY prior to her relocation to Boston. Ms. Peart is a Teaching Artist with Castle of Our Skins.
Patricia-Maria Weinmann, Artistic Director
Patricia-Maria Weinmann has worked with many national opera companies and festivals including Utah Opera, Opera on the James, Syracuse Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Seagle Music Colony, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Boston, Ashlawn Opera Festival, the American Opera Project, Opera Providence, and Mississippi Grand Opera. She has collaborated on a number of premier performances including Daniel Pinkham’s The Cask of Amontillado, the staged orchestral premier of Scott Wheeler’s The Construction of Boston and Wheeler’s Democracy as a work-in-progress for the American Opera Project in New York. Recent directing engagements have included Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night, Hansel and Gretel, Cosi fan tutte, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Cole!, Cenerentola, Carmina Burana, L’elisir d’amore, Sweeney Todd, Don Pasquale and Faust and Marguerite (BOC). Over the past 20 years, Weinmann served on the faculties of both Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory of Music. As a guest director and coach for Utah Opera’s Young Artist Program and a faculty member of American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, she continues to train some of the most promising young singers in the United States and abroad.
Greg Smucker, Artistic Director
Greg Smucker is a director and teacher of theater and opera. He studied with the late Wesley Balk, a noted pioneer in the field of singer-actor training. Greg was co-founder and artistic director of 15 HEAD, a critically acclaimed experimental theater company in Minneapolis and served as managing director of Theatre for Young America in Kansas City, a professional theater for children. Greg served for seven years on the faculty of the Opera Studies Department at New England Conservatory of Music and is currently a faculty member of the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. As a freelance director, Greg has directed productions and workshops for theaters and opera companies in Boston and the Twin Cities.
Ken Yanagisawa, Music Director
Japanese-American conductor Ken Yanagisawa is the Music Director of the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Assistant Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony. He made his Japanese debut conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Kansai Nikikai and the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Japan in February 2023, and most recently conducted a production of Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung for the Boston University Opera Institute. Formerly a Conducting Apprentice with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Ken has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Berlin Academy of American Music, and Plymouth Philharmonic as cover conductor. He has also served as Kapellmeister with the Berlin Opernfest for the past three years, working on productions of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Puccini’s Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and made his European debut with the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2018.
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Andrew Barnwell, Development Manager
Almost always working at one keyboard or another, Andrew Barnwell is a pianist, educator, and arts administrator passionate about community-driven performances. Andrew finds chamber music especially fulfilling and is a founding member of Trio Gaia, New England Conservatory’s Graduate Trio in Residence. The trio won 1st prize at the 2022 WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition, as well as prizes in the 2022 Premio Trio di Trieste International Music Competition, 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, and the 2019 Plowman National Chamber Music Competition. The trio has crafted weeklong residencies for the Panama Jazz Festival, the Virginia Arts Festival, and PRIZM International Music Festival in support of its mission to invite students into the experience of connecting through chamber music. Early in his career,
Andrew developed a love for event planning, and as a student at the New England Conservatory (NEC) he sought opportunities to plan, organize, and execute. Most recently, Andrew produced “In Good (ac)Company,” a 5-day virtual concert series in response to the pandemic that presented 13 randomly paired duos of NEC students and alumni. During Andrew’s many hours avoiding his to-dos, he can usually be found searching street-by- street for the best bakeries in town—recommendations are gladly accepted.
Nic Laschever, Marketing and Administrative Coordinator
Nic Laschever is a talented Design Oriented Marketing Storyteller with a diverse artistic background in Set Design, Sculpture, and Graphic Design. They are passionate about creating visually stunning works and believe that effective marketing involves narrative building and storytelling. Nic is currently completing an M.A. in Communications, with a focus on Integrated Marketing Analytics, at Suffolk University. When not working, they enjoy Scuba Diving, teaching advanced Rock Climbing, and attending operas featuring their fiancée. Nic is thrilled to be a part of the BOC team and eager to share their knowledge and love for Opera. You can check out more of their work on their website at niclaschdesign.com.
Board of Directors
PRESIDENT
Drew Mittelman
VICE PRESIDENT
Jack Silversin
CLERK
Ann Welch
MEMBERS
Josh Daniels
Wendy Quiñones
Jonathan Saxton
Margaret Suby
Stephen Graves
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Erik Johnson
ADVISORY BOARD