ABOUT US

For over 32 years, the Ash Lawn Opera Festival has produced opera and other musical performances first at Ash Lawn-Highland, and now at the beautifully renovated Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville. The Festival also provides a wide range of educational programs for youth and adults; professional training for emerging artists and interns; and seeks to enrich the cultural vitality and quality of life in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region. See our long history of repitoire and all of the wonderful singers that have come to Ash Lawn Opera here.

Michelle Krisel, General Director

Ms. Krisel's professional career in opera spans thirty years and includes broad experience in all aspects of opera production and administration. When Plácido Domingo took the leadership of Washington National Opera in 1996, he invited Ms. Krisel to join him as his Special Assistant.  In 2002, he asked her to design and lead the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, to train singers, coach/accompanists, conductors, and directors on the verge of international careers. It quickly grew to become one of the most respected and sought-after Young Artist Programs in the world.  Ms. Krisel created performance opportunities for these talented young performers by forming partnerships with local organizations such as the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, the Mexican Cultural Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and many Embassies.  She took Young Artist performances to Beijing and Monte Carlo, as well as to the White House, the Senate, the Kennedy Center Honors, and many other prestigious venues.  Seeking to broaden opera audiences, she launched a program to attract first-time opera-goers, Generation O, to support an annual full-length Young Artist performance at the Kennedy Center Opera House, and which now boasts 13,000 members.  In 2001, Ms. Krisel produced Plácido Domingo's international vocal competition, Operalia , raising over a million dollars to insure its success. In 2004, Ms. Krisel was asked to lead WNO's Education and Community Programs - with its extensive school, library, and summer programs; as well as the production of four different Family operas. Before joining Washington National Opera, Ms. Krisel served for a decade as a pianist, vocal coach, accompanist and assistant conductor at opera companies in the U.S. and abroad.  She learned another aspect of building and promoting the careers of opera singers by working as an artists' manager and representative for a decade in New York, before moving to Washington, D.C. Ms. Krisel holds degrees in music from Yale University and the University of Southern California, and rounded out her musical studies in Vienna and Paris.  She is the mother of three children: a twenty-three year old daughter who lives and works in New York City, and identical twin boys who are both attending Yale University.

Morgan Pursley, Assistant to the General Director

Ms. Pursley comes to Ash Lawn Opera from Washington National Opera where she moved through the Education Department and Young Artist Program as an intern, eventually creating, proposing and filling a position as Administrative Assistant to the Young Artist Program. She recently spent her third summer at Opera North in Lebanon, NH as the Resident Stage Manager. Other highlights include stage managing for Commonwealth Opera in Northampton, MA and performances at the Hartt School in Hartford, CT as well as an administrative internship with the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ms. Pursley holds a bachelor's degree in voice and arts administration from the Hartt School.