A big day...

Yesterday marked a pretty big day for PRO. Jill came and cleaned out her desk... gave me the key and a hug, and she was off. It made me sad in some ways, but I know she's happy - giddy is a word she used - about her new direction. And of course, it's exciting for me too; with the new season shaping up really nicely.

I've been working like a maniac this last week trying to get ready for the new season. Securing venues, working with the team to come up with themes for the concerts... of course, our new Artistic Director, Robert Ashens, will be working just as hard coming up with singers to fill all these concerts! Robert is up in San Francisco this week at the West Coast Opera Auditions seeing lots and LOTS of singers to find just the right artists to fill the roles for next Spring's opera.

Our season brochure is coming along pretty well, too. A fresh new look that I really love, and I hope you will too. It's going to be a year of challenges (but what's new there???) for us, but I'm blessed to have James Stahlman through the end of July, and Julia Longo, our after-school part-timer, will be coming on - maybe even full time - for the summer. Carolyn Mason is writing like a manic this week, preparing for our summer PR releases. How exciting is that?! All kinds of great things happening, and so much fun. I love this job. Something new every day. And with a staff like this, I have such confidence. What a great feeling, as we prepare to launch a new season...

And of course, there's the fact that James, Julia, Carolyn & I spent most of yesterday cleaning and re-arranging the office. I finally have my computer NOT facing a window! No more screen glare for me. Yea! And there's the fact that we moved file cabinets and got to vacuum in places that haven't seen the light of day for years - at least since I got here. Since Carolyn & I both have allergies, that was ... um ... interesting. Lots of Kleenex. James helped me move SO many boxes. We even have a storage unit now - had to bite the bullet on that one, with both Jo Ellen bringing all the PRO glassware & dinnerware to the office, and Jill preparing to clean out her garage of PRO stuff.

And then there's the fact that the Annual Opera America conference is coming up in just two weeks, and I'll be taking a vacation right after that - since my brother lives in the next town over. Last year the conference was in Florida, where my dad lives, and this year in Colorado, where my brother lives! I love it!

So come by the office in early July and see what we're up to. And if you know anybody who has a nice looking oak bookshelf they're getting rid of, it would be so neat if the bookshelf matched those beautiful desks that PRO has...

Best to all -

Mikele

Hints of upcoming events

As most of you know, Jill (Anderson, PRO's founding Director) is stepping down June 1st. Robert Ashens will be "accepting the baton", and stepping into an exciting 2008-9 season. We're planning our upcoming season with much excitement! While we're keeping our PRO traditions, we'll also be expanding our reach just a little, including more concerts with more varied venues than in recent years.

We hope to announce our season very soon - a great line-up with choices for everyone. We're really quite pleased at how well everything is coming together. Watch this blog for announcements! I expect you'll hear it here first~

May update

Well, I've decided that this blog needs to have a decidedly less formal flavor. I think I'll start using it for updates on just how things are going at the opera... starting with today!

We had the marvelous opportunity to visit Hearst Castle with the SLO Visitor and Conference Bureau today. Our trip included a quick tour of the gardens at Cambria Pines Lodge (which has a marvelous potential venue for a small concert!) as well as the Hearst Castle tour. Our tour wasn't a public one - we saw some of the public rooms & gardens, but also got to visit the vaults and see the sheds where the restoration materials are created for outdoor restorations - tiles, mouldings and the like. We also made some good contacts for the future, which was, of course, the whole point of the event.

I also had the interesting (yet all too common, I'm afraid) experience of meeting an opera lover from our area who has season tickets elsewhere and yet had never heard of Pacific Repertory Opera. Yikes! What do we have to do??? I'm open for suggestions here - although one of them is to publish a bookmark that we can distribute to every single hotel and inn on the Central Coast... Now to find a printer who can do it for a price we can afford!

Lastly, I thought I'd mention that we are a very short two weeks from our "changing of the guard", when Jill steps down as General Director, and Robert Ashens joins our team as Artistic Director. I'm so excited about the coming months - a new vision, new challenges. We're beginning to plan the season brochure for our 2008-2009 season, which is always such a fun process. As soon as we're ready to give you the news, you'll see it posted here!

Best wishes for some lovely spring days -

Mikele... Mikele Hushing-Kline, Managing Director, Pacific Repertory Opera