Center for Contemporary Opera


The Center for Contemporary Opera is a professional opera company based in New York City, and a member of OPERA America. The company focuses on producing and developing new opera and music theater works and reviving rarely seen American operas written after the second World War. The Center for Contemporary Opera has staged the premieres of many works written during the latter half of the twentieth century. Works are performed at all stages of development from readings to workshops to full productions on the professional stage. In line with its mission to promote an interest in new operatic and music-theater culture among the American public, the company presents panel discussions and colloquia, and publishes a bi-annual newsletter Opera Today. Since 2004, the company has been a regular participant in the New York City Opera's annual festival, "Vox: Showcasing American Composers".
The company was founded in 1982 by Richard Marshall, formerly the head of the Charlotte Opera Association in North Carolina where he had commissioned, produced and conducted the world premiere of Robert Ward's Abelard and Heloise. In March 2008, James E. Schaeffer, Executive Director of Long Leaf Opera Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina took over from Marshall as General Director. The composer, author and music critic Eric Salzman was named Artistic Director, and served in this role until 2012, when he became the company's Composer-in-Residence until his death in 2017. After James Schaeffer's retirement, Francesca Campagna was named General Director in 2019. The Principal Conductor of CCO is Sara Jobin.

Notable premieres

Notable premieres performed by the Center for Contemporary Opera include:

Recording