Artistic Staff
Andrew M. Kurtz, General and Artistic Director
Andrew M. Kurtz is founder of the Center City Opera Theater, a professional opera company which performs in the Perelman Theater in the Kimmel Center and other Philadelphia venues, where he has led over forty productions including multiple world and regional premieres. Productions include of Don Pasquale, Lucia di Lammermoor, L’Elisir d’amore, Eugene Onegin, Werther, Il Barbiere di siviglia, Suor Angelica, La Boheme (’99,’06), Tosca, Madama Butterfly, I Pagliacci, Il Trovatore, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Magic Flute, Hansel & Gretel, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Of Mice & Men and Little Women, Cosi fan tutte, Amahl & the Night Visitors, Pirates of Penzance, La Traviata (’00,’05) and Rigoletto. Maestro Kurtz received international praise and recognition for leading the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (chamber orchestra version). Kurtz’s conducting has been called “passionate, expansive, expert, and musical.” Kurtz’s repertoire encompasses a wide range of music styles from baroque to contemporary, and multiple genres including opera, symphonic, ballet, musical theater, jazz, cantorial, and symphonic pops.
Kurtz enters his sixteenth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Gulf Coast Symphony in Fort Myers, Florida, considered one of the country’s leading community orchestras. His creative and diverse concerts has received accolades throughout the community and for his effort Kurtz was awarded the 2007 Performing Artist of the Year at the Lee County Angel of the Arts awards ceremony.
A specialist in Jewish and cantorial music, Kurtz serves as the Music Director of the Florida Jewish Philharmonic Orchestra and is been the international tour conductor for CANTORS: A Faith In Song, featuring three of the world’s leading cantors: Alberto Mizrahi, Naftali Herstik and Benzion Miller.
He is Producing Artistic Director of Synergy Productions, a professional musical theater company in Southwest Florida. Kurtz served on the Board of the Conductors Guild, and was editor of their quarterly newsletter, Podium Notes. An avid arts educator, Maestro Kurtz is Resident Music Director at the Luzerne Music Center, where he leads the student orchestras and teaches conducting.
Kurtz was a regular guest conductor of the Charlotte Symphony. Kurtz’s previous season saw debuts with the Gonzaga Symphony Orchestra and the International Master Musicians Orchestra. In 2004 Kurtz made his New York City conducting debut with the Metropolitan Repertory Ballet in a Jazz Ballet, “Sinatra & Swing” at the TRIBECA Performing Arts Center. Maestro Kurtz was music director as well as stage director for multiple performances of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; They’re Playing Our Song; Marry Me A Little and Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years with Synergy Productions. In 1995 Kurtz made his international operatic conducting debut in Tel Aviv while working as staff conductor at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute. In April 1997 he conducted the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Opera Educational tour production of The Best of Puccini. A scholarship conducting student at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival in 1997, Kurtz conducted four concerts, including a concert version of Puccini’s La Bohème. Highlights of the various conducting posts to his credit include work with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, The Pennsylvania Opera Theater, The Pennsylvania Ballet, the Ash Lawn-Highland Opera Festival and the Ocean City Pops.
Kurtz completed his Doctoral studies in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia where he received his Master’s degree in Music History and a Bachelor of Arts in music and drama.
Albert Innaurato, Artistic Director of ConNEXTions: The Next Generation of Opera Project
Albert Innaurato was born in Philadelphia and attended Central High School and the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now part of University of the Arts). He received his BFA from California Institute of the Arts where he studied music and theater and then received an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. As a playwright he received the Guggenheim Grant, the Rockefeller Grant and three National Endowment of the Arts Grants. He was active as a consultant for the Guggenheim and for the National Endowment both in music and theater. Two of his plays, The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie and Gemini opened off-Broadway the same week, winning Innaurato acclaim and two Obies. Gemini moved to Broadway where it became one of the longest running nonmusical plays in Broadway history. Innaurato’s plays have been widely produced by American Regional Theaters, and in Europe and Japan. He has worked for TV, winning an Emmy for Verna the USO Girl, which starred Sissy Spacek and Bill Hurt. In the 1990’s Innaurato had a successful second career as an arts journalist, with articles appearing in Opera News,The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, New York, Gramophone, BBC Music and Opernwelt. He has written and narrated, as well as playing the piano, on 17 CDs/cassettes from the Metropolitan Opera Guild. He also lectured for the Guild, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. He appeared often on the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast Intermission feature as a member of the popular Opera Quiz. He taught playwriting at Columbia University, Princeton, Yale and Rutgers. He currently teaches at the University of the Arts.