Brian Dickie To Receive Annual Cultural Award from University Club of Chicago

On Wednesday, June 16th, 2010, the University Club of Chicago Board of Directors will present their Annual Cultural Award to Chicago Opera Theater (COT) General Director Brian Dickie.

The University Club of Chicago says of Brian: "His impeccable ear and eye for great new talent and innovative programming has given us the treasure that is Chicago Opera Theater...he swept into Chicago to transform COT from a neighborhood regional entity to an internationally recognized cutting edge company for ‘opera less ordinary'."

Past recipients include such luminaries as Tracy Letts (Playwright, 2009), Rick Bayless (Chef, 2008), Gerald Arpino (Co-Founder of Joffrey Ballet, 2005), Roger Ebert (Film Critic, 2003) and koko Taylor (Blues Singer, 2000).

Brian Dickie (General Director, Chicago Opera Theater)

Since Brian Dickie's appointment as General Director in 1999, COT has become a company of international renown and following. His first season with COT in 2000 was met with such acclaim that he was honored by the Chicago Tribune as a "Chicagoan of the Year" - the paper declared that Brian "clearly recognized the organization's growth potential amid an increasingly sophisticated Chicago arts scene." This honor was repeated in 2002. In 2009, he was named by New City Chicago as one of "The Players-50 people who really perform for Chicago."

Brian was also a key facilitator in COT's move to downtown Chicago as a founding company of the Harris Theater in Millennium Park in 2004.

During Brian's tenure he produced 18 Chicago premieres including such favorites as Orfeo, Death in Venice, and Nixon in China. In 2010 he marked his 19th and 20th Chicago premieres with the new production of Cavalli's Giasone as well as Jake Heggie's Three Decembers, staring opera superstar mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.

Brian Dickie began his opera career when he joined the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1962. He was Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival from 1967 to 1973 and simultaneously the first Administrator of Glyndebourne Touring Opera where for many years a high proportion of the leading British singers began their careers. In 1981 he became General Administrator of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, a post he held until 1988. Brian held the post of General Director of the Canadian Opera Company from 1989 to 1993 and from 1994 to 1997 was Artistic Adviser to the Opéra de Nice and Adviser to the International Youth Foundation during the formation of the European Union Opera.

In addition to serving as General Director of COT he has been Chairman of the International Jury for Preselections for the Bertelsmann Foundation's biennial Neue Stimmen Competition since 1999. In this capacity in the summer of 2009 he auditioned more than 800 singers on four continents. Brian sits on the board of Opera America and the Chicago College of Performing Arts.