David Gockley
Encyclopedia
David Gockley is an American opera company administrator. He served as general director of Houston Grand Opera
from 1972 to 2005 and has been general director of San Francisco Opera
since 2006.
. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University
and a master’s degree from Columbia University
. According to San Francisco Opera’s website, his father was an athletic coach and inspired his early love for sports, and he inherited a passion for music from his mother. He is the father of three children: Meredith, Lauren, and Adam.
Gockley has served as president of OPERA America
and is currently a board member.
in 1987. He also introduced “plazacasts,” free broadcasts of mainstage opera productions to outdoor audiences; created OperaVision, a series of screens located throughout the Wortham Center that projected close-up shots of the action on stage; and began annual radio broadcasts of Houston Grand Opera performances in the U.S. and abroad.
After a 33-year tenure as general director, Gockley resigned from Houston Grand Opera in 2005 to assume the post of general director for San Francisco Opera.
Under Gockley's leadership, San Francisco Opera (SFO) has presented the world premieres of Appomattox
by Philip Glass
and Christopher Hampton
as well as The Bonesetter's Daughter
by Stewart Wallace
and Amy Tan
. The company also presented the West Coast premieres of Rachel Portman
's The Little Prince
and Jake Heggie
's chamber opera Three Decembers. San Francisco Opera has announced plans for three world premieres and two Bay Area premieres in future seasons by composers Mark Adamo
, John Adams
, Jake Heggie
, Jennifer Higdon
, and Christopher Theofanidis.
Gockley has overseen the creation of San Francisco Opera's Koret-Taube Media Suite, the first permanent high-definition broadcast-standard video production facility installed in any American opera house according to the company's website.
Through the Koret-Taube Media Suite, David Gockley expanded on the plazacasts he pioneered at Houston Grand Opera with a series of “simulcasts,” live broadcasts of San Francisco Opera mainstage performances to remote locations. The company has presented six simulcasts throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area, specifically to San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, Stanford University's Frost Amphitheater, and four simulcasts presented on the scoreboard at San Francisco's AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. All simulcasts have been presented free to the public, drawing as a many as 27,000 people. San Francisco Opera also broadcast a live performance of Don Giovanni
to four theaters across Northern California in June 2007.
Gockley continued his OperaVision program at San Francisco Opera and supervised the presentation of four San Francisco Opera productions in movie theaters across the United States. Unlike the Metropolitan Opera, which began live broadcasts of performances to theaters in 2006 using projection systems used for advertising, San Francisco Opera partnered with The Bigger Picture to present four operas in a feature–film quality digital cinema format in 2008.
In 2007, San Francisco Opera returned to national and international radio after 25 years under Gockley’s leadership. Earlier that year, David Gockley announced the appointment of Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti
as the company’s new music director, effective September 2009. Luisotti is the company’s third music director following Sir John Pritchard and Donald Runnicles
. In January 2009, Gockley announced the reappointment of Patrick Summers as principal guest conductor and named Giuseppe Finzi as the company’s new assistant music director.
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
from 1972 to 2005 and has been general director of San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
since 2006.
Biography
David Gockley was born in Philadelphia in 1943 and grew up in Wayne, PennsylvaniaWayne, Pennsylvania
Wayne is an unincorporated community located on the Main Line, centered in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. While the center of Wayne is in Radnor Township, Wayne extends into both Tredyffrin Township in Chester County and Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County...
. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
and a master’s degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. According to San Francisco Opera’s website, his father was an athletic coach and inspired his early love for sports, and he inherited a passion for music from his mother. He is the father of three children: Meredith, Lauren, and Adam.
Gockley has served as president of OPERA America
Opera America
Opera America, officially OPERA America, is a service organization in North America promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera...
and is currently a board member.
Houston Grand Opera
In 1970, Gockley joined Houston Grand Opera as business manager and was appointed general director in 1972. Under his tenure, Houston Grand Opera presented 35 world premieres and six American premieres. Gockley oversaw the founding of the Houston Grand Opera Studio in 1977, the company’s young artist development program, and the opening of the Wortham Theater CenterWortham Theater Center
The Wortham Theater Center is a performing arts center located in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The Wortham was designed by Eugene Aubrey of Morris Architects and built entirely with $66 million in private funds...
in 1987. He also introduced “plazacasts,” free broadcasts of mainstage opera productions to outdoor audiences; created OperaVision, a series of screens located throughout the Wortham Center that projected close-up shots of the action on stage; and began annual radio broadcasts of Houston Grand Opera performances in the U.S. and abroad.
After a 33-year tenure as general director, Gockley resigned from Houston Grand Opera in 2005 to assume the post of general director for San Francisco Opera.
San Francisco Opera
David Gockley became San Francisco Opera's sixth general director on January 1, 2006.Under Gockley's leadership, San Francisco Opera (SFO) has presented the world premieres of Appomattox
Appomattox
Appomattox may refer to:*Appomattox, Virginia, a town*Appomattox County, Virginia* Appomattox Basin, a name for the Tri-Cities, Virginia region*Appomattox Court House, a court house in Virginia...
by Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
and Christopher Hampton
Christopher Hampton
Christopher James Hampton CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the film adaptation of...
as well as The Bonesetter's Daughter
The Bonesetter's Daughter
The Bonesetter's Daughter, published in 2001, is Amy Tan's fourth novel. Like much of Tan's work, this novel deals with the relationship between an American-born Chinese woman and her immigrant mother....
by Stewart Wallace
Stewart Wallace
Stewart Wallace is an American composer and cantor. He has spent much of his career composing experimental operas, from the dance-centered Kabbalah to the surrealist Hopper's Wife...
and Amy Tan
Amy Tan
Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...
. The company also presented the West Coast premieres of Rachel Portman
Rachel Portman
Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman, OBE is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score...
's The Little Prince
The Little Prince
The Little Prince , first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ....
and Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie is an American composer and pianist.Jake Heggie is the composer of the operas Dead Man Walking , The End of the Affair , At The Statue of Venus , To Hell and Back , and Moby-Dick , as well as the stage work For a Look or a Touch...
's chamber opera Three Decembers. San Francisco Opera has announced plans for three world premieres and two Bay Area premieres in future seasons by composers Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo is an Italian American composer and librettist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While he has composed the symphonic cantata "Late Victorians, "Four Angels: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra," and six substantial choral works, the composer’s principal work has been for the opera house:...
, John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie is an American composer and pianist.Jake Heggie is the composer of the operas Dead Man Walking , The End of the Affair , At The Statue of Venus , To Hell and Back , and Moby-Dick , as well as the stage work For a Look or a Touch...
, Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...
, and Christopher Theofanidis.
Gockley has overseen the creation of San Francisco Opera's Koret-Taube Media Suite, the first permanent high-definition broadcast-standard video production facility installed in any American opera house according to the company's website.
Through the Koret-Taube Media Suite, David Gockley expanded on the plazacasts he pioneered at Houston Grand Opera with a series of “simulcasts,” live broadcasts of San Francisco Opera mainstage performances to remote locations. The company has presented six simulcasts throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area, specifically to San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, Stanford University's Frost Amphitheater, and four simulcasts presented on the scoreboard at San Francisco's AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. All simulcasts have been presented free to the public, drawing as a many as 27,000 people. San Francisco Opera also broadcast a live performance of Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
to four theaters across Northern California in June 2007.
Gockley continued his OperaVision program at San Francisco Opera and supervised the presentation of four San Francisco Opera productions in movie theaters across the United States. Unlike the Metropolitan Opera, which began live broadcasts of performances to theaters in 2006 using projection systems used for advertising, San Francisco Opera partnered with The Bigger Picture to present four operas in a feature–film quality digital cinema format in 2008.
In 2007, San Francisco Opera returned to national and international radio after 25 years under Gockley’s leadership. Earlier that year, David Gockley announced the appointment of Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti
Nicola Luisotti
Nicola Luisotti is an Italian musician. He has been music director of San Francisco Opera since September 2009 and also serves as principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.-Early life:...
as the company’s new music director, effective September 2009. Luisotti is the company’s third music director following Sir John Pritchard and Donald Runnicles
Donald Runnicles
Donald Runnicles is a Scottish conductor who has worked extensively in other countries, particularly Germany and the USA....
. In January 2009, Gockley announced the reappointment of Patrick Summers as principal guest conductor and named Giuseppe Finzi as the company’s new assistant music director.
Awards and honors
- Dean’s Award for “Distinguished Professional Achievement,” Columbia University Business School
- Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, University of Houston, 1992
- Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Brown University, 1993
- William Rogers Award, Brown University, 1995
Sources
- Cummings, David, International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory, Cambridge, England: Routledge; 17 edition June 13, 2000. ISBN 978-0948875533