Meet Beth Morrison | Impressario and Creative Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Beth Morrison and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I decided to start my own business because I had a vision for what opera could be in the 21st century. I looked around and noone was doing it so I had to start my own. I wanted to fundamentally shift the paradigm for the creation of opera works by creating relevant works that tell the stories of our time in a musical language that feels fresh and relatable to a younger audience that may have never been to an opera before. To flesh out the vision and business plan, I went back to school and ultimately put together a non-profit theater model with a for-profit touring model to create the model for Beth Morrison Projects.

In 2013 I co-founded the PROTOTYPE Festival. The reasoning for the festival was similar to the creation of BMP: noone was doing it. I was searching for a festival that existed in NYC during the time of the major industry conferences when venue directors are in NYC shopping for work. None of the existing festivals fit the work I was making and the artists I was making it with. So PROTOTYPE was born.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Beth Morrison Projects focuses on the creation of contemporary opera-theatre and music-theatre. We engage the most cutting-edge artists in the field to bring unique productions to audiences all over the world. I started the company by myself and hustled for years til things really broke open for me and the company. It’s never been easy- it’s always involved a lot of personal sacrifice, whether that be financially or time or the lack of a work/ life balance- but it’s been the passion of my life. My life’s work. Along the way, there have been big highs and big lows but I have developed a new way of creating opera that caught wild fire and the field is transformed from when I started. My biggest joy is when an audience member says to me…”I didn’t think I liked opera, but if THIS is opera, I guess I do!” We touch minds and hearts with stories of our time told through music.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a bi-coastal person but I fell in love with Los Angeles about ten years ago. But, I developed a love for Venice Beach when I was about 13 on a trip with the family. I’m still a fan. I feel like Venice allows you to fly whatever flag you want to fly and all are accepted. So, there is no trip to LA without a trip to Venice. Perhaps a new tattoo or just a henna tattoo? A walk down to the Santa Monica pier for a jaunt on the ferris wheel? And a romp on the beach for my dachshund Gusty. And of course, a trip to Erewhon where you can get the most overpriced but delicious and healthy food. We’d top the day off with a meal at Sage Bistro in Echo Park where we would get the buffallo cauliflower which is sinfully delectable followed by their raw strawberry cheesecake- all vegan of course.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people that have helped me on my journey along the way, including my parents, mentors, colleagues and friends. But, I’m going to focus my shout out on my early life… my high school choral and band directors: Kathi Cutler and John Neal. Kathi was also my first voice teacher. I grew up in Maine and went to Edward Little High School. I sang soprano in the school choir, show choir, and played clarinet in the band. I was also performing in our Community Little Theater and wanted to be on Broadway. Classical music was not part of my upbringing. However, my junior year of high school, Kathi came to me and shared a brochure for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and suggested I audition. Kathi and John taught me an aria from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, and then they both drove me down to Boston for the audition. John played piano for me. I got in, and it was the first real turning point in my life. I discovered classical music for the first time, and fell in love: I decided to devote my life to it from then on. I try and imagine what my life would have been like if Kathi and John hadn’t taken such an interest in me, sacrificed their own weekend time, and encouraged me to open my mind to something new. A good teacher can change your life-I’m living proof!!

Website: https://www.bethmorrisonprojects.org

Instagram: @bethmorrisonprojects

Twitter: @BMPOpera

Facebook: @bethmorrisonprojects

Youtube: bethmorrisonprojects

Image Credits
Aging Magician by Paola Prestini, Rinde Eckert and Julian Crouch (photo by Jill Steinberg)
P r i s m by Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins, directed by James Darrah (photo by Maria Baranova)
Old Man and the Sea by Paola Prestini, Royce Vavrek and Karmina Silec (photo by Dorian Silec Petak)
Black Lodge by David T Little, Anne Waldman and Michael Joseph McQuilken