“My heart almost literally jumped for joy several months ago when I read in the Boston Globe about the formation of New England Light Opera. Talk about filling a void!” So began a letter sent to NELO in our first year. It is representative of the kind of enthusiastic response we have received again and again over the past five seasons.

New England Light Opera was born in January of 2001 with a three-fold mission: 

1. Fill a major gap in greater Boston’s cultural life by staging productions and concerts of operetta and early musical theatre, in English.
2. Support Boston’s artistic community by offering professional performance opportunities to local singers, actors, instrumentalists, directors, technicians, etc.;

3. Increase the accessibility to, and protect the historical legacy of, significant works of light opera and musical theatre through research, reconstruction, translation, and, most importantly, performance.

“The New England Light Opera got off on the right foot and waltzed happily away with Lehar's ''The Merry Widow'' last weekend”, wrote Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer about our inaugural production in February of 2003.  In leading up to this highly successful event, we had given ourselves two years to create a strong organization that would be able to sustain the rigors of production and become a new performing arts institution for New England.     

Our first season (2003) consisted of our Lights Up! Gala concert and our inaugural production, The Merry Widow, for a total of 4 performances. Our second season (2003-04) was greatly expanded. It began with our Summer Concert Series in Topsfield, our 2nd Lights Up Gala concert in Boston, and continued with three new productions: The (In)Compleat Works of Gilbert and Sullivan, All The Things You Are: A Jerome Kern Celebration, and the world premiere of the new musical Smooth Sailing. Our third season brought us America’s Song, a concert featuring our artists plus the new NELO Concert Chorale, the smash hit Night and Day: A Cole Porter Celebration and the first Boston production in 75 years of Sigmund Romberg’s The New Moon. Our fourth season included My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration, our first Viennese Ball, and the world premiere of our new By Strauss! Show. Our fifth season has included our first full production, The Gilbert and Sullivan Radio Hour. 

New England Light Opera is a musical theatre company for the whole region and our shows have been performed in many communities from the North Shore to Boston, and metro west to the Cape.

LYNDA FAIRBANKS ATKINS,
President of the Board, is a marketing and capital development professional with experience in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds and has held senior development positions at several area organizations.

ELIOT SHERMAN, Treasurer, has more than 30 years of financial management experience in a wide range of organizations. He is on the faculties of two universities and lectures nationally for the American Institute of CPA's.

KAJA SCHUPPERT, Clerk of the Board, is an actress, singer, and professional fundraiser. Former director of the Annual Fund at the Roxbury Latin School, Kaja is often seen in concert, opera, and theatre performances through- out New England.

MARK MORGAN, Artistic Director, has worked professionally in almost every aspect of music and theatre production over the past 16 years. As a singer/actor, he has performed major roles with the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, the Ohio Light Opera, Ocean State Lyric Opera, and several other companies. As a conductor, he has worked with opera companies, theatres, churches and other organizations all over the country.

Mr. Morgan holds dual Masters Degrees in Voice and Conducting from Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor's Degree in music from Macalester College.