Before his COC appointment, Ian Derrer served as the general director of the Dallas Opera since 2018.Gaetz Photography/Supplied
The Canadian Opera Company has announced that Ian Derrer will start as the company’s general director on July 1, succeeding David C. Ferguson in the role.
Derrer comes to Toronto by way of Texas, where he’s served as the general director of the Dallas Opera since 2018. Before that, he led the Kentucky Opera for two years, building on prior experience as director of production and head of the rehearsal department for Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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Born in Illinois and raised in North Carolina, Derrer has worked in opera as a singer, stage manager and administrator across the United States. While the upcoming move north marks a major life change for Derrer, he told The Globe he can’t wait to get started in Canada.
“It’s an opportunity that really made me pause, and really made me think outside the norm for myself,” he said. “I’ve long admired the Canadian Opera Company for its artistic quality and integrity. It being a national company in its own right, as well, was something that was very interesting to me.”
Derrer added that the interview process for the job included “very frank discussions” about his American work experience and passport, owing to the “elbows-up” wave of Canadian nationalism that took hold when U.S. President Donald Trump started threatening to annex Canada and turn the country into “the 51st state.”
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“It’s a unique time,” said Derrer. “As an outsider, I have a different perspective – I can be objective, in some ways … I look forward to being able to show the company a new reflection of what they have. It’s an incredible company with an incredible legacy, and there’s an opportunity to go even deeper.”
Marcia Lewis Brown, board chair for the COC and head of the company’s search committee, said it looked “far and wide” to find the best person for the job, ultimately interviewing fewer than 10 candidates. Derrer is the most recent in a string of splashy international hires at leading Canadian performing arts institutions, including the Stratford and Shaw festivals, the National Ballet of Canada and Luminato Festival.
“Obviously, it would be great to hire Canadian,” said Brown. “But we have to do what’s best for the company as a whole. We view ourselves as an international company, so we really wanted to be open to an international hiring process. The person with the experience we needed happened to be an American.”
According to Brown, the ideal candidate had to be a musician with experience running a major opera company, with an “affinity for Canada” regardless of their own nationality.
“They had to be the kind of personality who would be open and curious,” she said. “They had to really want to find out about the COC, and appreciate the talent we have here and everything we have to offer.”
“When we started this process about a year ago, our elbows didn’t have to be quite as far up,” she continued. “We weren’t just going to not hire an American – that would be very un-Canadian, to discriminate against an American if they were the right fit.”
Throughout his career, one of Derrer’s priorities has been increasing audiences for opera while keeping productions financially accessible – a tough task, he said, given the high costs for a full-scale show, but one he believes is “crucial” to keep the art form alive.
“You’ve got a whole generation of people that we need to start cultivating to come into the opera, get into the building, in any way possible,” he said, adding that larger audiences naturally increase the pool for subscribers, board members and donors. “That’s one of the most important things an opera company can be doing – always having an eye towards audience development and growth, and appealing to new communities and finding ways to make pathways for them.”
In the U.S., Derrer has found success in expanding audiences by approaching underrepresented communities directly with free performances and workshops: “It’s going out to the schools, and to different community centres and making sure people know that opera isn’t just about coming to the opera house,” he said. “Sometimes, the opera house can come to you, too.”
Derrer owes his belief in the importance of education to his mother, a school teacher and amateur singer who used to perform alongside Derrer’s father in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Derrer’s own career, he said, followed the example set by his parents. As a young singer, he toured around South Carolina, bringing opera to the state’s cities as well as schools and community centres in more rural areas. “That’s always been a part of my ethos,” he said.
As general director of the COC, Derrer will function as the company’s chief executive, working closely with music director Johannes Debus and artistic director Roberto Mauro to oversee everything from artistic planning to budgeting to marketing and government relations. According to the COC’s job posting, the role comes with a salary of approximately $400,000.
“Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, which opens up a whole lot of wonderful options of what we can do to engage,” said Derrer. “I’m so looking forward to getting started.”