Leadership Biographies

NANCY PREIS GENERAL DIRECTOR

Nancy Preis joined the staff of Opera in the Ozarks in 2015 after a varied career encompassing academics, investment banking, manufacturing management and opera management. She was an associate professor of accounting at Columbia University Graduate School of Business for 11 years. She left academia and became a vice president of Kleinwort Benson N.A., a British merchant bank, where she led a team of financial analysts and worked on leveraged buyouts and commercial banking. A late night phone call led to a move to Florida to take over a small research and development company that made high efficiency electric motors. Through a combination of internal growth and five acquisitions, she grew the company substantially and worked primarily in the military and aviation markets. At the same time, she began working with St. Petersburg Opera Co. as chief financial officer and marketing manager. She helped that company grow from one donor to a diverse base of support that kept the company “in the black” for over ten years and consistently drew critical praise for its artistic excellence. Her work for Opera in the Ozarks includes upgrading the physical facilities at Inspiration Point and at the same time, increasing the company’s visibility through collaboration with other organizations. She holds a BA and an MBA from the University of Toledo and a PhD from the University of Michigan.

THOMAS COCKRELL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Conductor Thomas Cockrell was appointed artistic director of Opera in the Ozarks in October 2010 after serving as the company’s music director for the 20032005 seasons. Under his leadership the company mounts bold productions and is committed to performing works by American composers. Performed for the first time at Inspiration Point in recent seasons are Les contes d’Hoffmann, Il tabarro, Cendrillon, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and The Ballad of Baby Doe.

Cockrell has conducted opera productions for Opera Theatre of the Rockies; Dayton Opera, Opera Colorado Artist Center, and Washington, D.C.’s Summer Opera Theatre. For the Spoleto Festivals in Italy and South Carolina he conducted symphonic, chamber and contemporary music concerts, assisted for productions of Parsifal, Elektra and Salome, and conducted Gian Carlo Menotti’s Maria Golovin at the composer’s invitation.

Cockrell has served as associate conductor for Cincinnati Opera, Opera Colorado and the Colorado Symphony. Equally versed in the symphonic repertoire, he conducted the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Tucson, Louisville and Boulder, as well as several in Italy, Romania, Mexico and South Korea. A dedicated educator and mentor, he’s served as conductor of the Phoenix Youth Symphony and Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and was on the conducting faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp.

Since 2000, Cockrell has been a professor of music and director of orchestral activities at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music in Tucson. He holds the Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair in Music. With the University of Arizona Opera Theater, he has conducted The Crucible, Postcard from Morocco, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cendrillon and The Rape of Lucretia, as well as works from the traditional repertoire.

Cockrell is a graduate of Yale University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, from where he received his DMA. He was one of the last students of the legendary Franco Ferrara and holds diplomas from L’Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and the Conservatoire Américain in Fontainebleau, France. He pursued further studies at Aspen and Tanglewood.