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Robert
Swedberg
General Director, Orlando Opera
The closing of the 2004-2005 season marked the completion of General
Director Robert Swedberg's fifteenth year of making vision and imagination
come alive for Orlando Opera. During his tenure he has brought world-class
talents such as Placido Domingo, Carol Vaness, Marquita Lister, Greer
Grimsley, Denyce Graves, Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey, and Cecilia Bartoli
to Central Florida, and has more than doubled the size of the company
from $1.2 million to $3 million in annual revenue. Orlando Opera just
ended its fiscal year with a balanced budget and has recently assembled
more than $1 million in endowment funds, (up from $100,000 when he started
with the company). Swedberg has also initiated significant education
programs such as the Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actor Awards, which he founded
in 1993, and the Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation, which he helped
get started in 1995.
The Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actor Awards is one of the most exciting
talent competitions in the country, rewarding young singers who are
focused on balancing the operatic skills of singing and acting. For
the past 12 years, as many as 200 talented young artists have competed
each year for cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, and a nine-month
contract as an Orlando Opera Resident Artist. Since its inception, more
than $520,000 in funds from the estate of the legendary bass-baritone
Heinz Rehfuss has been distributed to competition finalists, to the
development of the Orlando Opera Resident Artists program, and to direct
support of Resident Artists with Orlando Opera. Swedberg founded the
program at the request of Heinz Rehfuss estate trustees Carlo and Melisse
Pinto, who selected him to lead this effort because of his experience
and reputation as a developer of talent through previous posts with
other opera companies since 1978.
Orlando Opera works with the "Negro Spiritual" Scholarship
Foundation to sponsor a vocal competition for sacred music performed
by the solo voice in characteristic Negro spiritual style. Senior high
school students of eleventh or twelfth grade level who are of Afro-ethnic
descent may enter a statewide vocal competition to rehearse and perform
Negro spirituals, an art form that NSSF is also charged with preserving.
Winners (one male and one female) claim the coveted GRADY-RAYAM PRIZE
In Sacred Music, and a college tuition assistance grant for $3,000.
Swedberg helped NSSF director Father Rudi Cleare craft the vocal competition,
and also arranged for the new organization to share office and meeting
space in the Orlando Opera headquarters at the Dr. Phillips Center for
Performing Arts, a relationship that continues today. Swedberg was a
founding member of the NSSF Board of Directors, and was honored with
their Lifetime Achievement Award last year.
Swedberg's early training was as a brass player. He attended California
State University Northridge on a tuba scholarship, and became a voice
major after discovering opera as a sophomore. As a singing actor, he
won several important competitions and performing opportunities, including
the western regional Metropolitan Opera finals, the San Francisco Opera
Merola program, and appeared with the New York City Opera, Seattle Opera,
Anchorage Opera, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Swedberg minored
in theater, so directing was part of his early training, and he became
active as a stage director while on the staff of the prestigious Pacific
Northwest Wagner Festival in Seattle Washington.
Prior to taking his position with Orlando Opera, Swedberg spent three
years as general director of Syracuse Opera in New York, was manager
and director of North Carolina Opera for five years, and director of
education for Seattle Opera for another five years. He was also director
of opera studio programs at both the University of Central Florida and
Syracuse University.
As General Director in Orlando, stage direction had to take a back
seat to running the company, and to that end, he also earned a Master
of Business Administration degree from the University of Central Florida
in 1989. Still, Swedberg managed to direct at least one production each
season, preferring to specialize in the more unusual and challenging
operatic repertoire. Some of these productions staged in Central Florida
include Samson and Dalila, The Tales of Hoffmann, Don
Pasquale, L'Enfant et les Sortileges, Gianni Schicchi,
La Clemenza di Tito, and Abduction from the Seraglio.
As the company grew and more day-to-day operations could be shared with
senior staff, (and as Swedberg's children entered University) he began
to be able to do more directing, broadening that activity to other companies
as well. In 2003, he directed The Magic Flute for the Macau Music
Festival, and Beijing Music Festival in China. He also produced and
directed the sold-out, double bill presentation of I Pagliacci
and Carmina Burana for Orlando Opera, featuring choreographer
Debra Brown and her troupe of Cirque du Soleil performers. More recently
he directed a new production of Strauss's Salome for Orlando
Opera, and La Sonnambula at the Calvia Music Festival, Mallorca,
Spain.
In September 2006, Swedberg will be traveling to spread the magic
of opera to Hof, Bavaria, to direct La Bohème for the
Hof Theater. Last May he met in Vienna with the Hollaender Agency (that
represents the theater) to discuss preliminary issues such as choice
of designers, approach to the piece, rehearsal, and many other aspects
of the production. In July 2006, he travels to Bavaria for ten days
to stage the chorus, and goes back in September again for rehearsals
and the opening on September 23, 2006.
In Orlando Opera's upcoming 2005-06 season, Swedberg will be directing
Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. This production will feature the exceptional
soprano, Carol Vaness, a former classmate of Swedberg's at California
State University Northridge. Her career has encompassed regular appearances
at all the world's major opera houses.
"I can't imagine a more exciting job than being the director
of an Opera company. It is often a very challenging job, as opera is
a very expensive art form that never pays for itself, and we are constantly
juggling the vision of what we would like to do with the reality of
our limitations. Still, I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish
with opera in this community. I know we have touched thousands of lives
with mainstage performances of great quality, and we have introduced
hundreds of thousands of students to the wonders of this art form. I
am also happy to call Orlando home. It is a great place to raise a family,
and I know that I am privileged to have been able to do that and bring
opera to this community at the same time. Now I look forward to the
next fifteen years and the new challenges that lie ahead as we continue
to offer more performances, build our endowment, and eventually build
a performing arts center where we can really flourish!" Swedberg
said recently.
Swedberg can also be heard Sundays at 6:00pm on 90.7 WMFE-FM, where
his program Opera with Robert Swedberg has been on the air since 1993.
He lives in east Orlando with his wife Melissa, who teaches music at
Walker Elementary School, and plays viola in the Orlando Philharmonic
Orchestra. Their daughter Olivia graduated from Florida State University
in May with a degree in Music Therapy, and their son Erik just finished
his freshman year as a chemistry major at the University of Florida.
Swedberg enjoys hiking, fishing, and camping, and is also a certified
yoga instructor.
Click Images to Enlarge

Heinz Rehfuss 2005 Winners and
Robert Swedberg
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Robert Swedberg &
Samuel Ramey
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