"Director of Opera, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice (Non-Tenure Track)"

The Department of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, is seeking a non-tenure track assistant professor Director of Opera, to lead the Rutgers Opera Theater program. This full-time academic year position includes directing opera productions and scenes programs, as well as teaching at least one course each semester. Productions take place in theaters on the New Brunswick campus and in the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. Stage directors with professional opera experience and/ or within a university program are encouraged to apply. The ideal candidate embraces both the traditional stagings of opera and modern approaches to the art form.

The Director of Opera is responsible for directing and producing two fully staged opera productions and one opera scenes program during the academic year, casting student performers, coordinating with coaches and music staff, serving on appropriate audition and recital panels, and managing opera production personnel, including technical staff, designers, and other freelance production positions. In addition, the appointee will teach Acting for Singers, or related courses within the BM, MM, AD, and DMA vocal and Mastrobuono Opera institute programs, and should be highly involved in the recruitment and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students. Service within department committees and maintaining an active artistic profile is expected.

Master’s Degree or equivalent professional experience required. Professional experience directing fully staged opera productions and working within an academic setting is preferrable. Candidates must have proof of residency and right to work documentation.

The committee will begin reviewing applications December 1, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled. Please submit a cover letter, three (3) professional references (names and contact info), statement of teaching philosophy, and CV with links to applicant’s work in operatic performance within the last 5 years, not to exceed 30 minutes.

Housed in one of the leading public research universities on the East Coast, the Department of Music at Mason Gross School of the Arts includes approximately 450 students and 100 total faculty, offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees (DMA and PhD) as well as an artist diploma across a comprehensive range of areas in performance, composition, conducting, jazz studies, music education, music theory, and musicology. Students perform, teach, refine their skills, and forge new paths in the arts through their scholastic and creative endeavors, engaging with faculty who are among the world’s leaders in their respective fields, including several who are drawn from the nearby New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. Students benefit from proximity to these two cultural hubs, with ensembles regularly performing in such venues as the Blue Note Jazz Club, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall.

Mason Gross School of the Arts, a vibrant community of artists and scholars with academic programs in music, theater, dance, filmmaking, and art & design, is committed to pursuing excellence, innovation, and inclusivity. Its 1,200 students reflect the diversity of New Jersey, one of the most diverse state in the nation. In addition to its professional arts training programs, Mason Gross provides the larger community an opportunity to embrace the creative arts through its divisions of Rutgers Arts Online and Rutgers Community Arts. The school is housed within Rutgers–New Brunswick, a premier Big Ten research university that serves some 44,000 students and is the flagship campus of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The nation’s eighth-oldest institution of higher learning, Rutgers is less than an hour by train or car to New York City and the beautiful beaches of the Jersey Shore and just over an hour to Philadelphia.

Additional information is available at the school website: https://www.masongross.rutgers.edu

Please direct any questions to Co-Chairs of Search:

Eduardo Chama echama@mgsa.rutgers.edu or Kynan Johns at kdjohns@mgsa.rutgers.edu