Jacobs School of Music alumna Anne Hiatt is the co-founder and executive director of the international community-based organization Opera on Tap, which has the mission of bringing opera to new audiences by taking it to places where people least expect. She is the executive producer of the organization’s Immersive Opera Project, which brings together partners across the performing arts and tech sectors to explore performing arts projects integrating emerging technologies. Projects of note include the world’s first VR opera, The Parksville Murders (‘Best VR Video’ at the NYC Indie Film Festival in May 2017 and premiered online as featured content in partnership with SamsungVR, October 2017), Looking at You (a techno-noir opera that highlights the perils of surveillance capitalism on the internet, made in partnership with HERE and privacy researchers at Carnegie Mellon University), as well as Joan of the City (an opera that incorporates augmented reality and leverages the Joan of Arc archetype to tell the story of 5 women who are experiencing homelessness in modern times). Creative collaborators on Immersive Opera Projects include composer Kamala Sankaram, writer Jerre Dye, director and artistic director of HERE Kristin Marting, director Cari Ann Shim Sham*, and writer Rob Handel, to name a few.
Under Anne’s leadership, Opera on Tap has grown into a large national network of artist-entrepreneurs, performers, educators, creators, supporters, and audiences. She oversees the operations of over 30 Chapters of Opera on Tap across the US, Germany, Austria and South Africa. Opera on Tap has gained international recognition as an innovative force that is grounded in community-building and education (Playground Opera). The organization has been featured in such media outlets as The NY Times, NPR All Things Considered, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, the LA Times, among many others. In the coming year, Anne looks forward to developing an inspired community-based project Music as the Message, alongside Emmy award-winning soprano Adrienne Danrich as well as continuing to help forge a formal affiliation with another national Brooklyn-based opera organization The American Opera Project.