Opera Maine LEADERSHIP

Dona D. Vaughn, Artistic Director

Dona D. Vaughn is Artistic Director of Opera Maine. From 1998 to 2010, she was Stage Director/Acting Coach for The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. From 2008 – 2020 she served as Artistic Director of Opera Programs at Manhattan School of Music. She began her career as a performer in the original Broadway productions of Company, Jesus Christ Superstar and Seesaw. She was Assistant to Producer Kermit Bloomgarden for the Broadway productions of Equus and Hot l Baltimore, and Associate Producer for Pavel Kohout’s Poor Murderer, as well as ABC’s daytime drama All My Children. Directing credits include New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Wolf Trap Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Birmingham, Lincoln Center Playwrights’ Festival, Kennedy Center, and DiVivreVoix (Vivonne, France). Among the operas she has directed at Manhattan School of Music are Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons, Transformations, Bloch’s Macbeth, The Mother of Us All, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Summer and Smoke, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Formerly a member of the voice faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh and Marymount Manhattan College, Ms. Vaughn often conducts master classes across the U.S., Europe and China, and serves as an adjudicator for vocal competitions, including The Metropolitan Opera National Council, The Richard Tucker Foundation, Denver Lyric Opera, The Jenson Foundation, The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Artist in Training Program, and Premio Spiros Argiris International Competition (Italy). A graduate of Brevard College, where she currently serves on the board of trustees, she earned a B.A. in vocal performance from Wesleyan, and has received that institution’s Outstanding Alumni Award. She holds an M.A. in theater directing from Hunter College, and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Southern Maine. She studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, and dance with Martha Graham. Ms. Vaughn has written for Opera Newsand Italy’s Musical!

Richard Gammon, Studio Artist Program Director

Richard Gammon (he/him), a Filipino American stage director’s productions include: Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Gluck’s L’île de Merlin (Wolf Trap Opera); Gianni Schicchi and Ching’s Buoso’s Ghost (Detroit Opera); Madama Butterfly and Perla’s An American Dream (Virginia Opera); the American premiere of Scarlatti’s Erminia (Opera Lafayette at The Kennedy Center); Albert Herring and Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg (The Princeton Festival); La Cenerentola (Opera Columbus); An American Dream (Opera Santa Barbara); CARE Monologue Film Project (Cleveland Play House); The Life and Times of Joe Jefferson Benjamin Blow (National Asian Artists Project); Rorem’s Three Sisters who are Not Sisters (Manhattan School of Music); and Sankaram’s Looking at You (Carnegie Mellon). Creative positions include: Opera Maine’s Studio Artist Program director (The Fall of the House of Usher, As One, Three Decembers, Sumeida’s Song, An American Dream, The Medium, Trouble in Tahiti, and Gianni Schicchi); co-creator/director of Art with Arias (Portland Museum of Art/Opera Maine recital collaboration), creative associate for Seán Curran Company’s Dream’d in a Dream (BAM Next Wave Festival); and associate director Porgy and Bess (Greensboro Opera) and The Grapes of Wrath (Detroit Opera). www.richard-gammon.com

Caroline Koelker, Executive Director

In 2015 Caroline Koelker was appointed executive director. In this role she is responsible for implementing all aspects of the opera company’s productions, community engagement, and fundraising.

Koelker most recently served as event coordinator and development manager for Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, where she earned her Master of Music in Opera Performance. A native of Maine, she earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Maine. In 2017, she completed Opera America’s Leadership Intensive program. Koelker is a resident of Brunswick and is a Board Member and singing member of Una Voce Chamber Choir and a member of the Amethyst Ensemble.