Staff
Evans Haile, General Director
Evans Haile has more than twenty-five years of experience as a producer and artistic director. His career includes 15 years helming the Cape Playhouse (America’s oldest professional summer theater) and reopening and creating the new infrastructure of the North Shore Music Theater. In New York, Evans has produced at Lincoln Center, the historic Town Hall, and off-Broadway. He was producer and host of NPR’s “Toast of the Town…A Song for…” series and is the leader of the Gainesville (Florida) orchestra, among many other artistic endeavors. His international career includes conducting major orchestras in Russia (Moscow Philharmonic), Western Europe, and Australia. He has worked with major orchestras and opera companies in the US including the Boston Pops, the Florida Grand Opera, the Seattle Opera, the Sarasota orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony. In 2014, he was Master Artist in Residence at Santa Fe College in Florida. Evans received his Bachelors and Masters Degree in Music from the Julliard School in New York.
Louis Burkot, Artistic Director
Louis G. Burkot studied conducting at the Yale School of Music, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Houston Grand Opera, and served as Music Director of Opera New England. He was appointed Artistic Director of Opera North in 1987, and has conducted more than 60 productions for the company. He is also the Director Emeritus of the Dartmouth College Glee Club, a group he led until 2018, and Senior Lecturer in the Dartmouth College Department of Music. In addition, he gives master classes in Vocal Repertoire to music schools and conservatories throughout the United States. He is the recipient of the Dartmouth’s Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2000. Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe has praised his conducting as “first-rate, capable and stylish,” and Opera News magazine notes his conducting “sparkles with verve and sensitivity to the needs of singers.”
Maria Laskaris, Development Director
Maria joined Opera North the fall of 2017 after a career in higher education. Before joining Opera North, she held many leadership positions at Dartmouth College, including Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Special Assistant to the Provost for Arts and Innovation, and interim director of the Hopkin Center for the Arts. A long-time supporter of Opera North, she served in several volunteer roles and as a board member.
Stephanie Seacord, Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator
Stephanie has decades of consumer, business and trade experience, specializing in travel, tourism, hospitality and museum marketing and currently operates Leading Edge Marketing as sole proprietor/senior PR marketing counsel. She began her career in consumer public relations with Ingalls Associates in Boston. From 1985-92 Ms. Seacord was director, corporate communications for Omni Hotels/North America in Hampton NH. She founded Leading Edge Marketing in 1992, providing media relations and event planning services to individual historic hotels, hotel management companies, lodging and conference industry technology providers and destinations.
In 2003, she assisted Ocean Properties with the re-opening of Wentworth By the Sea Hotel and provided national and local media relations services to the resort, earning top accolades, National Trust for Historic Preservation awards and global media coverage. From 2004 to 2009, Ms. Seacord provided PR Counsel to the New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism, earning over $25 million in publicity and reaching 622 million readers for state tourism, and was honored with the 2009 New Hampshire Travel Council Advertising/PR Agency of the Year Award.
Tiger Stanley, Technical Director
Technical Director comes to Lebanon, NH from the Big lsland of Hawaii where he resided until 2015, working building houses where he mastered his carpentry skills. He got started in the arts at the age of 15 when he began coordinating alternative music shows and community events, eventually leading him to the theatre scene. Upon arriving to the Upper Valley, he began working with IATSE Local 919 which led to his joining ranks at Opera North on crew, and now as Technical Director for the company. Tiger worked at the 2018 Winter Olympics for NBC and BlackwalnutTV where he installed three NBC studios sets and stayed on as crew for the games. Tiger is excited to take on this new role at Opera North and would like to say “Mahalo” for coming out and supporting the arts!
Julia Hautaniemi, Company Manager and Associate Director of Development and Marketing
Julia was introduced to Opera North in 2016 as a member of the Tosca ensemble and has been hooked ever since. She became Company Manager after receiving her Entertainment Business Master of Science degree from Full Sail University in 2019. In addition to her work with Opera North, she has served on the Board of Directors for North Country Community Theatre, the Upper Valley Music Center, and Revels North. Working in the performing arts has re-awakened her passion for music and she is now pursuing lessons in piano, ukulele and voice, as well as blowing the dust out of her clarinet.
Trustees
Barbara Butler, President
Amber McGonis, Treasurer
Nancy Sevcenko, Secretary
Gary Brooks
Lauran Corson
Leane Garland
Sylvia Paxton
Sally Rutter
Nancy Sevcenko
Andrea Sodano