Garsington Opera general director is retiring. Search for new artistic director is on!

The Directors of Garsington Opera (www.garsingtonopera.org) have announce that Anthony Whitworth-Jones will be retiring as General Director on 31 October 2012. He was appointed in 2005 after the sudden death of the founder of Garsington Opera, Leonard Ingrams, and leaves the company in a very strong position after having taken up its new home on the Wormsley Estate. The company is now seeking a world-class Artistic Director to join the team to lead Garsington Opera in the future.

Garsington Opera also announces that Chairman Iain Mackinnon will retire in September. The Board have nominated Bernard Taylor as Chairman-Designate, and Miranda Curtis as Deputy Chairman.

Anthony Whitworth-Jones said: “Garsington Opera has a bright and expanding future. I was honoured to be asked by the Board of Directors to take over the running of the company and now, after seven years in the job, it is the right time to hand over to a new regime. When I started in 2005, the future of the Opera, in spite of a very successful festival that year, was uncertain.

"After five seasons at Garsington Manor generously allowed by the Ingrams family following Leonard Ingrams’ death, we have found the most wonderful new home at Wormsley Estate. With the enthusiastic support of an expanding audience, the firm encouragement of Mark Getty and his Estate team, the welcome of Wycombe District Council and the local community, and, not least, the continuing efforts of the talented Opera staff, the future prospects are thrilling.”

Iain Mackinnon, Chairman of the Board of Directors said: “Garsington Opera was lucky to secure Anthony Whitworth-Jones with the foresight and energy to run the opera and take forward the festival created by Leonard Ingrams. Anthony’s conception of what the Garsington Opera festival could become came to fruition with the move to its new home at Wormsley and the creation of the magnificent new auditorium there. We all owe Anthony a great deal for his energy and effort in developing the opera festival as he has done over the past seven years.”

Garsington Opera’s 2012 season runs from 2 June – 3 July in its spectacular new home on the Wormsley estate in the Chiltern Hills. It presents Vivaldi’s rarely performed L’Olimpiade, Offenbach’s charming operetta La Périchole and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. General public booking opens 16 April.

BOX OFFICE Telephone 01865 361636 The Old Garage, The Green, Great Milton, Oxford OX44 7NP www.garsingtonopera.org