She has been director of the Legislative Correspondents Association Show, the oldest political satire revue in the country, for the past 25 years. A choreographer as well, Ms. Binder choreographed Queen of Spades, Luisa Miller and Le nozze di Figaro for The Dallas Opera, and Bluebeard and La Calisto for Glimmerglass Opera where she also went on for an ailing countertenor. 

As an actor, she has performed in regional theatre in the United States and abroad in roles ranging from Peter Pan to Shakespeare’s Juliet, and was singer in the rock n’ roll group, Blotto, that recorded the hit I Wanna Be A Lifeguard. 

A committed arts educator, Ms. Binder taught acting at Union College and founded The Acting School, a studio for children and adults, in Schenectady, New York.  Along with coaching singers and actors across the country, she is an image coach who has worked with the young artist programs of Minnesota, Portland, Lake George and Glimmerglass Operas.  She is a Lecturer in Acting in the Opera Institute of the School of Music at Boston University’s College Fine Arts.


Richard Buckley - Conductor

Returning to Opera Omaha after last year's smash, Pagliacci, renowned American conductor Richard Buckley is consistently praised by critics across the world for his dynamic contributions and passionate conducting style in both the orchestral and operatic genres. His extraordinary career includes performing with: Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington Opera, New York City Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Baltimore Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Canadian Opera Company and L'Opéra de Montréal.

He has enjoyed return engagements at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, L'Opéra National de Paris, Hamburg Statsoper, National Theatre of Mannheim, Teatro Colon, Royal Danish Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Göteborg Opera, Norwegian National Opera, De Nederlandse Opera and Teatro San Carlo Lisbon, among many others.

Maestro Buckley’s engaging interpretations have been heard with some of the world’s finest orchestras including: the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Chicago, St. Louis, Houston, Toronto, Utah and Seattle.

Maestro Buckley has toured with London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; conducted a gala with the Berlin Radio Symphony which was televised nationally and recorded for Koch-Schwann; and appeared with the BBC Philharmonic in the "Great Composers" series for BBC Television. He has also had guest appearances with the Prague Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, L'Orchestre National de Lyon, Ulster Orchestra, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary Philharmonic.

In addition to his many impressive guest conducting engagements, Mo. Buckley has served as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, and Music Director of the Oakland Symphony.
Mo. Buckley was the Artistic Director of Austin Lyric Opera from September 2003 until July 2007, where he now serves as Principal Conductor. He also serves as Principal Conductor of the newly formed Opera Cleveland, where he most recently conducted Tosca.
 
Productions include Carmen and Die Fledermaus with Austin Lyric Opera, Grapes of Wrath with Pittsburgh Opera, Tosca with Canadian Opera Company, Don Carlo with Cincinnati Opera, Rigoletto with Arizona Opera, among many other engagements.

Known for taking opera to a new level emotionally, Buckley continues to be a strong supporter of new works. He premiered Bright Sheng's The Song of Manjun, Stephen Paulus' The Woodlandersand,  The Woman at Otowi Crossing, and led the United States premiere of Aulis Sallinen's The King Goes Forth to France.  He conducted and a newly revised version of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra and Martin Levy’s Mourning Becomes Elektra and recently did the American premiere of Philip Glass’ Waiting for the Barbarians in Austin with incredible critical acclaim.

J. Gawf - Chorus Master/Resident Music Director

A native of Oklahoma, Gawf is currently Resident Music Director and Chorus Master for Opera Omaha.  Gawf has helped prepare education and outreach programs with the Omaha Symphony, Nebraska Choral Arts Society, Omaha Area Youth Orchestras, The Rose Theater, and several area Omaha high schools and middle schools.  Within the last three years, Gawf has prepared four world premieres, including David DiChiera’s Cyrano for Michigan Opera Theater, Ned Rorem’s Our Town for Lake George Opera and the Opera Omaha premieres of Anthony Davis’ Wakonda’s Dream and Paul Moravec’s The Blizzard Voices.  He has also prepared works with Lake George Opera, Augusta Opera and New Jersey Opera Theater.  Having served on the music staff of both the University of Central Oklahoma and Temple University in Philadelphia, Gawf has frequently concertized throughout the United States and Europe. 


Scott Leathers - Lighting Designer
Scott Leathers is the Resident Lighting Designer for Nashville Ballet (since 1987), Nashville Children's Theatre (since Sep.2003), and Kentucky Repertory Theatre (since 2005) and has previously served as R.L.D. for the Ryman Auditorium's Musical Theatre Series ('99-'01), Opera at Chattanooga Symphony and Opera ('02-'07), and for Ballet TN ('97-'01). He also served as Nashville Ballets' Production Stage Manager for over 11 years and then as Production Manger for an additional 6 years. Mr. Leathers has designed lighting for theatre, opera, ballet, and modern dance and several of his designs have been for original works. He has designed lights for most of Nashville's performing arts organizations as well as Theatre Craft, Milwaukee Ballet, American Negro Playwrights Theatre, Amun Ra Theatre, Karen Steele Dance Quintet, Ballet Omaha, Ballet Austin, Cumberland County Playhouse, Dollywood, and internationally with Tanz Ensemble Cathy Sharp (TECS-Switzerland) and Ballet Manila (Philippines). He has taught Lighting Design at the college level as well as leading over 30 workshops. He has also designed scenery for many productions including Nashville Ballet's productions of Robin Hood, Postcards from the Boys, The Bell Witch, Harvest Home, Western Stars, and Fete Champtetre.

Mr. Leathers graduated from the College of Santa Fe with a BFA in technical theatre and is a member of United Scenic Artists.  He was last with Opera Omaha for our 2008 production of The Pirates of Penzance.