Robert Heuer
General Director
In 2003-2004, Robert M. Heuer celebrates thirty-three years in opera. His opera career began as the founding Managing Director of Detroit's Michigan Opera Theatre and has continued for the last twenty-three years with Florida Grand Opera. He joined Florida Grand Opera as Director of Production in 1979, became Assistant General Director in 1983, and then became General Director in 1985. As General Director, Mr. Heuer led the effort resulting in the merger of the Greater Miami Opera and the Opera Guild of Ft. Lauderdale and the creation of Florida Grand Opera in June 1994.
During Mr. Heuer's seasons as General Director, the FGO has mounted well-over 81main stage productions including 25 operas never seen in South Florida. Among these productions are Richard Strauss' Salome; Ariadne auf Naxos; Britten's The Turn of the Screw; Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea; Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto; Janacek's Kátya Kabanová; Marc Blitzstein's Regina; and the American premieres of Rossini's Bianca e Falliero in 1987 and Ede Donath's Szulamit in the current season.
Under Mr. Heuer's leadership, the Company has developed one of the most important young artist programs in the country with the purpose of providing a bridge for singers from the educational to the professional arena. In the 2002-2003 season the Opera's Young Artists Studio was expanded as the FGO Ensemble, to include Resident Artists.
Mr. Heuer is at the forefront of the community effort to build the new performing arts center in Miami's Downtown; with a budget of $265 million it is the largest project of its kind in the United States. Mr. Heuer spearheaded the 1994 purchase of a 43,000-sq. ft. site immediately across the street from the new opera house, which will accommodate the James Byrd Anderson, Jr. Opera Center. The Opera Center will house the Company's rehearsal studios, production office and studios, costume shop, artist apartments, administrative offices and a 485-seat theater. The Opera commemorated the ground breaking for the Anderson Opera Center in June 2003.
Mr. Heuer has served as a board member of OPERA America, and as the organization's Vice-Chairman. Mr. Heuer has also served both as Chairman and Panel Member on the Opera/Music Theatre Challenge Grant Program and Opera/Music Theatre Grants Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a member of the State of Florida Music Grants Review Panel. In 1988, the Florida Commissioner of Education appointed him to the Florida Alliance for Arts Education, which is an affiliate of the National Education Program at the Kennedy Center. The Republic of Austria awarded him the Grand Decoration of Honor in 1990 in recognition of his commitment to producing the operas of Mozart; and most recently, he was recognized in 2001 with the Narot Humanitarian Award, presented by Temple Israel of Greater Miami. Prior to his work in opera, Mr. Heuer worked for the Detroit Institute of Arts Youth Theatre, where he developed programs for students from kindergarten through high school. A native of Detroit, he received his BA in Speech/Theater from Wayne State University.
