The Grange Festival today announces that Tyler Stoops will be joining the company as its new CEO as The Grange Festival looks forward to a new dynamic future.
This new appointment reflects a change of structure within The Grange Festival team as it adapts for the future, with Michael Chance continuing as the Festival’s Artistic Director.
Tyler Stoops will arrive at The Festival following a transformative period leading audience and revenue growth at Glyndebourne as Director of Audience Development, including successful efforts to add Festival performances and grow an expanded Autumn season in East Sussex. He has previously held roles at the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera and The Santa Fe Opera across artistic, production planning, media, and learning and participation, as well as substantial corporate experience with Amazon and Disney, and holds an MBA from The Wharton School.
Sir Richard Mantle, The Grange Festival Chair says:
"I am delighted that Tyler will be joining us at an exciting inflection point for The Grange Festival as we continue to build audiences and seek to diversify and expand our creative programme. Tyler undoubtedly has a voracious passion for the arts, in particular opera, and brings with him a powerful combination of business and creative skills to lead our great team at The Grange Festival. Opera in the UK may appear to be at a crossroads, but this is a moment to approach the future with ambition and confidence".
Tyler Stoops says:
“I’m thrilled to be joining The Grange Festival at this pivotal moment, to build on its success and lead development of an exciting, shared vision for the future and I look forward to working with Michael Chance, the staff team and the Board. From my earliest experiences as a technical apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera I have had a strong affnity for the unique value that festivals can provide - for audiences, artists, technicians, staff, and the surrounding community and look forward to strengthening all those interconnected relationships as we build and grow together."
Michael Chance, The Grange Festival Artistic Director:
“Having achieved profound artistic successes in our 2023 Festival, and as we approach our eighth summer season, now seems a good moment to hand over the key managerial role to Tyler Stoops, someone whose dynamism and competence will undoubtedly take us forward to the next stage. I look forward to working with him to develop and enhance both our teams and our growing activities."
Tyler Stoops will join The Grange Festival on 3 June 2024 in time for the Festival programme which opens that week.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Tyler Stoops biography:
Tyler Stoops was raised in rural Colorado (USA) and graduated from Whitman College with Honours, achieving a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre alongside studies in voice, piano, dance, literature and the sciences. After a technical theatre apprenticeship at The Santa Fe Opera, he spent the first ten years of his career in key roles in artistic administration, casting, production planning, digital media and cinema, with the Santa Fe Opera, The Metropolitan Opera and the Walt Disney Studios.
He then completed an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and worked in the corporate sector, most notably with Amazon in the US and the UK where he held a variety of leadership roles across ticketing, product management, curation, and marketing with Kindle, Amazon Tickets, Amazon Books and Amazon Publishing.
After Amazon, Tyler returned to the arts sector now in the UK, founding Thespie, a digital streaming company, and then moving to the Royal Opera House where he focused on strategy, technology and learning and participation. He is currently Director of Audience Development at Glyndebourne, overseeing teams in Marketing, Press, Membership, Content, Media Distribution, Retail, Exhibitions, and the Archive. He holds a Tier 1 Visa for Extraordinary Talent, and is also pursuing a MSc degree in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music.
About The Grange Festival:
The Grange Festival, established in 2017 and situated in the heart of the Hampshire South Downs, is a summer festival of operatic and performing arts excellence. Renowned for its innovative programme of opera, dance, and music, the Festival showcases a wide array of world-class talent, including acclaimed singers, dancers, musicians, conductors, and creative teams. The Grange Festival, led by Artistic Director Michael Chance since its inception in 2017, stands out in the artistic community, further underscored by its nomination for ‘Festival of the Year’ at the 2023 International Opera Awards.
The 2024 season launches on 6 June with a landmark UK debut by The National Ballet of Brno, performing Oktetto, to celebrate their centennial. This season will bring new interpretations of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Puccini’s Tosca, and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress featuring established artists alongside emerging talents. The finale, A French Salon, offers two nights of French-inspired music, highlighting the extraordinary skills of jazz virtuosos Cecile Mclorin Salvant and Dan Tepfer. The Grange Festival continues to affrm itself as significant and vibrant event in the international arts scene.