Artistic Director, Robin Andrew Stamper
Currently the Artistic Director and Chorus Master for Opera Tampa, Robin Andrew Stamper continues a versatile career as a coach-accompanist, chorus master and opera conductor. Credits include director of music for the Kentucky Opera where he made his conducting debut for The Mikado.
Subsequently, he became Artistic Director for the Nevada Opera where he conducted the mainstage productions of The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Suor Angelica and Pagliacci. Following his tenure at Nevada Opera, Stamper became the music director for the Orlando Opera where he conducted L’elisir d’armore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Marriage of Figaro and Die Fledermaus. Also notable during his tenure at Orlando Opera was the growth of the Orlando Opera Chorus, which culminated in highly acclaimed performances of Turandot, Il Trovatore and Cavalleria Rusticana.
In addition he conducted La Traviata and Camelot for the Augusta Opera and, as artistic director for the Florida Opera Theatre, Cosi fan tutte and The Barber of Seville. Having received his degrees in piano performance at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School, Stamper is a frequent performer as recital pianist and accompanist.
Founding General Director, Judy Lisi
Judith Lisi is the immediate past President/CEO of the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Fl., serving in that capacity for 30 years. She previously served as President/CEO of the prestigious Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven, Ct. for 10 years., where, among her many achievements, she expanded Broadway subscription to two weeks and founded the Shubert Opera Company in collaboration with the Yale School of Music and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, producing over 40 full-scale productions, and instituted an Arts Education program.
She joined the Straz Center in 1992. The largest performing arts center south of the Kennedy Center, the Straz Center was struggling both financially and programmatically with a $4M accumulated deficit and low attendance. She was able to turn the Center around by rebranding and restructuring the Center and with upgrading Broadway to national first run tours, expanding the Broadway subscription from 2000 to 9000. In 1992 she founded Opera Tampa and produced 100 full-scale productions and concerts of opera luminaries. In 2004 she founded the Straz Center’s Patel Conservatory which offers professional training and performing arts education programs that annually reach more than 50,000 students. During her tenure with The Straz, Lisi established a separate foundation to support the Straz Center and oversees a nearly $70 million endowment fund.
A lifetime Tony Award® voter, Lisi served on the Broadway League Board of Governors for more than 30 years and was the founding chair of its first Education Committee. In 2012, the Broadway League bestowed its Distinguished Lifetime Service Award on Lisi for her outstanding leadership. In Tampa, she built one of the largest touring Broadway markets in the country and produced or presented hundreds of Broadway shows.
She began her career as a singer/actress performing in over 50 productions. She also wrote and directed productions for the Downtown Cabaret Theater where she served as Artistic Director from 1979 to 1983.
In 2008, Lisi received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for the Performing Arts. Her other awards and recognitions include the 2013 Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of Influence Award, the Jewish National Fund’s Lawrence D. Wasser Humanitarian Award, Tampa Bay Magazine’s Tip of the Hat Award and the 2015 Citizen of the Year by the Economic Club of Tampa. Lisi is the Preserve Vision Florida, Inc.’s 2018 Person of Vision Award recipient and in April 2018 was inducted into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame. And, in recognition of the exceptional nature of both her career and her service to society, she was bestowed with the 2019 Alumni Achievement Award from the Sacred Heart University Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Lisi holds a B.A. from Sacred Heart University, an M.A. in theater and communication arts from St. Louis University, pursued doctoral coursework in theater at the University of Minnesota and post-graduate opera studies at The Juilliard School of Music.