© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1d30001HearSA is an online audio archive of public programming intended to foster discussion and enhance awareness of informative local presentations and events. The archive includes lectures, panel discussions, book readings, and more. The opinions presented in these programs are those of the author or presenter, not Texas Public Radio or any of its stations, and are not necessarily endorsed by TPR.

Why Opera Matters

Dario Acosta
Marc Scorca

The McNay Art Museum's Tobin Distinguished Lecture Series presented Marc Scorca, speaking on January 30, 2014. The title of his presentation is "Why Opera Matters."

Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO of OPERA America oversaw the organization’s relocation from Washington DC to New York City (2005) and the construction of The National Opera Center (2012), a space for both organizations and individual artists to hold auditions, rehearsals, and recordings. Currently a member of the U.S. delegation to UNESCO, Scorca serves as an officer of the board of the Performing Arts Alliance, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Music Advisory Board of Hunter College (CUNY). Scorca attended Amherst College where he graduated with high honors in both history and music.

Built by artist and educator Marion Koogler McNay in the 1920s, the Spanish Colonial Revival residence opened as Texas's first museum of modern art in 1954. Today more than 100,000 visitors a year enjoy works by modern masters including Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, & Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In June 2008, the museum opened the 45,000-square-foot Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions designed by internationally renowned French architect Jean-Paul Viguier. Nearly doubling the McNay's exhibition space, the Stieren Center includes three separate outdoor sculpture galleries.