ABBIGAIL COTÉ

Executive Director

Abbigail Coté joins Eugene Opera as Executive Director, bringing her varied experience in arts administration, opera production, and theatrical education to the role. Prior to joining Eugene Opera, Ms. Coté served as Leo Lecturer of Opera at the University of Michigan. She led the opera area through the Covid-19 pandemic, directing eight opera productions and five public workshop performances in a three year period.

Ms. Coté’s love for all aspects of opera began in 2005, when she formed the East Bay Aria Club, an artist collective that produced semi-staged operas in Concord, California. In 2013, she served as Executive Director for West Edge Opera in Berkeley, California, facilitating a large overhaul of business practices and crafting a strategic plan to move the company from traditional proscenium productions to site-specific experiences.

Over the breadth of her career, Ms. Coté has worked to promote opera to a variety of communities. In 2016, she directed Law and Opera; an evening of Opera Scenes with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg for the Castleton Music Festival. The live streamed event, featuring legal analysis of scenes from the traditional opera canon, received over 10,000 views during it’s initial stream. Ms. Coté also produced the 2017 world premier of Anice Thigpen’s The Woman of Salt and the 2018 public reading of Gary Edwards’s Qualchan Opera.

In addition to her production work, Ms. Coté continues to work as a professional vocal pedagogue, serving professional singers in New York, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Phoenix, Okinawa, and Stuttgart. She has adjudicated multiple competitions, including the MTNA National Voice Competition and has provided professional clinics for The Laughing Pig Theatre, the University of Montana, and the Spokane Unified School District.  Ms. Coté holds degrees from the University of Montana, Florida State University, and the University of Oregon.