Joan Desens was appointed Director of Institutional Advancement for Glimmerglass Opera in July 2007. Ms. Desens returned to Glimmerglass, where she was previously on staff, following three seasons as a major gifts officer with San Francisco Opera and five years as General Director of Opera Omaha. Ms. Desens’ involvement with Glimmerglass began as a volunteer in 1987. She subsequently joined the company as the first Associate Director of Development and Co-director of Education. She was recruited by San Francisco Opera in 1999 as a major gifts officer, and during her three years with that company secured several major production sponsorships, helped add significant contributors to the board and established a $5 million named fund for a patron.
Under her leadership, Opera Omaha commissioned and produced the acclaimed world premiere of Anthony Davis and Yusef Komunyakaa’s Wakonda’s Dream. Her tenure also saw the success of a new production of Madama Butterfly, designed by the internationally acclaimed visual artist, Jun Kaneko. Both productions were accompanied by “festivals” of associated programming including concerts, talks, poetry readings and art exhibits. Opera Omaha greatly expanded its outreach during her time to include three areas of education and enrichment: in schools, for special constituencies and the general public. In Nebraska, Ms. Desens served as president of Nebraskans for the Arts, was on several community boards and was a volunteer with the Sunshine Foundation for Autism. Since 1999 she has been a board member of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, a foundation that offers fellowships to talented young composers for residencies in opera companies.