After nearly six years at the helm of the Canberra Theatre Centre, director Alex Budd will step down to take up the role of CEO at cash-strapped Opera Australia later this year.
In later news from Opera Australia this morning it was also announced that Maestro Andrea Battistoni would be appointed as music director and Professor Glyn Davis as chair of the board.
Budd took up the Canberra position in 2020 shortly before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his roots in Canberra went much deeper than that.
A former music scholar at Canberra Grammar School who went on to study voice at the ANU School of Music while also working in lighting at the Canberra Theatre, he was part of a dynamic cohort of opera students at the university.
He was a founding member of the Canberra chamber opera company, Stopera, later going on to work as head electrician and touring lighting designer for Graeme Murphy’s Sydney Dance Company.
He joined Opera Australia as tour manager of OzOpera, before setting up the OA’s Enterprises division and spent a year at Royal Opera House Covent Garden project managing the Paul Hamlyn Performances
In 2008 he became Opera Australia’s general manager, Melbourne and Enterprises, before returning to Canberra.
According to the Cultural Facilities Corporation, Budd has strengthened the centre’s financial position and deepened relationships with influential producers and artists in the country.
“Alex’s leadership has not only left the CTC in its strongest position in decades but has also set the stage for an exciting future – including planning for the delivery of a new 2000-seat lyric theatre that will transform the performing arts nationally,” a statement from the CFC says.
For his part, Budd says: “While I’m excited to be returning to Opera Australia – the company where I have already spent much of my career – I will deeply miss the fantastic team at the Canberra Theatre Centre and our loyal, adventurous audiences… The new lyric theatre is a once-in-a-generation project for the performing arts in Australia, proudly planned to be built in the nation’s capital, and I look forward to the day Opera Australia performs on that stage.”
The Cultural Facilities Corporation will now undertake a large-scale national recruitment for a new director.
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