Garsington Opera is one of the UK’s best known and highly regarded summer opera festivals. Situated on the Getty family’s idyllic Wormsley Estate in the Chiltern Hills, Garsington is known for its exceptional artistic quality, its welcoming and intimate atmosphere, and its strong, personal connection with audiences, artists, and donors alike. There are four main opera productions each season in collaboration with our resident orchestras — The Philharmonia and The English Concert — and we are developing a range of national and international partnerships involving both co-productions and digital projects.
Through our GO Participate and Pathways programmes, we provide training for emerging artists and backstage professionals, and create opportunities to participate in opera for schools, young people, and community groups in Buckinghamshire and beyond.
We are now seeking a new Executive Director to lead Garsington Opera into its next chapter, following Nicky Creed’s remarkable 25 years at the company. This is a pivotal moment in the organisation’s journey. The successful completion of a £14.5m capital campaign has enabled us to open Garsington Studios — a new year-round creative base that unites our entire team and supports an expanding programme of activity including a new series of winter concerts for our Members and the community. We are entering a new phase for Garsington, while holding fast to our founding ethos: excellence, generosity, innovation, and community.
The Executive Director is responsible for the effective leadership and management of Garsington Opera, working in close partnership with Artistic Director Douglas Boyd, and reporting to the Board of Trustees. You will lead a high-performing team across artistic administration, operations, finance, marketing, fundraising and technical production, and will steward relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
We are seeking an experienced and emotionally intelligent leader who brings a strong mix of strategic leadership and commercial capability, operational rigour, and passion for the arts. You are likely to have some experience of working in opera, music and/or the performing arts, and will have a track record of leading and managing in a multifaceted, dynamic and changing environment. You will have experience navigating income generation, financial sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and organisational development in a complex environment. You will be confident in co-leadership, and skilled in balancing artistic ambition with operational excellence and financial discipline. You will demonstrate excellent communication and ambassadorial skills with the ability and presence to promote Garsington Opera with confidence externally.
This is a rare and exciting opportunity to shape the future of a unique and much-loved organisation, and to play a leading role in the evolving story of opera in the UK and internationally.
Garsington Opera will be assisted in this appointment by the executive search firm Perrett Laver. For details of the appointment (7920) please click 'Request More Information' below.
The closing date for applications is 09.00 BST on Monday 7th July 2025.
For an informal and confidential discussion about the role, please contact Isabela Betoret on Isabela.Betoret@perrettlaver.com.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to assist you in the selection process, please advise us of these so that we can make appropriate arrangements.
Perrett Laver believes that excellence will be achieved through recognising the value of every individual. A broad range of perspectives, backgrounds and opinions amongst our global community of colleagues is crucial in maintaining our culture of openness, intellectual curiosity, and creativity. We take an active role in supporting under-represented communities and groups in becoming better and more fairly represented in the leadership of all organisations. We also know that diverse and inclusive teams have a positive impact on our ability to identify, engage and secure candidates from these groups.
Our commitment to inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, identity, and experience drives us every day – for clients, for candidate identification and in the recruitment, development and retention of colleagues.
To ensure inclusion on the basis of age, disability, ethnic or national origin, family circumstance, gender, gender identity, marital status, nationality, political or religious beliefs, race, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, we would like to specifically invite applications from under-represented groups.
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Protecting your personal data is of the utmost importance to Perrett Laver and we take this responsibility very seriously. Any information obtained by our trading divisions is held and processed in accordance with the relevant data protection legislation. The data you provide us with is securely stored on our computerised database and transferred to our clients for the purposes of presenting you as a candidate and/or considering your suitability for a role you have registered interest in.
As defined under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Perrett Laver is a Data Controller and a Data Processor, and our legal basis for processing your personal data is ‘Legitimate Interests’. You have the right to object to us processing your data in this way. For more information about this, your rights, and our approach to Data Protection and Privacy, please visit our website https://perrettlaver.com/privacy-policy/
