Will Graham has been Director of Planning and Administration for the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute since its inception in September 2001. In 1997, Mr. Graham was appointed Artistic Director of the National Opera Company, the predecessor of the Fletcher Opera Institute. For ten years previously, he served as Chairman of the Opera Department and Director of the Opera Institute at Boston University School for the Arts. Before serving as Director of Opera at the University of Missouri at Kansas City for six years, he was Production Supervisor for Western Opera Theatre, Director of Workshops at Canadian Opera and Director of the Minnesota Opera Studio. He has directed for Minnesota Opera, Opera New England, Opera South, Western Opera Theatre, National Opera Company, Kansas City Lyric Opera and the Lyric Opera of Cleveland. He has conducted acting workshops throughout New England and at the University of California, Arizona State University, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at both Greensboro and Wilmington, Meredith College, Pittsburgh State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Washington and San Quentin Prison. He has directed opera productions in Moscow and Urbania, Italy. Mr. Graham has written three libretti for composer Charles Fussell: Specimen Days (a cantata based on the works of Walt Whitman), Wilde (a symphony for baritone and orchestra) and A Walt Whitman Sampler (a commission for the Harvard Glee Club). Mr. Graham and Mr. Fussell are currently at work on two new commissions: one for the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia and the Cantata Singers of Boston, the other for Coro Allegro of Boston. Mr. Graham provided the libretto for Kitty Hawk, an opera by J. Mark Scearce, which was premiered by the National Opera Company in April 2000. Mr. Graham has also created scenarios for Carolina Ballet’s productions of The Messiah and The Kreutzer Sonata.