(Credit: Icarus Photography)

Boston Lyric Opera has announced that Nina Yoshida Nelsen will be its new Artistic Director starting on Feb. 1, 2024.

Nelsen is a co-founder of the Asian Opera Alliance and is also in the midst of a career as a singer; the mezzo-soprano recently finished a run as Suzuki in “Madama Butterfly” at Opera Carolina. She has also performed with such companies as Washington National Opera, Lincoln Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Seattle Opera, among others. She will continue her performance career while serving as the company’s Artistic Director.

“I’m thrilled to become BLO’s Artistic Director,” Nelsen said in an official press statement issued by the company. “In many ways this is a full circle moment for me, having trained as violinist and opera singer at Boston University, and having performed my first professional opera engagement in New England. I look forward to leveraging my performing engagements both nationally and internationally with other opera companies to BLO’s benefit while investing in the Boston community.”

Nelsen made her Boston Lyric Opera debut in 2021 as Mamma Lucia in “Cavalleria Rusticana” and joined as Artistic Advisor in 2021. She was a major force and the dramaturg behind the company’s new production of “Madama Butterfly” in 2023.

Additionally, the company revealed that Anne Bogart will join the company as Artistic Associate. She recently directed “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Bluebeard’s Castle / Four Songs” with the company in 2019 and 2023, respectively.

Finally, the company has extended Music Director David Angus for three more years. Angus has worked with the company since 2010 and the new extension would bring him through his 15th season with Boston Lyric Opera.