New Orleans Opera Association has announced that Lila Palmer is its new General and Artistic Director starting on May 15, 2024.

She is the ninth person to hold the position, following Clare Burovac who led the company for three years.

“To be asked to lead a company with the lineage of New Orleans Opera Association is a tremendous gift and a humbling responsibility,” Palmer, who served as Intermi Managing Director and Associate Director for Promotions and Parnterships at American Lyric Theater, said in an official press statement. “The company and its antecedents formed the cradle of bel canto in America and the city has shown an unbroken legacy of love for both opera and the transformative, life-giving power of music. New Orleans continues to prove itself a resilient, vibrant, and joyful city, and it belongs at the forefront of the newly dawning golden age of American opera.”

Palmer is also recognized as a librettist who won an Edinburgh Fringe Lustrum Award and also performed at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Glimmerglass Festival.