About
Bio
On Stage with Brent Douglas: A Conversation with a Music Director | Tampa Museum of Art
Brent Douglas is the Founder and Artistic Director of Venice Opera and Music Director of The Venice Chorale. He also serves as Assistant Conductor with Opera Tampa and Chorus Master for Gulfshore Opera. In addition to his conducting work, he performs regularly as a keyboardist with leading Florida ensembles including The Florida Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, the Naples Philharmonic, and St. Pete Baroque. This summer he will conduct concerts at the Savannah Voice Festival and with La Filharmonie, Philharmonic Orchestra of Florence.
His career spans symphonic, operatic, and choral repertoire, with performances and collaborations throughout the United States and internationally, including work with the Vidin Symphony, Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival, London Classical Players, Berlin Sinfonietta, and the National Women’s Chorus of Cuba. Brent previously served for nine years as Director of Orchestra and Chorus at Eckerd College and for two seasons as Assistant Conductor of the Tampa Bay Symphony. He has conducted at distinguished festivals and training programs including the Vienna Summer Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, and the MusicaRiva Festival. A notable career highlight was his visually innovative blacklight production of The Magic Flute with the Düsseldorf Lyric Opera.
Beyond the podium, Brent is an accomplished opera pianist and vocal coach, with artistic partnerships including St. Petersburg Opera, Opera Tampa, and the Savannah Voice Festival. His original improv-opera The Carnival of the Animals premiered at the Vienna Summer Music Festival in 2019, and he founded an annual opera recital series in Sicily, where he spends part of each summer.
An advocate for contemporary music and emerging artists, Brent composes and arranges music for chorus and orchestra, and premiered four new works during the 2025–2026 season. He is currently writing a music for a new opera, The Nun's Cross, for Dusseldorf Lyric Opera (Germany). His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, and he has launched two composition initiatives supporting young composers.
A graduate of Missouri State University and University of South Florida, he holds degrees in Piano Performance and Conducting. His conducting studies include work with Markus Stenz at the Hanns Eisler School of Music, Gerard Schwarz at the Frost School of Music, James Bass at University of California, Los Angeles, Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan, and Leonardo Catalanotto at the Scarlatti Conservatory.
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