BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Nathan Troup, president
Mike Williams, clerk
Aliana de la Guardia, treasurer
Beth Wiemann
Susan Wilson
Lilit Hartunian
Gretchen Werde, emeritus
Nathan Troup, president
Nathan Troup maintains a body of work spanning standard operatic repertoire, new work premieres, uniquely curated site-specific projects, and distinct collaborations with multidisciplinary artists. Troup serves on the board of directors for Guerilla Opera, director of TEDxCambridge, and has spent the past decade as an outreach artist with Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble’s award-winning Outreach Program (“Outstanding Merit and Contribution” by Early Music America), accessing classical music to neglected and incarcerated youth. Troup is an associate professor of opera at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and on faculty at Boston University.
Aliana de la Guardia, treasurer
Aliana de la Guardia is a Cuban-American artist and entrepreneur who is a co-founding artist and Artistic Director of Guerilla Opera, a versatile artist and new music and operatic soprano with notable collaborations around the US, and who can be heard on several commercial labels. As an arts leader she was selected to participate in the 2022 Nonprofit Learning Institute (Philanthropy MA) and CCI Changemakers (ECCF), 2020 Mentorship for Women in Opera (OPERA America) and Double Edge Theatre Mentorship, received a Public Art Learning Fund Grant award (NEFA), and is on OPERA America’s Membership Council.
Mike Williams, clerk
Hailed by The Boston Globe as “one of the city’s best percussionists,” Mike Williams is an advocate for contemporary music, a member of the new music sinfonietta Sound Icon, the Calithumpian Consort, and is a co-founding artist of Guerilla Opera as well as former co-artistic director, with whom he has commissioned and premiered many new chamber operas since 2007. Williams has worked with many of the leading composers of our time including Pierluigi Billone, Philippe Leroux, Salvatore Sciarrino, Gunther Schuller, and Roger Reynolds.
Lilit Hartunian
Violinist Lilit Hartunian is a Guerilla Opera performing ensemble member who performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as a soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, Ms. Hartunian’s "Paganiniesque virtuosity" and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at the major concert halls of Boston, including multiple solo performances at Jordan Hall and chamber music at Symphony Hall (Boston Symphony Orchestra Insights Series), as well as at leading academic institutions, including the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, and Tufts University, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist.
Gretchen Werde, emeritus
Gretchen Werda is a mezzo-soprano, stage director, arts-manager, REALTOR®, and a creative real estate investing entrepreneur. She obtained her master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory, and is a Certified Specialist in Electronic Music Production through Berklee College of Music.
Originally from New Haven CT, Gretchen managed with New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and Goodspeed Musicals before moving to Boston where she managed with White Snake Projects, Guerilla Opera, and held a staff position at the Berklee Performance Center as Senior House Manager of Concert Operations.
Presently, Gretchen works as a REALTOR® in the Boston Metro area and in CT, helping clients find homes and investment properties. She owns/manages properties in Puerto Rico and holds an agent referral and investing network that spans several countries.
Beth Wiemann
Beth Wiemann is a composer and clarinetist that splits her time between Massachusetts and Maine. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally by the ensembles Continuum, Transient Canvas, Earplay, loadbang, and others. Her monodrama “I Give You My Home” was written for Guerilla Opera, and was released in CD and DVD form in 2023, after live performances at the Nichols House Museum in Boston.
In addition to serving on the Guerilla Opera board of directors, she has also served as a board member of the American Composers Alliance, the Society for Composers, Inc., and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and is the Director of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center at the University of Maine, where she is a professor in the School of Performing Arts.
Susan Wilson
Producer, Center for Art, Science, and Technology (CAST) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)