Peninsula Music Festival Appoints Christoph Ptack as New Executive Director

Peninsula Music Festival, now entering its 67th season, announced today that it has named Christoph Ptack as the Festival’s new Executive Director. Ptack will officially begin his tenure with the company in January 2019.

A former Artistic Administrator at the Lyric Opera of Chicago for over a decade, Ptack took on his first administrative position in 1992, as the Artistic Administrator of the Lake Forest Symphony Association. He subsequently spent the 2003-2004 season as a member of the Administration at Chicago Opera Theatre, and shortly thereafter, joined the team at Lyric Opera where he provided casting, contracting and production planning leadership in support of the company’s mission and artistic initiatives at Chicago’s 3,600 seat Civic Theater. This included preparing principal casting and negotiating artist, conductor and choreographer contracts for the main stage season; Lyric Unlimited “Presents”; the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; annual concerts at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion and the internationally acclaimed musical theater productions of Show Boat, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music and Carousel for which he imported stars from Broadway/Television/Opera/and Film including Billy Zane, Ashley Brown, Steven Pasquale, Laura Osnes, Jenn Gambatese, Denyce Graves, Christine Brewer, Edward Hibbert, Charlotte D’Amboise and Tony Roberts to name a few.

Mr. Ptack was recently appointed to the Judiciary Board at The American Prize, a multidisciplinary Council charged with adjudicating a series of National competitions in the Performing Arts to identify the best performances by companies, individuals and ensembles each year in the United States. In addition, he adjudicated the 2017 and 2018 Grand Finals of Classical Singer Magazine’s National Vocal Competition; is a member of the Board of Directors at Chicago’s PAC, and continues to sit on multiple panels at the Miss USA and Miss America Organizations.

In making the announcement, David Keen, President of the Board of Directors said, “The PMF board is very excited to have someone with Christoph’s experience and energy filling the role of Executive Director. We believe he is particularly well suited to lead our drive to raise awareness of what a remarkable musical treasure the orchestra has become.”