Margaret Perry, Director of Austin Lyric Opera

Come discover the role of opera in education as the Director of Austin's own Lyric Opera joins us to discuss the Arts and how Austin gains benefit from an active and vibrant Arts community.

Featured Lunch Menu: Charbroiled chopped steak with Forestier sauce (mushroom sauce), mixed grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes, assorted rolls and field greens salad, with a featured daily dessert. Grilled chicken Caesar salad or vegetarian plate option also available. 

Speaker's Bio:

Margaret Perry has been a music educator for 38 years. Trained originally as a harpsichordist, Ms. Perry performed with Baroque music groups around Texas, and served for several years as the pianist for the Houston Ballet.

Ms. Perry has taught music in both public and private schools in the U.S. and Europe, and has maintained a private piano teaching practice in Austin for more than three decades. She has lectured extensively on the lives of composers and opera history for both children’s classes and adult opera audiences, and has created curricula for general musical studies for many ages.

Ms. Perry also serves as a consultant for community arts education providers on issues of management and advocacy. Ms. Perry has been a trustee for nine non-profit boards in the Austin area, and was elected chairman of three of these. She currently serves on the board of directors of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts based in Manhattan, as well as in an advisory capacity for Chamber Music in Public Schools (CHAMPS), the educational arm of Salon Concerts, and for Theater Action Project.

For the past seventeen years, Ms. Perry has been the Director of Education for Austin Lyric Opera. In April of 2000, she became the founding director of the Armstrong Community Music School, the first music school in the world to be established by an opera company.

In March of 2003, the City of Austin, Texas presented Ms. Perry a Community Service Award, and the same year the State of Texas declared a day in her honor for thirty years of arts advocacy and education.