Theater

Brett Egan

Princess Grace Award:
Theater Apprenticeship, 2001

 

Siroe; Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade; and Vivaldi’s Andromeda liberata (whose recording by DeutscheTime Out New York’s “Ten Best” in 2005); as well as over twenty musical andnd Street Y, and

Grammophon was one of

operatic events, in Venice, Italy (in collaboration with Teatro La Fenice) and New York City (at

Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music). Egan, together with Fifer, led

the organization from start-up to international cultural destination with attendees from four

continents, commissioning new work from China and presenting debuts from Scandinavia, the United

States, and Japan.

Egan has also served as producer, director, manager, performer or consultant at a range of influential

cultural organizations, including the Santa Fe Opera, Annie Leibowitz Studio, The Washington Ballet (at

the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), American Repertory Theater, 92

on the productions of acclaimed director/choreographer Martha Clarke at New York Theater Workshop

and Lincoln Center Theater. In 2007, Egan directed Jane Monheit, Darius deHaas, and Ben Toth in

concert at Symphony Space in a benefit for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

Egan serves on the Board of the New York Collective for the Arts, the Editorial Board of Collectanea

(literary magazine), the Board of the Bushwick Starr, and on the Alumni Board for the Orange County School of the Arts, from which he

graduated and served as President. He was awarded the Louis Sudler Award for superior contribution to

the arts at Harvard University, and the Antarctic Service Medal from the National Science Foundation.

 

Brett Egan has produced extensively in opera, theater, and dance, around the world. A magna cum

laude graduate of Harvard University, Egan has served as Executive Director of the New York based

modern dance company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, since August, 2006.

As Executive Director of Shen Wei Dance Arts, Egan has, together with Artistic Director Shen Wei, led

the company in its most ambitious season to-date, with over 27 engagements on four continents, from

Hong Kong to Mexico City, Los Angeles to Basel, Seville to New York. During that period, Egan has

overseen and cultivated the company’s relationships with such renowned cultural centers as the John

F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Festival, the Barbican Centre, Het-

Muziektheater Amsterdam, the Hong Kong New Vision Festival, Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall at the Los

Angeles Music Center, and the Festival de Mexico del Centro Historico. At Shen Wei Dance Arts, he

oversees all administrative, programming, and production activities. During the first eight months of

his tenure, the organization erased its historic deficit and produced its first annual surplus—roughly 12%

of its total operating budget—in company history.

Egan came to Shen Wei Dance Arts from the role of founding General Manager of the Venice Music

Festival, an international festival of opera and music created in 2004 with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

founder, Julian Fifer. During his tenure there, the Festival produced the first modern-day stagings of

Handel’s