Dear Friends,
’Tis the season! I’m overjoyed to be writing with warmest wishes for the season upon which we’ll soon embark. I hope you and yours are well. I love the passage from Thanksgiving through the holidays and finally into the New Year – how it moves us from gratitude to generosity and community, and ultimately into celebration. This is precisely how I experience IN Series and my relationship with you, our loyal friends and supporters. I’m ever grateful for that friendship and generosity that allows our community to celebrate the success we’ve built together.
This past year, that success has been buoyant. Since the 2024 holiday season, we completed our multi-year Monteverdi trilogy with POPPEA; we shared the World Premiere of ETHIOPIA, rising above the last-minute loss of NEA funding; presented the American premiere of Louise Talma’s THE ALCESTIAD, the first opera by an American female composer and with a libretto by Thornton Wilder; and opened the 2025-2026 season with the acclaimed ST JOHN THE BAPTIST. Soon, we’ll debut our first major commission, THE DELTA KING’S BLUES by Damien Geter and Jarrod Lee. We also honored legendary actress Jane Alexander, considered by many the savior of the NEA in the 1990s. To accomplish this, we employed nearly 200 artists, mostly local, and reached over 35,000 people worldwide between our live performances in DC and Baltimore and our free online streaming platform Invision.
Your IN Series creates work found nowhere else with a breadth and depth of programs that engage on multiple levels. We invest in local talent and in the local arts ecosystem. We champion bold, community-based art that challenges traditional narratives. And we offer transformative opportunities to artists from historically marginalized communities. We do this with joy, openness, and love – and we do this only through your support and generous friendship.
I’m proud to also say that the future also holds much to celebrate. IN Series is pleased to announce the appointment of our first ever Executive Director, David Mack. David will bring his visionary presence and deep experience in making art-in-community that matters to join me as a partner in leading a company very much on the rise. At the same time, I can announce IN Series’ intention to open its own permanent theatrical home next year, ending 20 years of nomadic life as we lean into our status as a DC institution. These exciting milestones bring new and ambitious financial goals. We need your help to take these pivotal steps into the future. The bar goes up, and IN Series rises to meet the challenge.
Each holiday season, I ask you to consider supporting IN Series in whatever way you can. The coming opportunities mean your gift this year is more important than ever and is essential to help us take these next steps. Your gift – this year matched to double its impact – is essential to helping us take these next steps. Your generosity goes far and changes the narrative of opera and theater in America. Thank you for that friendship, and for your support.
Gratitude into community, generosity into celebration – this is the cadence of the season that reminds me how much you mean to IN Series. I send my deepest wishes for a joyful, meaningful, and safe holiday season. I know I’m joined by a legion of artists, audiences, staff, and volunteers in thanking you for all you’ve done, and will do, to help IN Series thrive in the future.
All my best,
Timothy Nelson
