With 20 years of experience as an arts leader and dramaturg, Amy loves the business of bringing new work to audiences. She is a curator, producer, marketer, and fundraiser who has collaborated on more than 200 new Canadian premieres at Alberta Theatre Projects, Arts Club Theatre Company, Ballet BC, The Cultch, Gateway Theatre, Green Thumb Theatre, Magnetic North Theatre Festival, and Touchstone Theatre. Seasoned in company transformations, Amy has steered teams through leadership transitions while championing empathy-based processes. Recent inspirations include Banff Centre’s 2020 Cultural Leadership Program and Misha Glouberman’s course How to Talk to People About Things, giving her frameworks for navigating challenges and developing more sustainable ways for making shows. Amy currently consults for arts organizations across Canada and is passionate about mentoring emerging, female-identifying artists and leaders. She holds an MA in Theatre from UBC and is an avid vintage collector.

Passionate about creating greater representation and sustainability in opera, Robin Whiffen, originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland, has served as Executive Director of Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) in Toronto, Canada, and was named General Director of the company in November 2022. Trained as a performer, Robin began her arts administration career as General Manager of Opera on the Avalon, where her work focused on creating operatic interpretations of Newfoundland and Labrador’s history.

With a mission to make opera accessible and relevant to the artists and audiences of our time, Robin has been a leader in the success of AtG’s strategic initiatives by stewarding the artistic process, both through the growth and development of the organization and by supporting artists to tell their stories in authentic and meaningful ways. This work is evident in AtG’s debut film, Messiah/Complex, with Robin executing the success of the JUNO-nominated production and AtG winning the first-ever OPERA America Digital Excellence Award. Further projects led by Robin include the film version of Sāvitri (also nominated for an OPERA America Digital Excellence Award) and Identity: A Song Cycle, supported by the National Arts Centre National Creation Fund, to create a stage adaptation and commission the orchestral version.

As a strategic leader, Robin brings empathy, authenticity, respect, and collaboration to her work. She creates opportunities for artists to develop a deeper skill set beyond their work as performers and advocates for female-identifying persons to excel in the opera sector. Robin was recently selected to participate in the Business/Arts Executive Leadership Program and the OPERA America Leadership Intensive. These programs identify promising future leaders and provide them with mentorship and education to bolster their leadership capacity and advance their careers. In September 2021, Robin was appointed as a member of The College of Electors for the University of Toronto, representing the Faculty of Music. She has been a mentor in the Association for Opera in Canada RBC Future Launch Fellowship Program and invited to speak as an arts leader and ambassador of the operatic art form for audiences in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Robin is a Master of Business Administration candidate at Memorial University of Newfoundland and holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from The University of Toronto.