Ash Lawn Opera’s director taking a bow after 23 years

Once the Ash Lawn Opera Festival has closed for the summer, usually it’s time to start thinking about the national search for the next season’s singers.

This time, the search will be on for a new general director.

Judy Walker, who has led the festival for 23 years, has announced her retirement, effective Dec. 31.

The festival’s board of directors is beginning a search for someone to step into her shoes.

Under Walker’s leadership, the festival has gained a reputation as a place where singers just starting their careers could learn by singing significant roles in operas and musical comedies instead of waiting in the wings.

The apprentice program she encouraged also gives young singers opportunities to plan and present voice recitals during their stay in Charlottesville — a chance to hone another practical skill that’ll be useful in their careers.

Singers who performed in Ash Lawn productions regularly move on to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Miami Opera Company and other leading opera companies.

And at Ash Lawn, the learning isn’t limited to the industry professionals.

Local teachers and students have had opportunities to take part in a variety of educational programs, including a 2008 production of Benjamin Britten’s “Noye’s Fludde,” which gave 100 local schoolchildren the chance to see how it feels to share a spotlight with professional singers and musicians.

This summer, the festival moved its productions indoors, presenting “Camelot” and “The Marriage of Figaro” in the air-conditioned Paramount Theater on the Downtown Mall.

In previous years, the operas and musicals were presented in the boxwood gardens of President James Monroe’s Albemarle County estate, where the shriek of a peacock might rattle a singer at a first rehersal and later come to feel like a compliment — and a good-luck charm.

Walker has worn both artistic and managerial hats during her tenure, taking care of everything from hearing countless singers so she could select the right voices for the right roles to making management and development decisions.