Born in Boston, Peter Leonard, Artistic Director of Opera on the James, lived and worked in Germany for 20 years.  He was Intendant (General and Artistic Director) of the Volkstheater Rostock and the North German Philharmonic from 2008-2014. He went to Rostock as General Music Director in 2004 after a distinguished seven-year tenure as General Music Director of the City of Augsburg.  He has conducted dozens of opera companies and orchestras throughout Europe and North America. He has led premieres of both opera and symphonic repertoire, including works by Copland, Crumb, Egk, Finney, Holst, Hovhaness, Korn, Martinu, Maw, Pasatieri, Rorem, Thomas, Thorne, Wilder and Zwilich. His extensive opera repertoire includes a path-breaking new production of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen. With studies at Juilliard, Tanglewood, Bayreuth, Salzburg and Aspen, his teachers have included Jean Morel, Franco Ferrara, Herbert Blomstedt, Sixten Ehrling, John Nelson and Dennis Russell Davies.