Jon Truitt
Director of Opera Professor of Music Performance (Voice) and School of Music Associate Director for Academic Affairs
In addition to being appointed School of Music associate director for academic affairs at Ball State University in 2021, Jon Truitt has served as the director of opera and associate professor of voice at Ball State since 2014, having served previously as head of voice, director of opera, and associate professor of voice at the University of Evansville. He has also served as the chair of Ball State’s Faculty Council from 2019–2021 and is the current Indiana state governor for the National Opera Association. On the opera stage Dr. Truitt has directed more than 60 professional and student productions including Die Zauberflote and il barbiere di Siviglia in 2021; Fanciulla del West and Albert Herring in 2020; Norma, The Elixir of Love, Don Giovanni, and Orpheus in the Underworld in 2019; and Die Zauberflöte, Beatrice et Benedict, Hansel and Gretel, and Puccini’s il trittico in 2018 among many others. His work has been seen at companies including Indianapolis Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Union Avenue Opera, Winter Opera (St. Louis), and St. Petersburg Opera. He has additionally appeared as a baritone with such companies as New Orleans Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, and Opera Illinois as well as with numerous orchestras. He was a two-time apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera and a Metropolitan Opera Regional finalist. His original script translation of Die Zauberflöte was featured in Opera America and the Sacred Opera Newsletter and has been remounted frequently around the country. He has also been active in opera leadership, serving at Asheville Lyric Opera as artistic director (2017–2018) and artistic advisor (2012–2016) and also co-directed a young artist program there with his wife, soprano Elizabeth Truitt (2012–2018). Dr. Truitt is also the founder of the Crested Butte Opera Young Artist Program in Colorado and co-founder of the Emerging Artist Program at St. Petersburg Opera.