For decades, his voice regularly introduced listeners to opera on 98.1 Classical KING FM, and his CD-lectures on Wagner’s Ring have become a mainstay in opera libraries. For more than three decades, Jenkins has been an annual guest on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz. In 2008/09, as Jenkins celebrated his 25th Anniversary season at Seattle Opera, he received a Mayor’s Arts Award. The Seattle Times has named Jenkins one of the 150 most influential people who have shaped the character of Seattle and King County, and Opera News cited Jenkins as one of the 25 “most powerful” names in American opera. Because of his passion for the arts and energetic leadership style, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Jenkins as a recipient of the 2011 NEA Opera Honors. In 2006, Jenkins inaugurated Seattle Opera’s International Wagner Competition, developed to discover and promote outstanding young singers who show promise of major careers in Wagner operas.

Jenkins strengthened and extended Seattle Opera’s reputation as a Wagner center by producing all ten of Wagner’s major operas, including two very different Ring productions. His passion for opera and deep knowledge of the art form influenced Seattle Opera’s many innovative productions, substantial publications, comprehensive education programs and services, and helped build the great audience for opera in Seattle. Recognized nationally as a leading authority on opera, a politically active arts advocate, and a beloved civic figure in Seattle, Jenkins was among the most influential and accomplished general directors in the United States. Speight Jenkins was General Director of Seattle Opera from 1983 to 2014. Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera, Emeritus

Seattle opera 2016 17 season