Meet The Team

Roger Weitz is the Director of Special Projects for Common Senses Festival, a new non-profit organization whose mission is to explore and celebrate the uniqueness and commonalities of all of humanity with a focus on arts, science, and disability awareness.  Roger’s background includes arts administration and fundraising; he most recently served as General Director (CEO) of Opera Omaha. Under his leadership Opera Omaha grew significantly, doubling its patron base and exponentially expanding the number of individuals engaged though community programming and partnerships. With Opera Omaha, Roger developed and launched an annual festival of new work centering contemporary artists, as well as a groundbreaking community engagement initiative steeped in civic practice, the Holland Community Opera Fellowship. Roger’s arts administration career began in 2000 as the Artistic Administrator for Chicago Opera Theater. He left Chicago in 2007 to accept an Arts Management Fellowship at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of Michael M. Kaiser. Upon completion of the Fellowship, Roger returned to Chicago Opera Theater in a new capacity, as the company’s General Manager. To date, Roger has managed the planning and creation of over 60 new productions including numerous local, regional, and world premieres. He served two consecutive terms on the Board of Directors of OPERA America, the national service organization for the field of opera, and currently serves as an Advisory Board member for the Brooklyn-based arts company, Vision Into Art.