About Cheryl
Cheryl Blalock is well-known in the Bay Area and in the Opera America community nationally as a strong and innovative leader in the musical arts, as well as a fine singer and musician herself. Cheryl worked with The Lamplighters Music Theatre in San Francisco from 2017 to 2024 as Executive Director, and additionally as Artistic Director from 2020 to 2023.
Cheryl’s collaborative and innovative work in the operetta art form include:
- Commissioned the company’s first new operetta, Sasser and Burwell’s “BY GEORGES! A Day in the Life of the Legendary Chevalier St. Georges” in 2023
- Enabled fresh productions of the company’s Gilbert and Sullivan works, such as the Mexican influenced “RUDDYGORE, or The Bruja’s Curse” in 2024, the feminist version of “THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE” in 2018, and the classic-with-a-twist version of “PIRATES” in 2024
- Added newer musicals to the company repertoire with “A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE to LOVE and MURDER” in 2022 and “THE MYSTERY of EDWIN DROOD” in 2024
Credited with “saving the company….twice” through the Pandemic and financial issues, Cheryl worked with donors and patrons to bring back audiences post-pandemic and to create a strong endowment to balance and safeguard the company. The company went from a deficit of $35,000 when she took over in 2017 to a $1,000,000 endowment when she left. Board President Chris Uzelac said she has “the most creative business mind I’ve ever known”.
In Cheryl’s own voice:
“I am proud to have hired women as stage directors and conductors, to have hired men of color as stage directors, and to have worked with deaf and hard of hearing dancers, to create experiences together that unite our diverse visions and talents with our common love of musical art.”
Cheryl also commissioned new works while Executive Director of San Mateo’s Masterworks Chorale from 2014-2017, including a piece by Ola Gjelo. She organized and led a Central European tour with Masterworks in 2017, and currently is happily singing with the group.
Cheryl is now consulting with a new duo, UpSpark, who are writing original musicals and developing an innovative production company. Her introductions led to their premier read-through of “AI MESSIAH” at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in January 2025. She continues supporting their work as well as other stage directors and composers. Cheryl is excited by the possibility of linking diverse artists and musical organizations. Music and art have reflected the times and the thoughts of people throughout history; it is always important to create new works. It is often most effective to do so with humor, which Cheryl strongly supports!
