In 2015, Australian soprano and director Miriam Gordon-Stewart co-founded Victory Hall Opera in Charlottesville Virginia. As Artistic Director, Miriam has steered the growth of VHO from the smallest of start-ups to a thriving organization with a 6 figure budget, a Board that comprises many of America’s leading artists, and a reputation as a thought-leader within the industry at large. VHO has been featured multiple times in The Washington Post, described as “Pushing the envelope” and “Continuing to push boundaries”.

Gordon-Stewart performs regularly with the company, and has directed the American Premiere of Rameau’s Achante et Céphise (La Sympathie), the Virginia Premiere of Haydn’s Armida and a double bill of Hansel and Gretel with Menotti’s The Medium. In 2019, Miriam gained permission from award-winning American playwright Neil LaBute to adapt his work Fat Pig. As librettist, Miriam is currently collaborating with composer and Bass Matt Boehler on this new chamber opera that will feature soprano Tracy Cox in the leading role.

In 2018, Gordon-Stewart received a prestigious Jefferson Fellowship from the International Center for Jefferson Studies to research and co-write a new work to be performed inside Monticello. This work, Monticello Overheard was the first live theater work to be performed inside the Unesco-listed former home of Thomas Jefferson.

VHO has twice received the Alumni Enterprise Award from Music Academy of the West, and multiple awards from the University of Virginia for work they produced in response to the Nazi Riots in Charlottesville in 2017.

Miriam has been a guest lecturer at Middlebury College, Vermont, and the University of Adelaide Elder Conservatorium. She is a regular consultant to Young Artist Programs at State Opera of South Australia and Opera Australia. As a master singing teacher, she maintains an international studio. She has been interviewed for the Washington Post, Opera Now, Limelight Magazine, The Architectural Review (UK), Die Welt, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and NPR.