Administration

Craig Trompeter, Founder & Artistic Director

Craig Trompeter is the founder and Artistic Director of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company. As cellist and violist da gamba he has performed with Second City Musick, the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, Music of the Baroque, the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, and the Oberlin Consort of Viols. He has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Glimmerglass Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Valletta International Baroque Festival in Malta and has appeared as soloist at the Ravinia Festival, the annual conference of the American Bach Society, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with Music of the Baroque. Trompeter has recorded works of Mozart, Bologne, Biber, Boismortier, Marais, Vivaldi, Handel, Greene, Henry Eccles, and a potpourri of Elizabethan composers on the Harmonia Mundi, Cedille, and Centaur labels. As a modern cellist, he was a founding member of the Fry Street String Quartet and premiered several chamber operas by MacArthur Fellow John Eaton, performing as actor, singer and cellist. He has taught master classes at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin, Grinnell College, and the Chicago Musical College. In 2003 he founded the Feldenkrais® Center of Chicago where he teaches Awareness Through Movement® and Functional Integration®. He has given Feldenkrais workshops throughout the nation in universities, music conservatories, opera companies, and dance studios. Trompeter conducts the Early Music Ensemble at the University of Chicago and teaches Baroque Performance Practices at Northwestern University.

Chase Hopkins, General Director

Chase Hopkins currently serves as the General Director of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company, whose “verve in historically informed performance is second to none” (Opera News). Hopkins has led innovative initiatives at Haymarket, including a new partnership with the Ravinia Festival, producing three films throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, leading two commercial recordings with Chicago’s Grammy Award-winning classical label, Cedille Records, and fostering a partnership to broadcast globally on Classical WFMT, reaching over 1 million listeners. In 2024, Hopkins launched The Haymarket Review, a innovative digital publication building community around Haymarket and historical performance. Hopkins offered a "skillful" (Chicago Classical Review) debut as a stage director in 2023, leading a critically acclaimed production of Hasse's "Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra." In 2024, Hopkins directed Haymarket's production of Handel's "Tamerlano," praised as an "impressive achievement" (Opera Magazine), and will semi-stage Handel's "Alcina" for Haymarket's Ravinia Festival debut in August, 2025. Prior to his work as an arts leader, creative producer, and stage director, Hopkins' singing career included a strong focus on Baroque opera, having performed at festivals across Europe and the United States with distinguished conductors including Rene Jacobs, Jonathan Cohen, and Christian Curnyn. Hopkins serves as the artistic director of Opera Edwardsville, a community-centered nonprofit arts organization dedicated to supporting arts education and cultural enrichment in Southern Illinois, which he founded in 2018, and serves as a judge for the prestigious Handel Aria Competition (2022, 2023, and 2024). Graduating cum laude, Hopkins received his Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University with a major in music and minors in musicology and business. Hopkins received his Master’s degree in music from the Royal Northern College of Music, in the United Kingdom, graduating with distinction. In 2024, Hopkins completed executive training through the Program for Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School.

Jianghai Ho, Development Coordinator

Jianghai Ho is currently serving as the development coordinator of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company. As a performer he has performed with Haymarket Opera Company, Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, Music of the Baroque and Fargo Moorhead Opera.