Milwaukee's Skylight Opera Theater hires Shreveport Opera manager-director Eric Dillner after successful 7 years in Shreveport

Eric Dilner, Ashley Evans
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Eric Dillner has been named the new managing director for the Skylight Opera Theatre, says the Business Journal of Milwaukee.

Dillner served the past seven years as Shreveport (La.) Opera's general director and artistic director.

"We are thrilled with the depth and breadth of Mr. Dillner's leadership in arts management, directing, teaching and performance," said Suzanne Hefty, the Skylight's board president-elect and chair of the search committee.

As administrator at the Shreveport Opera, Dillner more than doubled the company's operating income and secured the company's largest corporate and individual donations in its 59-year history, continues the Journal.

The Shreveport Opera's annual budget is about $770,000, according to the nonprofit organization's 2006 tax filing. That total compares with The Skylight's budget of about $3 million.

Dillner will join the Skylight March 5.