Gene Scheer

The son of two teachers, he was raised in Washington Township (Long Valley), New Jersey and attended West Morris Central High School.

Scheer collaborated again with Picker on An American Tragedy (based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2005, starring Nathan Gunn, Patricia Racette, Susan Graham, Dolora Zajick and Jennifer Larmore.

[2] Scheer has collaborated with the composer Jake Heggie on a number of projects, including the critically acclaimed Moby-Dick, which premiered at The Dallas Opera in April 2010, starring Ben Heppner and Stephen Costello.

[3] In February 2008, the Heggie-Scheer collaboration Last Acts (based on a play by Terrence McNally, opened at the Houston Grand Opera, starring Frederica Von Stade.

The concert-drama follows pivotal events of August 4, 1964 in the Lyndon Johnson White House: the discovery in Mississippi of the bodies of three murdered young civil rights workers and an alleged attack on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in honor of President Johnson's centennial, the work is based on diaries, news reports and historical documents concerning the events of that day.