Jim Schmidt • President

Jim Schmidt’s car radio has been tuned to KDFC classic music station for 40 years. The love affair began when his mother bought him an old 78 recording, Rusty in Orchestraville at age six; the Walt Disney animation Fantasia sealed his lifelong interest.

Pursuing duo degrees in engineering and business, and raising a family did not leave much time for the arts. Classes at Las Positas College, including one in opera, helped him reconnect with this passion, and it inspired him to seek out performances at opera houses in Europe while traveling abroad on work assignments for Johnson & Johnson.

Now retired, Jim currently is a member of the Livermore Rotary Club, serves on the Livermore Commission for the Arts, and is the immediate past president of the Livermore Cultural Arts Council.  He also tries to find time for skiing, cycling, and scuba diving. 

Jim discovered Livermore Valley Opera at the 2005 Opera in the Vineyard summer concert, and decided to sign up as a volunteer that very day. He attended a dress rehearsal and his first LVO performance of The Magic Flute thereafter and it further inspired him to take on a leadership role.