George Cordes has been named Director of Performing Arts for Tupper Arts. (Provided photo)

TUPPER LAKE — Tupper Arts recently announced that arts administrator, performer, and stage director George Cordes will be joining its staff as the Director of Performing Arts in October 2025. This is a new position funded by a Support for Organizations grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Cordes has enjoyed a more than 30-year career as a performer with opera houses and theaters around the world. He and his wife, pianist Elizabeth Cordes, moved to the Adirondacks with their two children in 2006. Elizabeth is vocal music director with the Tupper Lake Central School District, where she and George co-direct the musicals and plays. They have worked with many of the music and theatre organizations in the High Peaks region and founded their own company, High Peaks Opera, in 2009.

Cordes joined the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts in Blue Mountain Lake in 2016 as artistic director and has produced nine seasons of programming with that organization, including the ADK LAKES Theatre Festival, the Weekend Concert Series, Tuesdays@ALCA, workshops, gallery exhibits, the Kids’ Arts Camp, and other elements of ALCA’s programming, including a new speaker series.

This year, he is again taking part in ADK LAKES Theatre Festival productions, joining the cast of the upcoming Shakespeare in the Parks production of As You Like It and directing and taking part in the musical-revue production, Seasons of Change. Performances of both productions will again be coming to Tupper Lake, along with other venues around the Adirondacks. George will leave ALCA at the end of its current season.

Cordes brings his many talents and skills to Tupper Arts as it continues its transformation and revitalization of the Adirondack State Theater. One of his responsibilities as director of performing arts will be to add live performances to the theater’s programming schedule, in addition to expanding the film offerings at this iconic 1914 cinema house. He will also oversee other Tupper Arts performance activities, including the Summer Sunset Series at the Tupper Lake bandshell.

Tupper Arts was awarded a New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant in 2024 to upgrade the Adirondack State Theater and its infrastructure.