Lumahai Productions, LLC

Lumahai Productions seeks to spotlight and support a range of remarkable artists through live and virtual programs, created for institutional heavyweights but also for smaller, nimble outfits with an appetite for risk-taking. With her team, founder Elena Park, the daughter of Korean immigrants, is excited to explore ideas and make connections among the worlds of arts, culture, media, technology, and current affairs, with an open spirit and an abiding belief in equity. 

As Creative Director/Executive Producer of the Onassis Foundation’s Visual Cavafy, Elena recently directed a series of visual poems featuring the talents of artists such as Carl Hancock Rux and Julianne Moore, which debuted at the New Museum. Executive Producer of the Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus digital season, she also directed orchestral captures led by Alan Gilbert and Jane Glover. With San Francisco Opera, Elena created the In Song series, featuring Jamie Barton (with Béla Fleck), J’Nai Bridges, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Amina Edris, Pene Pati, Pretty Yende, and Meigui Zhang; and directed Intonations for the Cabrillo Festival; and Vân-Ánh Võ & Blood Moon Orchestra for Stanford Live. For the San Francisco Symphony, she stage directed its Re-Opening Night (Sept 2022), following MTT25: An American Icon (Spring 2020). She produced Stanford filmings with Zakir Hussain, Garrick Ohlsson, and Kronos Quartet (including “The President Sang Amazing Grace” with Meklit, highlighted by Tom Friedman/The New York Times just before the 2020 election).

Her NationalSawdust+ series has tapped artists such as Laurie Anderson, Marina Abramović, Yo-Yo Ma, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Esperanza Spalding, and Carrie Mae Weems. For the Metropolitan Opera: Supervising Producer, The Met: Live in HD series for its first 140 shows and Executive Producer, Saturday radio broadcasts. Other roles: Co-Executive Producer of Cabrillo Festival’s 2021 virtual festival; Strategic Advisor for San Francisco Opera, Meyer Sound, and Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Living Arts; Artistic Consultant for the Kennedy Center. Film and TV credits: Music Producer for Bel Canto, starring Julianne Moore (voiced by Renée Fleming) and Ken Watanabe, and Creative Consultant for Mozart in the Jungle, the Golden Globe-winning TV series.

TV fILM Radio & Podcasts

We direct and produce programs for TV, radio, and film, including San Francisco Opera’s In Song singer portraits and the Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus digital series, as well as contributing to The Met: Live in HD, seen in 1600 theaters in 70 countries, and its Saturday radio broadcasts. (Above: Anna Netrebko, Piotr Bezcala, and host Joyce DiDonato)

CURATION

NationalSawdust+ connects artists and thinkers including Marina Abramovic + Laurie Anderson, Patti Smith + Waltraud Meier, and Jad Abumrad + Caroline Shaw.  Guest NS+ curators have ranged from directors Julie Taymor and Michael Mayer to visual artist Carrie Mae Weems (above, with Craig Harris) to writer Jacqueline Woodson. In addition to talks for the Kennedy Center, Elena also created events in partnership with NYPL Live, Le Poisson Rouge, and Guggenheim Works & Process, where she has served as moderator. (photo: Jill Steinberg)

STRATEGIC CONSULTING

Elena creates strategies for programming, media, marketing, and communications, whether for audio pioneer Meyer Sound, San Francisco Opera’s digital offerings, the JFK Centennial at the Kennedy Center, a citywide festival of Cambodian culture (and Bangsokol), or the worldwide transmission of Kanye West's Adidas YEEZY launch. (Above: Royal Ballet of Cambodia/Pete Pin)

INSTALLATIONS

We are developing art installations such as Passing, a large-scale, three-room installation utilizing Tibetan objects and imagery, created with artist Sonam Dolma Brauen. Her art work, My Father's Death (detail, 2009), is pictured above.