Addison Clemence Arya Sophia Miraya Maurissa Get to Know our National Council ! By: National Opera Teens Advisory Committee My name is Julia Noel, and I am a junior at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. I am a member of the San Francisco Opera Scouts and I am honored to be sharing the title of Co-President of the National Opera Teens Advisory Committee this year. I am fortunate to have had the chance to become fluent in French, Russian as well as English. I began singing at the age of six and I became interested in Opera several years later. It is such an Honor to be a part o ..read more

By: Daniel K., National Opera Teens Advisory Committee, NYC Opera Teens Council. My name is Daniel K. and I am the president of the New York High Schools Opera Teens Council. I started this council because I wanted to share my great passion for opera, and to provide a place for other opera lovers in NY high schools to engage with each other.  I was fortunate to sing in the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus and have sung in many operas including solos in The Magic Flute, Tosca, and Werther. Two of my friends from the Met have joined my teen council and we’ve gathered others to participate i ..read more

By: National Opera Teen Advisory Committee  The National Opera Teen Advisory Committee is very excited to be fundraising to attend Opera America’s 2019 Conference in San Francisco this June. Our committee, composed of students who represent Opera Teens Councils from across the country, steers the future of the program. We would like to attend the conference in order to get involved in the conversations surrounding the future of opera. Since many of us hope to become involved in the opera industry in the future, it is important that we are involved in these discussions.  “I had the opportunity ..read more

Opera Teens: By: Kacie G., National Opera Teens Advisory Committee, Forte Teens What Does Opera Mean to you? Opera has a different meaning for everyone. With every answer we all lead to one common point, being that it brings a community together to create something meaningful. We want to show the world what an amazing art form opera really is. It doesn’t matter if you’re 50 or 15, opera was created for anyone of any age to enjoy. Click the link to see the video that our opera teens members from Forte Teens have created ..read more

By: Emma F., National Opera Teens Advisory Committee, Opera Maine This summer, I had the opportunity to attend Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute. This was a very valuable experience, as I took classes in music history, theory and diction, as well as participated in many other performance-oriented activities. One of the reasons that this summer was so special, however, was because I was at Tanglewood during the Bernstein centennial. Bernstein spent a significant amount of his career giving concerts at Tanglewood, so the Bernstein centennial was well celebrated there. I saw many concerts ..read more

By: Emma F., National Opera Teens Advisory Committee, Opera MaineThis past week, I was very lucky to be able to represent the Opera Teens at OPERA America’s 2018 Conference.  I was able to get there because of the hard work of Brenda Huggins, Opera Teen Coordinator and OPERA America Learning and Leadership Manager, Caroline Koelker, Opera Maine Executive Director, and many others.  Having representation from teens at this conference is important, as they are the future audience and workforce for the opera industry.  Making teens aware of the issues that opera faces and incorporate their perspe ..read more

By: Emma F., National Opera Teens Advisory CommitteeKurt Weill’s classic Threepenny Opera tells the tale of a “Mack the Knife,” a notorious gangster, and the quest of Mr. and Mrs. Peachum to bring him to justice. The piece satirizes opera itself while also examining the morality of life in the slums. It is exciting, raunchy and easily adored by audiences. The Boston Lyric Opera’s sold out run of this underperformed opera was very well received.It opened with a chilling rendition of the “The Ballad of Mack the Knife,” with Daniel Belcher miming the stabbing a group of hooded figures. This was o ..read more

Some thoughts from the National Opera Teens Advisory Committee…“Performing opera is one of the most challenging and exciting things that I do. Classical singing is incredibly rewarding because it allows me to both explore a character and interpret the music and text. Through this exploration, I am often able to take on a new persona and act completely differently to how I would in my regular life. Watching performances is equally as important to me. When I go to the opera, I have the fortune of getting wrapped up in the elaborate stories, costumes, characters, orchestra, set and singers for a ..read more

By: Samuel K., National Opera Teens Advisory Committee A singer lay in his dressing room, unconscious, due to a massive cardiac arrest. As the angelic voice of Russian soprano, Evelina Dobrečeva flooded the backstage PA, her aria was the accompaniment to his death, I thought. I witnessed it all.
I joined the Cincinnati Opera as a sixteen-year-old trainee and spent one summer working administratively in its Rehearsal Department, and a second summer assisting and shadowing Artistic Director, Evans Mirageas. As a high school student with a passion for the performing arts, I worked in tandem with ..read more

By: Sareen B., Capital Opera Teens, National Opera Teens Advisory CommitteeThis fall, the Capital Opera Teens were lucky enough to see the In Series Opera Company’s Magic Flute. Performed at the D.C. Scottish Rite auditorium on 16th Street in downtown Washington, DC, the show was intimate and youthful and lovely! AND hilarious.  My younger sister, Arya, was one of the Three Spirits (she has also performed this role with the Washington National Opera and in the Siena Music Festival) and was terrific—as was the entire cast. The director, Rick Davis, created a “backstory” for these performances t ..read more