Outreach

 

Our outreach program for public and private schools is a vital part of our overall program to bring awareness of opera to the community. Each year, we strive to bring at least one complete opera experience to our area children, varying each year from elementary through middle and high schools.

 

In past years, we have used two methods to achieve this goal. One method is traditional: we select a meaningful work, hopefully with immediate application to social or culturally relevant themes, hold auditions for student performers, and then present the finished product to the entire community. Out second method has been to select an emerging composer to work in conjunction with a particular school’s music teacher(s) and other instructional staff and actually help the students to “compose” their own new work. Art teachers and their students design and construct sets and costumes, and often students supply the accompaniments, playing their Orff instruments and recorders. This second method gives students a first hand look into the entire creative process and teaches them valuable lessons in artistic collaboration.

Both approaches to outreach have proved extremely popular. We have been fortunate in the past years to receive a generous contribution each year from Strowd Roses in Chapel Hill for this purpose and we look forward to continuing this relationship this year in our production of One False Move, an opera by Susan Kander regarding female bullying in our public schools.

Please see our 12^th Season schedule for performance information for this exciting and timely new work.