Friday, March 03, 2017

The University of North Carolina Wilmington is collaborating with Opera Wilmington to bolster performance and education programs, the university announced today.

Opera Wilmington will become the resident company of UNCW, providing scholarly opportunities for students and faculty in performance, design and music history. In additional to research opportunities, UNCW and Opera Wilmington will work together to expand and create new opera programs for people throughout southeastern North Carolina.

“Our partnership helps UNCW reach a segment of the community that made a decision to live in Wilmington because of the outstanding cultural and educational opportunities here,” said Kristen Brogdon, UNCW Office of the Arts director.

The company will receive administrative and marketing support from UNCW’s Office of the Arts, but will maintain its independent board of directors and nonprofit status.

“For any arts organization, the ability to consult and collaborate with professionals in arts administration is invaluable,” said Nancy King, Opera Wilmington’s artistic director and coordinator of vocal studies at UNCW. “We are very grateful to have such outstanding collaborators on campus at UNCW to help bring Opera Wilmington to the next level.”

Opera Wilmington has been staging operas and concerts for the past three seasons. The company strives to cultivate a new generation of opera lovers through live operatic performances and educational outreach programs.

“The partnership is a natural fit since many of the production team members and orchestra are music and theatre faculty,” King added.

This summer, the university and the company will offer an opera camp for young singers, who will have the chance to sing in the children’s chorus for the opera Carmen.

 -- Venita Jenkins

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