The Little Opera Teaching Team
Our season 5 core team was:
- Erin Bregman, Director and Teaching Artist (Story & Libretto)
- Danny Clay, Resident Composer (Grades 2-5)
- Jenny Hanson, AltSchool Teaching Artist
- Eva Langman, Development Associate and Teaching Artist (Story, Libretto & Acting)
- Albert Montañez, Teaching Artist (Voice)
- Alex Stein, Resident Composer (Grades 6-7)
- Ariana Strahl, Events Manager and Visiting Artist (Voice)
- Suzanne Vradelis, Teaching Artist (Story, Libretto & Dance)
What it's like to be part of the Little Opera Team:
"Little Opera strikes a great balance between rigorous musical instruction, creative writing, and fun. It's always a game, but it's never frivolous. All of the teachers are great — accomplished artists and educators and generally swell people. I wish we could all travel around together, in a clown car, all the time."
— Alex Stein |
"We're always trying out something new and improving our process for creating an original story, writing lyrics, writing music... Little Opera achieves this creative freedom by being a warm community and a safe space for both students and teachers. This is an environment where it is ok to fail and every failure brings a new opportunity for growth as a teacher, as a student, and as an organization."
— Jenny Hanson |
"As I have plunged into my 5th year teaching for Little Opera, I am feeling a particularly high degree of gratitude for the opportunities to create operas with our enthusiastic and inspiring children. I have had over 25 years of experience teaching in elementary schools and to top off my career working with the most accomplished artists, musicians, and actors has been like winning the creative lottery!"
— Suzanne Vradelis |
THE LITTLE OPERA TEACHING ARTIST TEAM isn't just a team of great educators — it's a team of practicing artists. In the last year, here are some of the artistic projects of our team:
- Erin Bregman helped to found and launch the playwright-producing organization 6NewPlays. In the fall of 2016, the group produced their first work, a sold-out run of Home Invasion by Christopher Chen.
- Danny Clay released a new full-length ambient album, Ganymede.
- Eva Langman co-wrote and performed a new album as part of the songwriting duo the Rainbow Tigers.
- Albert Montañez spent the summer performing in China as part of the I Sing International Young Artists Festival.
- Alex Stein & Erin Bregman were invited to participate in a 2-week music residency at Zoo Labs in Oakland, as part of the ongoing development of their musical collaboration.
- Ariana Strahl performed the lead role of Blanche in Opera San Jose's A Streetcar Named Desire.
- Suzanne Vradelis performed around the Bay Area with The Calling All Choir.
- Danny Clay & Visual Artist Jon Fischer were awarded a San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant for a collaborative sound sculpture project.
- Jenny Hanson continued to perform and serve as flute ambassador for the Awesöme Orchestra.
- Danny Clay was a regular curator at San Francisco's Center for New Music.
- Alex Stein's song cycle Underworld Songs were premiered by Sara Couden, Argenta Walther, and Jim Meredith.
- Erin Bregman's play A Bid to Save the World premiered in Washington, DC at Rorschach Theater.
- And, just for fun, Alex Stein arranged one of our favorite student songs from last season, Scarlet Fever, as a 4-part acapella piece. As a surprise for our students, we sang it together as part of the Winter Preview Concert. Not all of us are trained singers, but you can hear us having a blast performing it together here:
Advisory Board
Building an organization like Little Opera takes many things — time, energy, funding, passion, teamwork, and good ideas. Luckily for us, we have a team of advisors who lend us their wisdom, advice, encouragement, and brainpower to help us keep what we're doing on track. Our Season 5 Advisory Board was:
Special thanks to Emily Dahm, David Dubiner, Micah Bregman, Jodi and Nathaniel Stookey, and Dorothee and Patrick Chanezon.
*If you are interested in joining our board, please contact Erin Bregman at [email protected]
- Caitlin Brune
- Paul Cello
- Elizabeth Lindsley
- Heath Marlow
- Ziggy Rendler-Bregman
- Claire Shaw
- Melissa Smolensky
- Carolyn Spitz
- Jesse Taggert
- Kaitlyn Trigger
- Jonas Wright
Special thanks to Emily Dahm, David Dubiner, Micah Bregman, Jodi and Nathaniel Stookey, and Dorothee and Patrick Chanezon.
*If you are interested in joining our board, please contact Erin Bregman at [email protected]
2015-2016 Guest Artists
Each year, Little Opera seeks out artists in a variety of disciplines to work with our students as Master Class teachers, performance guests, building day volunteers, and pit musicians.
A total of 31 professional artists worked with Little Opera this season:
A total of 31 professional artists worked with Little Opera this season:
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