Opera Guild of Northern Virginia
Making Opera Accessible and Affordable for Children in Northern Virginia
Making Opera Accessible and Affordable for Children in Northern Virginia
OGNV's Links
Thank you to our Sponsors
If you are having any problems with the website please contact our webmaster Mike Becvar at operaguild@ sirbudproductions.com.
The Opera Guild of Northern Virginia (OGNV) was founded in 1992 as a volunteer-based, non-profit charitable organization to bring the joy of opera to the local community and develop regional support for the performing arts by fostering an appreciation for local theater across generations.
The Guild is incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia and has been recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity.
For 18 years, the Guild has offered major financial support for an annual family opera that is attended by school children during week day performances and by children with their families and community-based organizations on weekends. Because of our efforts, 25,000 school-aged children, many of whom would not have the opportunity otherwise, have attended an opera. The performances not only offer children a unique opportunity to hear an opera sung in English, but they also learn about various opera and theatre techniques, from special effects to the intricacies of set and lighting design.
Our members joined the Guild for many reasons. Some want to learn more about opera, while others enjoy attending performances and programs with a convivial group of like-minded friends. Our members have the opportunity to attend opera related events in the area and enjoy a variety of social activities, such as recitals, lectures, and brunches.
An annual brunch and awards ceremony is the highlight of the Guild's calendar. Each fall our members gather to socialize and honor outstanding young singers and local music and arts teachers. We celebrate the end of the year with a festive holiday champagne brunch and mini opera recital.
Throughout the year, the Guild sponsors lectures on various topics by leading professionals in the opera field. Past programs have featured a discussion of the role of choruses in the opera led by soprano Michelle Kunz and a discussion on Rossini and his opera La Cenerentola led by conductor John Edward Niles.
Each year, the Guild plans trips to attend opera and concert performances in the US. Members have enjoyed performances by the Metropolitan Opera, the NY Philharmonic, the Baltimore Opera, and the Pittsburgh Opera; we have also attended the Spoleto Festival in Charleston. In 2010, we will travel to the Chicago Opera Theater and enjoy a tour of musical events in southwest Virginia.
Concerts and recitals featuring rising singers and local performing groups are offered during the year. Past performances have included From Ragtime to American Opera and a recital by soprano Jessica Swink, a graduate of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.
Guild members gather several times a year to enjoy Metropolitan Opera simulcasts at various area movie houses on Saturdays at 1PM.
Guild Membership
The Guild strives to keep its members up to date on all things pertinent to opera in the area, as well as offering interesting and varied volunteer opportunities. Membership dues are $20 annually.
The Guild's mission is to make opera accessible and affordable for everyone in the northern Virginia community, regardless of socioeconomic status. By forming a Young Professionals Music Committee, we seek to further our mission by engaging with young people in their 20s and 30s and tap into their musical knowledge, interest in volunteering, and love for socializing. Help us chart our future!
Some of the ideas for this committee include:
With arts education funding in serious decline, the Guild has redoubled its efforts to provide funding and support for a variety of programs that serve children. We strongly believe that introducing opera to area school children should be integral part of the educational experience.
For each children's opera, the Guild develops a Teacher's Guide, which includes information about the opera, its composer, and the author of the book on which it is based. Teachers, community program leaders, and parents may download these guides free of charge from our website.
In 2008, the Guild partnered with the Children's Spanish Chorus to sponsor the first bilingual opera performed by and for children in Arlington. Because of the enthusiastic response, the Guild is excited to continue our partnership and offer additional bilingual operas for children in a community setting.
The Guild is currently exploring the possibility of tapping into other rich choral traditions so that we may continue to nurture musical talent, social integration, and multicultural understanding.
Opera guilds across the United States are generally non-profit volunteer organizations whose goals are to support opera companies and their missions. This is done in various and diverse ways. In the beginning, the support was in the form of volunteer hours–driving opera singers to and from the train stations or airports, sometimes housing a visiting singer. As opera companies became more sophisticated and more professional and as their need for help expanded, opera guilds began to take on projects equally more sophisticated, such as promoting the entire mission of an opera company. The expanded role of guilds has led to separate organizations with huge agendas of their own. Those agendas most often have taken various forms to excite community interest in attending operas and of course, to interest the community to donate funds to the opera company. Today, the Metropolitan Opera Guild has a budget in the millions of dollars. Over the past several years, community outreach has become a hallmark of American opera guilds.
The Opera Guild of Northern Virginia
The Opera Guild of Northern Virginia (OGNV) is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that was established in 1992 to support the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia (OTNV) and to assist it in its mission to make opera accessible and affordable for all residents of Northern Virginia. The Guild is a completely independent charitable entity, incorporated by the Commonwealth of Virginia and it has its own IRS Section 501 (c), (3) status. Neither its articles of incorporation nor its by-laws require the Guild to support or involve itself with OTNV. That support and involvement has been completely a matter of choice by the Guild. Having said that, the president of the Guild sits on the Board of Directors of OTNV, first as a Board Member and later, like Artistic Director John Edward Niles, as an ex officio member or as a liaison from the Guild. Since its inception, the Guild has supported OTNV financially, and has engaged in a number of activities designed to create interest and enthusiasm for opera generally and for OTNV in particular.
Those activities have included annual season-opening brunches for OTNV, trips to other opera venues both domestic and foreign, annual awards to opera professionals designated by OTNV, awards for community music and arts teachers of the year, networking with other community and opera groups and schools, a lecture series, lunches with celebrity speakers, and most dramatically perhaps, creation of a web page comparable only to those of the Met and the San Francisco Operas, and excelled by no others!
For the last ten years, the Guild has expanded its outreach to include special groups of Arlingtonians and our neighbors into the cultural community of Northern Virginia and the world of opera. We have tried to reach seniors by striving to keep performances within their financial reach, by working to address their special needs such as accessible seating, and by linking them to other performing groups in Arlington. We have paid attention to Hispanics and other ethnic groups by merging their musical heritages into the American world of opera. We have recognized the wonderful musical heritage of the African-American community and striven to include that heritage into our outreach. We have taken advantage of this area's unique foreign community by urging the attendance of embassy personnel and have worked with organizations like the People to People program. Primarily through the efforts of Guild Vice President Nancy Hall, we have included children with special needs into the world of opera by working with over thirty pre-existing groups which represent those children. We have cooperated with OTNV by recognizing and filling the needs of young performers and back-stage talent for a venue to do their work and for recognition of that work. And of course, we have always put our primary emphasis on adding opera to the education of Arlington's children.
The Guild's outreach to all of those groups would not be complete without a special mention of our love-affair with the heartfelt work of Cora Lee Khambatta and the immigrant community we have striven to include. Like Martin Luther King, we too have a dream which is to commemorate Mattiwilda Dobbs, an Arlington resident, and her historic performance as a soprano with the Metropolitan Opera. Mattiwilda Dobbs is included in the program for the Brunch, and we invite all to take note. Our "dream" has a second part and that is to reawaken in the 2009 African-American community their legacy from the opera world that might guide them into reclaiming their role as an audience for classical singing.
Community Outreach
Unfortunately, the reality is that arts and music education is losing funding due to government budget cuts at all levels. The Guild is doubling its efforts to promote and to help fund opera in the community. This includes attracting 3,000 audience members to the annual children's opera and general recruiting of attendance at OTNV's adult opera performances. In addition, the Guild reaches out to community-based groups such as the Girl Scouts, SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now), church choirs and Sunday schools. Last year, the Guild's initiative led to the attendance of the Ambassador of Croatia and her family at the OTNV production of Cinderella. Another initiative brought the Children's Choir from Macedonia Baptist Church to Cinderella in 2008 and their promise to return for Pinocchio in 2009. 3000 children from all cultures, backgrounds, religions and nationalities! Perhaps our goal to make attendance at an opera an educational entitlement is coming true!
OGNV Legacy
Guild President Miriam Miller has stated: "I consider myself a steward for those Arlingtonians who formed the Guild, for the members of the Arlington Service League in the 1970s who gave money to fund the first children's opera and for those who have advanced that cause over the years. I hope to keep that work alive. I see my volunteer work as a contribution to Arlington County and its citizens. Although OTNV and the Guild serve all of Northern Virginia, I view Arlington as their core and their heart."
For more information, call 703-536-7557.