Educating and Growing with our community as we explore complex issues in the arts world. 

Opera Talk | Episode: The Changing Voice Exploring Gender, Identity, and Inclusion in Opera and Choral Music

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This week on Opera Talkback — Tacoma's own opera podcast — we dive into one of the most vital conversations happening in the classical world today: how opera and choral music can evolve to honor and include transgender and non-binary voices. The Changing Voice unfolds in two parts, weaving expert insight with live performance.

 

 

Part One features two remarkable industry voices. Dr. Anna Hamre serves as Artistic Director of the Fresno Community Chorus Master Chorale and Director of Choral Activities at Fresno State University. An internationally active conductor, adjudicator, and clinician, she has appeared twice at Carnegie Hall and led her ensembles on tour across Europe and Asia, and currently serves as Past President of the American Choral Directors Association, Western Region. She is joined separately by Christine Graham, soprano and Assistant Professor of Practice at Northern Arizona University's Kitt School of Music and an international opera singer whose work spans both the stage and the classroom. Together they explore how the opera and choral worlds can adapt — and must adapt — to be truly inclusive of trans and non-binary voices.

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Part Two turns to performance and personal testimony. Raven (they/them) opens with "Sibella" from A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, followed by "I Have Dreamt" from the opera Wuthering Heights — two pieces that speak to longing, identity, and emotional depth. After performing, Raven sits down to share what it means to navigate the operatic world as a non-binary performer: the joys, the challenges, and what they hope the industry will become. Then Karen Dunstan (she/he/they) takes the stage with "Ah, Vittoria, Vittoria!" from Puccini's beloved comic opera Gianni Schicchi — a blazing moment of triumph and declaration. Karen then joins the conversation, reflecting on their own experience as a multi-pronoun performer and what the industry must do to make space for voices and identities like theirs.

This episode is provided with generous support by Tacoma Creates and the City of Tacoma.

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