Opera on Tap launches the George Shirley Opera Access Fund with lead support from Miranda Family Fund.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 2023 –
Press Contact: press@operaontap.com

Opera on Tap is thrilled to announce the launch of the George Shirley Opera Access Fund, in partnership with and named in honor of the trailblazing operatic tenor and arts education activist. The Fund will support Opera on Tap’s popular Playground Opera education program to title 1 schools across America, and amplify the voices of a diverse group of opera singers, instrumentalists and composers who participate in Opera on Tap’s educational programming. Thanks to a major grant from Miranda Family Fund as the very first gift to kick off the Fund’s launch, the Playground Opera elementary education program will expand in the local Inwood and Washington Heights neighborhoods, free of charge to schools that qualify.

Professor George Shirley says “Using technology to stimulate children’s expressive, inventive nature forms the core of Opera on Tap’s unique Playground Opera Program that sonically and visually weds to music drama the child’s natural tendency to physically “make-believe” and “pretend to be,” thus becoming a vehicle for exciting a holistic desire for learning. Why opera? What better way than employing in this venture the “original instrument,” an organ implanted in the human throat capable of producing sounds that express deep-seated emotions in vocalizations that precede the acquisition of words and are arguably musical? Such vocalizations remain the primeval mode of expression in infants and young children before they acquire a usable vocabulary. Thus “sing the play” makes sense, making opera and musical theatre ideal vehicles for fertilizing nascent intellect. I applaud and support Opera on Tap for its innovative paradigm for nurturing mind and soul in this 21^st Century.”

Opera on Tap Artistic Director Anne Hiatt says “We are deeply honored to be launching this Fund along with Professor Shirley to ensure students across America who lack access to quality arts and music education can participate in our program.  And we are so grateful to receive this important leadership grant from the Miranda Family Fund to launch it. This gift from a family that is seminal to the performing arts industry here in NYC is a wonderful vote of confidence in the important work we are doing to provide free access to quality arts education, and performance opportunities.”

Patrons of arts and music education can learn more about the George Shirley Access Fund and make contributions here:
https://playground.operaontap.org/george-shirley-opera-access-fund/

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ABOUT PLAYGROUND OPERA
Playground Opera is a 2021 Infymaker Award-winning STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) interdisciplinary program that emphasizes music and media concepts with life and career skills. The cornerstone of this popular Opera on Tap program is the National Education Foundation’s “Four Cs”: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity–and prioritizes active learning in order to create a participatory, interactive experience for a broad and diverse student community. Every Playground Opera curriculum culminates in a “red-carpet event” where students get to perform, for their communities, alongside professional opera singers on the big screen. Designed specifically for 3rd-5th grade students, Playground Opera includes an interactive digital portal that allows teachers, parents, and caregivers to equitably facilitate arts education. Our episodic curriculum is designed to immerse students in every aspect of the creation, production and performance of an opera. By creating new children’s productions and re-imagining canonized repertoire to amplify diverse voices, we have created opportunities for a vast array of emerging and professional artists and Teaching Artists who face barriers in traditional models of opera and arts education. Learn more by watching the program trailer.

ABOUT GEORGE SHIRLEY
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 18, 1934, the American tenor and teacher, George Irving Shirley, began music lessons at age 6, when his family relocated to Detroit, Michigan. He was active as a vocalist at churches in the area and as a baritone horn player in a local band. He entered Wayne State University in Detroit as a music education major, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1955. He was drafted into the military the following year and became the first African-American member of the United States Army Chorus. 

After his discharge in 1959, he continued studying voice in Washington, D.C.; then he moved to New York where his professional career began. George Shirley made his debut with a small opera troupe at Woodstock, New York in a production of Die Fledermaus. He then traveled to Italy and made his European debut as Rodolfo Puccini’s popular opera, La Boheme. In 1961, he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions by performing Nessun dorma, beginning an eleven-year association with the house. While at the Met, he sang 28 different roles from 26 operas, especially those of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Strauss and Wagner. He has recorded for RCA, Columbia, Decca, Angel, Vanguard, CRI, and Philips and received a Grammy Award in 1968 for his role of Ferrando in the RCA recording of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. George Shirley became involved with education, and taught at the University of Maryland from 1980 until he accepted a position at the University of Michigan in 1987. He remains a staunch advocate for arts education.

ABOUT THE MIRANDA FAMILY FUND
For over 40 years, Luis A. Miranda, Jr. and Dr. Luz Towns-Miranda have championed community activism, through the Miranda Family Foundation, they have created and supported institutions focused on underserved populations in Upper Manhattan, communities throughout NYC, across the country, and in Puerto Rico. In order to develop a pipeline of the next generation of artists, the Miranda Family has created professional development and training opportunities for young artists of color through partnerships with arts institutions throughout the country. Closer to home the family is focused on improving access to arts education in their own neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood. To learn more visit: https://www.linmanuel.com/advocacy/

ABOUT OPERA ON TAP
Opera on Tap began as a small monthly gathering of ambitious, classically-trained singers looking for more performance opportunities. OOT has grown into a producing organization that has gained a loyal audience base and national recognition as an innovative force on the classical music scene. Through its Chapter program, which now has thirty-five vibrant national and international chapters, OOT has created the world’s largest network of operatic performers, creators, and supporters. Visit our chapter page to view our chapters. Along the way, Opera on Tap has developed the Immersive Opera Project, New Brew, and other programming that commissions living composers, performs works of contemporary composers. Our flagship education program, Playground Opera, educates children in the world of opera, music and theatre across the globe. We are headquartered as a national organization in Brooklyn, NY and, in addition to supporting our chapters around the world, present locally produced programs intended to adhere to our mission of community engagement through opera.

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For more information visit

https://playground.operaontap.org/george-shirley-opera-access-fund/