Association for the Development of Vocal Artistry and Neighborhood Cultural Enrichment (ADVANCE)

Manhattan

Project: ADVANCE-MORE Opera Strategies for Capacity Building and Artist Compensation in 2026 and 2027  

The Association for the Development of Vocal Artistry and Neighborhood Cultural Enrichment (ADVANCE) is dedicated to making opera and classical vocal music accessible and affordable to everyone, especially those in underserved communities in New York City. ADVANCE’s mission is to promote the understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of opera and classical vocal music through accessible, affordable, and culturally responsive operatic performances brought directly to audiences who otherwise may not have access. ADVANCE aims to transform lives and inspire excellence by presenting high-quality concerts and educational outreach programs to students, families, and older adults (ages 60+) in these communities.

ADVANCE-MORE Opera Strategies for Capacity Building and Artist Compensation in 2026 and 2027
ADVANCE’s 2026–2027 strategy leverages the Turandot centennial to build capacity and prominence. ADVANCE’s key initiatives include its founder’s appearance at NYU’s Turandot symposium; college student mentorship; expanding the organization’s presence in Queens via the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center; and presenting high-caliber performances of the Verdi Requiem and Anton Coppola’s unique Turandot ending with orchestra. This project prioritizes increased artist pay while securing ADVANCE’s place in the opera world.

Bronx Opera Company

Bronx

Project: Bronx Opera Performs and Teaches

The Bronx Opera (BxO) was founded in 1967 and is the only company in New York City other than the Metropolitan Opera to have produced annually since then. BxO has seen over 200 artists work at the Met in all capacities. Many BxO alums have gone on to national careers and taught at major conservatories. The company’s mission is to serve three communities: operatic artists (by giving opportunities to put their work on display); local audiences (by keeping ticket prices at $40 and under and presenting opera in English); and the Bronx (through outreach presentations and as educators).

Bronx Opera Performs and Teaches
The Bronx Opera Company will use its grant to support increased personnel fees and new fundraising and development work. The funds will support BxO’s current season, featuring Idomeneo and Ariadne auf Naxos, and 2026–2027 season, featuring a standard work to be announced and Steve Wallace and Kenny Harmon’s The Count of Monte Cristo. While funds will be used to support these seasons, the goal is to begin creating a solid footing, financially, for BxO’s future.

Caborca

Brooklyn

Project: Rubalee 

Caborca is a bilingual ensemble that has been making original experimental theater, music theater, and film under Puerto Rican writer/director Javier Antonio González since 2009. Caborca works in New York and on tour at the intersection of Latine and experimental arts, where audiences are hungry for the ensemble’s politically charged and formally innovative reflections on colonial power. Caborca combines disciplinary backgrounds in music, visual arts, postmodern dance, and performance with rigorous experimentation, continually reinventing its practices. Six of the ensemble’s 13 members, including González, come from or live in Puerto Rico. The remaining members come from China, Korea, and the breadth of the continental U.S. Headquartered in Brooklyn, Caborca is integrally a part of the Puerto Rican diaspora, the broader Latine culture, and Latin America.

Rubalee
Rubalee is an original work of heavy metal music theater about the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. With a cast of nine and a live drummer on stage, the score is sung chorally over black metal percussion and synth. It follows a young whale who, in order to escape hellish man-made conditions, undertakes a death-defying migration across the equator. Rubalee will receive a developmental workshop through Pregones’ ASAP residency program in 2026 and will likely premiere in 2027. The script is by Javier Antonio González, and the score is by David Skeist and Michael Rekevics.

Experiments in Opera

Brooklyn

Project: Reimagining the EiO Writers’ Room

Experiments in Opera (EiO) is a company founded by, run by, and serving artists. Its mission is to open up the boundaries of opera by supporting and guiding an inclusive group of musicians, composers, and librettists to expand their craft. The company positions new operas in a context shaped by its artist leaders and their work. EiO was founded in 2011 by three composers and is currently run by four artist leaders: Jason Cady, Shannon Sindelar, Kamala Sankaram, and Aaron Siegel. The company focuses solely on commissioning and producing new works and has commissioned 98 new works from 68 composers over the past 14 years. Each artistic season includes between three and six productions, usually a mix of fully staged premieres, curated group shows, and workshop presentations. EiO’s priority has always been to invite a demographically and stylistically diverse pool of contemporary composers into a conversation about the scale, medium, and narratives of contemporary opera.

Reimagining the EiO Writers’ Room
Having created four cohorts and four premieres in its Writers’ Room over the last eight years, EiO has learned many lessons about facilitating artistic collaboration. With support from its NYC Opera Grant, the company is embarking on a planning process to design the next iteration of the Writers’ Room, which begins in September 2026 and continues through June 2028. EiO is looking to expand the impact of the Writers’ Room and better align the outcomes with the company’s evolving artistic vision.

International Brazilian Opera Company

Manhattan

Project: Opera Nova Fundraising and Development

The International Brazilian Opera Company (IBOC) supports the creation of a new operatic repertoire that combines ideas from Brazilian and international artists while providing an educational structure for emerging talent. IBOC’s mission is based on three pillars: creation of a new repertoire that is relevant to our time for a diverse audience; trans-cultural collaboration, supporting voices from underrepresented demographics; and professional development and education for early and mid-career artists. IBOC believes that opera is the art form of the future. It can be a transmedia event that encompasses cutting-edge technology in the service of human connection. It unites all art forms, providing an experience that has no parallel. IBOC understands opera as a community-building effort. Opera Nova NYC is IBOC’s annual platform for new operatic works in progress — an open window into how new opera is made.

Opera Nova Fundraising and Development
This two-year project supports IBOC’s executive and grants directors while funding base operation costs for Opera Nova NYC — a series presenting new operas through piano fundraisers and public workshop concerts. The Opera Nova NYC initiative explicitly links artistic creation with donor engagement, with the goal of generating $40K to $80K in individual membership support while fostering collaboration between Brazilian and international artists.

New Camerata Opera

Bronx 

Project: L’amant anonyme

New Camerata Opera (NCO) is a democratically led ensemble of singer-producers whose mission is to cultivate new opera fans by breaking down traditional barriers. The organization delivers bold, inclusive experiences that meet audiences on stage, on screen, and in schools, while advancing artist development and equitable access. Founded in 2016 by eight professional singers with complementary skills in producing, design, and fundraising, NCO was built to collaborate across disciplines to lower costs, expand access, and incubate innovation. From NCO’s earliest seasons, three program strands — mainstage, education, and digital — have guided growth and impact.

L'amant anonyme
New Camerata Opera will present L’amant anonyme (Joseph Bologne, composer; François-Georges Fouques Deshayes, librettist) as a 1960s live TV event at the Baruch Performing Arts Center — reviving a brilliant Black composer whose voice reshaped the classical canon yet was long sidelined. Bilingual and Bronx-built, the production marries artistry and access: period design, ASL access, talkbacks, and student tickets under $20, with deep school and community partnerships to welcome new audiences to opera. It will be presented with French arias and English dialogue.

New Music Theatre Project

Queens

Project: New Work Development Fund

New Music Theatre Project (NMTP) is where theater meets music. NMTP’s mission is to invest in developing work that explores the traditional and innovative ways in which music and theater play together. The company’s core programs include the commissioning and development of new works, including musical theater, opera/operetta, instrumental work, and plays featuring music; all developed through a three-phase model of commissioning, workshops, and public presentations.

New Work Development Fund
The New Work Development Fund is the core program through which New Music Theatre Project is able to commission, develop, and produce projects by local emerging artists. NMTP’s commitment to a process of in-depth workshopping, and to the integration of all collaborative elements throughout the process, requires the company to coordinate overlapping development cycles of several projects at once. The New Work Development Fund seeds and supports these projects and NMTP’s mission to bring original works of music and theater to the greater New York City community. NMTP believes that music is an essential universal language, and this fund allows the organization to continue to connect with first-time audience members and emerging creators.

Opera Praktikos

Manhattan 

Project: Building Infrastructure for OPrak to Thrive While Making Opera Accessible!

Opera Praktikos (OPrak) is a small-budget, disability-forward opera company dedicated to making opera accessible, thereby building community. Founded in 2020 and incorporated in 2022, OPrak integrates live opera and other musical events for a growing local and online community. By centering accessibility and interconnectivity, OPrak presents opera as a transformational and inclusive art form reaching historically marginalized audiences. The company cultivates an active on-site and digital presence that extends well beyond any traditional performance venue. Opera is the vehicle through which OPrak generates this community of artists and audiences with and without disabilities. In 2018, Co-founders Gregory Moomjy and Marianna Mott Newirth met at OPERA America’s Professional Development Symposium, where a friendship was started and the seed for an opera company was planted. Moomjy, a musicologist, opera journalist, and dramaturg, uses a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy. Newirth, a librettist and independent producer, has been involved with the creation of new opera works since 2018.

Building Infrastructure for OPrak to Thrive While Making Opera Accessible!
Building on the momentum generated from its first NYC Opera Grant, OPrak is well-positioned to serve an increasingly vital role in the New York opera ecosystem. The company aims to expand awareness of its mission as a disability-forward organization and forge connections with new people in philanthropic circles who will be interested in seeing OPrak grow and thrive well into 2033. This opera company is in momentum. Building the infrastructure to support OPrak’s growth is key as the company kicks off its fifth year of operations.

The Opera Next Door

Brooklyn 

Project: Organizational Capacity Building

Born out of the stoop concerts presented in Brooklyn during the pandemic summer of 2020, The Opera Next Door (TOND) was created to fill the void left in the arts community by the loss of live performance, particularly opera. TOND’s inaugural production of Così fan tutte in May 2021 achieved something remarkable: It brought hundreds of neighbors together on a block in Brooklyn, fostering a sense of community and renewal after such a dark and isolating time. Since then, TOND has continued to share high-quality opera in spaces both conventional and unconventional. From city blocks to Lincoln Center, TOND reconnects the art form to its humble, audience-centric roots, forming a bridge between diverse new audiences and vibrant, culturally resonant opera performances, highlighting its relevance in our modern lives.

Organizational Capacity Building
The Opera Next Door currently operates as an unpaid team of three founding members. With its grant funding, the organization plans to hire consultants to support three key areas in which it has historically needed the most assistance: development, marketing, and administration.