Many opera companies start small. A handful of artists and volunteers putting on shows in intimate spaces or holding fundraisers or even workshopping new operas in development — there’s no one track to establishing a foothold in the nonprofit landscape.

Once they stake out some territory, however, it’s time to build. “Our next goal is to hire staff,” says Athena Azevedo, executive director of the International Brazilian Opera Company, a small New York City-based opera company. IBOC is one of 10 companies to receive funding from OPERA America’s inaugural NYC Opera Grants: Support for Small-Budget Companies program, alongside other companies like the Brooklyn-based Experiments in Opera and New Music Theatre Project and the Manhattan-based Opera Praktikos and Opera Ebony. (A complete list of companies is below.)

The International Brazilian Opera Company will receive $20,000 spread out over two years. “That $10,000 a year might seem small to some companies, but to us it’s huge,” Azevedo says. “It’s a recognition that our work has value beyond our smaller community and in the opera field.” She and cofounder João MacDowell have been volunteering some of their time to help the company put on performances. The grant will allow them to draw a small salary so they can devote time to building the organization. “We’re anticipating about an $85,000 budget next year, and our hope is to grow that to about $350,000 over the next five years,” Azevedo says.

A majority of the companies receiving this grant funding are using the money to pay staff or artists or supplement those payments. “As a new company, we put the paying of our people as the priority — 90% of our budget goes to paying people creating and producing the art,” says Marianna Mott Newirth, executive producer of Opera Praktikos, which calls itself New York’s first disability- affirmative company. That company earned its nonprofit 501(c)3 status a year ago. “We want OPrak to become something bigger than us, and that means building to pay fair wages,” she says. Some of the company’s funding will supplement marketing efforts, and some will indeed supplement artist payments for its upcoming production There Will Be Cake!, a pairing of two mono operas: Bon Appétit! by Lee Hoiby, Mark Shulgasser, and Julia Child and Fluffernutter Peanut Butter by Spicer Carr and Marianna Mott Newirth.

“I think it’s particularly true that as opera tries to figure out what it’s going to become, we need to be more attuned to the needs of our creators and performers,” says Greg Moomjy, the company’s artistic director.

The NYC Opera Grants: Support for Small-Budget Companies grant program is supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation. Funding for this first cycle of grants totaled $195,000, and the recipients are as follows:

• Amanda + James
  Manhattan
• Association for the Development of Vocal Artistry and Neighborhood Cultural Enrichment
  Manhattan
• Experiments in Opera
  Brooklyn
• Harlem Opera Theater
  Manhattan
• International Brazilian Opera Company
  Manhattan
• The Lighthouse Opera Company
  Bronx
• New Music Theatre Project
  Brooklyn
• Opera Ebony
  Manhattan
• Opera Hispánica
  Manhattan
• Opera Praktikos
  Manhattan