Opera on the Spot
Learning and performances can happen anywhere!
Have an opera performance in your community! Whether it is a classroom, business, community center, or community event, Opera Philadelphia offers several programs that provide an up-close opera experience.
Opera Philadelphia is honored to serve the Philadelphia community!
Programs listed below with an * are available for FREE to Philadelphia public/public charter School District schools.
For questions, please contact us at education@operaphila.org
Opera Storybook Time | PreK - 2nd Grade*
Cost: $250
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Invite one of our teaching artists to come and read an age-appropriate book and do a creative activity that dives into the wonderful world of Opera!
Opera in a Trunk | Kindergarten - 4th Grade*
Cost: $250
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Costumes, props, and songs, OH MY! Students work with a Teaching Artist to create a short opera scene that explores the different parts of an opera!
Songwriting 101 | 5th Grade - 8th Grade*
Cost: $250
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Music is a vehicle for expression and lyrics are a powerful way to convey a story. Students join a Teaching Artist as they explore songwriting through the ages and write a song together.
Artist Visit | All ages welcome
Cost: $350, Duration: 45 minutes
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Develop your students’ interest in the arts by bringing an inspired “real-life" professional artist into your location. The artist will talk with the students about their career journey, provide a short performance, and talk about upcoming Opera Philadelphia performances.
Marian’s Song: A Musical Storytime | Grades 3 and up
Cost: $800, Duration: 45 minutes
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A dramatic reading of When Marian Sang by Pam Muñoz Ryan, about the Philadelphia-born contralto Marian Anderson, with songs performed throughout the reading including rarely heard compositions by Florence Price.
Chloe Lucente, Teaching Artist
Chloe Lucente, soprano, is originally from Carrboro, North Carolina. As an educator, she believes in the transformative power of arts education and its ability to ignite creativity and foster self-expression in young learners. Chloe teaches private piano and voice lessons in Philadelphia. Her operatic performance roles include Papagena with New York Lyric Opera Theatre and Pamina with Appalachian Opera Theatre. In concert, she recently performed the soprano solo in David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion with the Temple University Concert Choir. She is a passionate and dynamic choral singer, and has performed with Seraphic Fire at the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Chloe earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Appalachian State University and Master of Music degree in Vocal Arts from Temple University. Other recent engagements include Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and the soprano solo in Handel’s Messiah.
Elizabeth Gautsche, Teaching Artist
Praised by the Houston Press for performances “full of vigor and spirit,” soprano Elizabeth Gautsche most recently appeared as Volunteer Girl in Houston Grand Opera’s premier workshop of A Space of Sky, and as a step-out soprano character in Marian’s Song. Her other workshop engagements have included Maggie Ann in Turn and Burn and Maxie/Barbelle 2 in Katie, the Strongest of the Strong. She has since performed the character Maxie/Barbelle 2 in Houston Grand Opera’s virtual touring opera, Katie, the Strongest of the Strong. She was to perform the role of Maggie Ann in the premier of Turn and Burn in February of 2022, but the production has since been postponed due to covid19.
Ms. Gautsche made her professional debut in 2017 with Opera in the Heights as Papagena in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte. Her previous roles include Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Armida in Rinaldo, Peep-bo in The Mikado and Rusalka in Rusalka. Ms. Gautsche was an emerging artist in the renowned Opera Works Summer program in Northern California.
In addition to her operatic career, Ms. Gautsche has recently joined the team of Teaching Artists with Opera Philadelphia. She previously served as a Teaching Artist for the Los Angeles Opera and the Houston Grand Opera, empowering people from all walks of life through music. She has created and led workshops on cultivating empathy through music and storytelling at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center and The Women’s Home. She has also taught art song and opera residencies for refugee after-school programs in the greater Houston area. Ms. Gautsche has worked hand in hand with the Houston Area Women’s Center (HAWC) to educate and empower women. She was the coordinator and soprano soloist of the HAWC’s beneficiary concert, “Exultate! Uplifting women through song” in 2018.
Ms. Gautsche is a passionate and sought after voice and piano teacher. She taught as an Adjunct Voice Professor at Sam Houston State University and maintains a full private studio, working with aspiring musicians all over the United States. Ms. Gautsche served as the temporary Artistic and Rehearsal Coordinator for the Houston Grand Opera in 2020, and as the temporary Studio Administrator for the HGO Studio in 2019. She was also the assistant to the director of Accademia Vocale Lorenzo Malfatti summer training intensive in Lucca, Italy in 2014. Ms. Gautsche earned a Master of Music degree in Voice from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM).