Could you outline your role at Opera Holland Park?

I run the education, outreach and community programme called Inspire. My role encompasses everything from writing the strategy and aims of the programme, to producing the events, delivering sessions and supporting fundraising. It means my days never really look the same: one day I could be delivering workshops at a school, and the next presenting to supporters and funders.

What is the Inspire Programme?

The Inspire programme covers almost all aspects of outreach, education and community work. In a nutshell, it’s the way that we at Opera Holland Park engage with our local community using music and opera. Our fundamental aim is to break down barriers of access to opera, and take our work out into the community to engage groups who may otherwise struggle to access it. 

Our work can be divided into three broad categories: youth and education; music for wellbeing; and community. Education and engagement with young people is also fundamental to the project – we want every child to be able to access opera, no matter what their background, and to show that opera really is for everyone. As well as our annual schools performance, in addition to a programme of workshops, this year we’re expanding to partner with children’s charity AllChild to run workshops for vulnerable primary school children and partnering with a local secondary school to support their music and drama provision. We also have exciting plans to start our OHP Youth Chorus.

In our music for wellbeing programme, we take music to care settings using it as a tool for connection and engagement. We work with centres caring for people with dementia, learning disabilities and other needs.

As well as our more interactive projects, we try to provide as many opportunities as possible for the community to engage in our work. This year, we have started a monthly community concert series allowing people to experience the joy of music through a monthly free concert performed by OHP singers. We also have extensive discounted ticket and access schemes.

What does your role look like, day to day, in leading the Inspire Programme’s delivery?

As our programme is so varied, so is my role! A big part of my role is acting as a producer for our projects, so one day I might be deep into organisation, liaising with partners, hiring freelancers to support delivery, creating marketing content and creating evaluations and reports post project. Another day I might be attending an event at a care home, meeting the participants to monitor the impact of the project and supporting our singers in their work, or running a workshop with a group of primary school children introducing them to opera.

Why do you think it’s important that companies like OHP continue to do this kind of outreach work? 

It’s so important that opera companies continue to try to break down barriers and show that opera is for everyone, to develop our next generation of opera-makers and audiences. Opera has a stigma for being elitist and inaccessible and this is something we’re really trying to challenge at OHP, particularly through our Inspire programme.

Where would you like to see the Inspire programme in 5 years? 

I would love to have built up our projects to run all year round and be fully ingrained in the community. I’m hoping in 5 years our Youth Chorus will be training up the next generation of young singers who then feature in our main stage productions. I hope our music for wellbeing programme is implemented in lots more care settings and our concerts in the community become a regular occurrence.

Isabella, you started as Education and Outreach Manager of the Inspire Programme in 2023. What’s your favourite part about your job?

Meeting so many wonderful people and being able to see the real-world impact of our work. I feel very lucky that I get to work with so many wonderful people – our core OHP team, our fantastic pool of talented freelancers, as well as our partners at hospitals, care settings, schools etc. Seeing the impact of our work for people in the community and hearing about what a difference it makes to people’s lives is so special and something I will never take for granted.

What is the Inspire Programme up to on World Opera Day? 

I’m so excited that we’re marking World Opera Day this year which combines all three pillars of our work (Youth & Education, Music for Wellbeing and Community).

In the morning, we’re running a careers in opera panel and directing workshop at All Saints Catholic College, a state secondary school in North Kensington. In the afternoon, we’ll be at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital performing a programme of famous opera pieces plus a chance for people to join our own scratch chorus!

 

World Opera Day will take place on 25th October 2024. Find out more about Inspire. 

Interview by Holly Bancroft