With support from donors, sponsors, and patrons like you, 2025 was Opera Kelowna’s biggest year yet! Here are some highlights:
- The Valley Opera Summer Intensive (VOSI) program attracted 12 emerging artists from across Canada for 3 weeks of opera training. The 4th annual Women in Musical Leadership residency welcomed emerging conductor Eve Legault to take the podium in our August rehearsals. These programs are helping launch the next generation of opera stars: previous participants are now performing with Vancouver Opera, Calgary Opera, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, City Opera Toronto, and the Canadian Opera Company.
- Concerts and community partnerships brought us together with the Gary Cable Project, singers from UBC Vancouver’s Opera Ensemble Studio, the Eldorado Resort, Kelowna General Hospital, the Centre Culturel Francophone de l’Okanagan and the Kelowna Community Music School for performances that celebrated the best of operatic traditions, and brought music to our community in sometimes unexpected spaces.
- Two productions broke new ground. In February, Teiya Kasahara rocked Kelowna twice: first in the spell-binding performances of The Queen in Me and then a night of Rock-Opera crossover with Queen: A Night with the Opera. In August, the company transported patrons to 1920s Paris in our most ambitious production to date: Verdi’s La Traviata.
With help from our donors, sponsors, volunteers and patrons, we reached over 6000 people this year. We are committed to making high quality artistic experiences accessible for everyone in the community. Will you help us make that possible?
