About Us

The Opera Academy of California (OAC, rhymes with "oak") is a non-profit charitable and educational organization, founded to educate new audiences about opera, and to give promising young singers an opportunity to polish their craft. We believe that bringing quality performers and appreciative audiences together will broaden the number of people who become passionate about this wonderful form of musical theatre.

We opened the Opera Academy in June of this year with an appreciation class for audiences on "The Queen of Spades" just prior to the San Francisco Opera's presentation of this Tchaikovsky classic. We are developing a series of opera appreciation classes based on the season of the SF Opera and Opera Companies around the Bay Area. In the future, we will have Master classes for singers that will be open to you. These public Master classes are a great opportunity for opera aficionados to get a behind-the-scenes peek into the work that singers and directors put into the dramatic performance you see on the stage.

"Spooky Times" was our first opera scenes program, and we are already planning three more programs for the next year. We will have a tribute to Mozart operas (2006 is the 250th anniversary of his birth), and a program called "Madness and Confusion in Opera". We will also be putting on a performance of Mozart's "Impresario" at the East Bay Chapter of the San Francisco Opera Guild's Annual Gala in January of 2006.

We hope that you will share with us a sense of pride and accomplishment that OAC has already contributed to making opera more accessible. We have a number of very talented good people who are working with us but we need your help as well. Whatever form of support, encouragement and/or participation you might choose - it will be greatly appreciated. Donations are fully tax deductible.

Thank you for your time and -in advance-for your kindness and generosity.

Yefim Maizel

CEO & Artistic Director

Opera Academy of California