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 2005 with an opera appreciation class for audiences on "The Queen of Spades" just prior to the San Francisco Opera's presentation of this Tchaikovsky classic.

"Spooky Times" was our first opera scenes program in October 2005. It was a special Halloween progam, celebrating witchraft and supernatural in opera.

We presented a performance of Mozart's "Impressario" at the East Bay Chapter of the San Francicso Opera Guild's Annual Gala in January of 2006. The new General Director of San Francisco Opera, Mr. David Gockley, was in the audience and was very complimentary of the performance.

"Happy Birthday, Mr. Mozart!" was a tribute to Mozart's 250th birthday, a program of excepts and scenes from five Mozaret operas that we performed at the Magic Theater, Fort Mason in San Francicso in May of 2006.

We held another opera appreciation class for audiences on "Maid of Orleans" in June of 2006, again, just prior to the San Francisco Opera's presentation of this Tchaikovsy opera.

In March of 2007, we presented "Gems of Russian Opera", a performance and a master class for singers that was open to the public. This public Master class was 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.

For Holiday season of this year - on 5th, 6th & 7th of December 2008 - Opera Academy of California presents "Winter Season in Opera", a special Opera Scene Evening featuring for the first time in the same program Scenes and Arias from both "La Bohème" by Leoncavallo and by Puccini. Also performed are arias from famous but rarely performed Russian operas "Christmas Eve" by Rimsky-Korsakov and "Tsarina’s Slippers" by Tchaikovsky based on the same story by Russian writer Nicolai Gogol. We perform at the Magic Theater, Fort Mason in San Francisco again. You can find more information about the program and about how to buy tickets on our special "Winter Season in Opera" page on this web-site.

We are already planning more programs for the next year: October 2009 Spooky Times Strike Again- a Halloween program. February 2010 Les Bavards - Offenbach’s operetta masterpiece ("Chatterboxes"). We are also 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 more Master classes for singers that will be open to you. 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.

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