As MOT salutes Karen VanderKloot DiChiera on her 80th birthday, we recognize the thousands of people whose lives have been impacted by her work- including those who have offered their own stories! Bernard Holcomb Acclaimed Tenor / Former Student Happy Birthday, Karen! From Bernard Holcomb from Michigan Opera Theatre on Vimeo. Being Karen …
In addition to her work as an arts educator, administrator, and stage director, Karen VanderKloot DiChiera is also an accomplished composer, a role that she seemed destined to fill from a very early age. Karen often recounts her childhood interest in the arts and her time spent at her family’s piano, putting together simple melodies. …
As Michigan Opera Theatre celebrates its 50th anniversary, we are thrilled to recognize Karen V. DiChiera on her 80th birthday! Karen has been instrumental in shaping not only MOT as an institution, but also the lives of thousands of aspiring young musicians, performers, and opera-goers through her work as an arts educator and the founder of …
From Left to Right: Kelli O’Hara, Janai Brugger, Nikisha Williams, Jonathan Christopher, and Eric Sciotto. Michigan Opera Theatre is thrilled to announce that its summer program for Teens, Operetta Remix, will feature an all-star lineup of Guest Artists including Tony-award winning actress and singer Kelli O’Hara, lauded American Soprano Janai Brugger, Broadway dancer Eric Sciotto, …
Learn more about the production here. Photos by: Mitty Carter Josephine McDonald, Auburn Hills Glorious voices. Magnificent Orchestra. Great conductor. Outstanding chorus. Thank you everyone who is associated with The Michigan Opera. Unless I missed something, it’s unfortunate there was no review of Cavalleria Rusticana at Meadowbrook in Detroit’s major newspapers. However, there was an …
Born June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker grew up in a low-income neighborhood. A street dancer with no formal training, she would become the highest paid female entertainer in the world; reaching audiences throughout the United States, Europe and South America. She was controversial in that she was very outspoken in terms …
It is not unique for a work of art to be inspired by injustice or born as a response to tragedy. But when Donald Byrd was commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to choreograph a new work and chose The Tulsa Race Massacre as his subject matter, he could not possibly have foreseen the …
As we continue to celebrate and acknowledge the magnificent 50-year history of Michigan Opera Theatre, one can’t help but nostalgically recall the birth of MOT with the program Overture to Opera! In 1943, the Detroit Grand Opera Association (DGOA) was formed by a group of influential patrons to bring traveling opera, such as …
Tinka Gutrick Dailey is currently a dance instructor in the Theatre Department at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. She had a professional career as a performer with Lee Theodore’s The American Dance Machine in New York, and has performed on Broadway, at Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center, as well as toured the …
Michigan Opera Theatre is thrilled to return to live opera, with its performance of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre on June 12th.  We thought we’d look back 15 months to our last staged in-door opera in March of 2020,  a double-bill of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost by American composer Michael …
