At the recent National Opera Association Conference in New Orleans (Jan. 3-7), voice professors Dr. Maria Briggs and Dr. Anthony Radford, as well as master’s graduate Alejandra Tejeda, all presented on behalf of the Fresno State Department of Music.

The theme for this year’s NOA conference was “Opera’s Tradition and Rebirth: New Orleans 1796-2018.”

“Fresno State is uniquely placed in a diverse and changing social environment and our story puts us on the cutting edge of what is happening artistically and educationally in the arts,” Radford said. “In all ways, California often acts as a testing ground for ideas and concepts that are adopted later in the national sphere and that applies to ideas in Opera Education. We showed that developing operas that use stories from other cultures, outside of the Western European cultural sphere, can be a way to introduce the art form to new audiences.”

Next year’s conference will be held Jan. 9-12, 2019, in Salt Lake City Utah.

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