‘Mapping Community (through) Opera’ Conference

L’ORFEO announces conference ‘Mapping Community (through) Opera’, co-organised with Blair School of Music (USA).

As part of L’ORFEO’s ongoing collaboration with the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, a conference, ‘Mapping Community (through) Opera’ will take place in Nashville, 11–13 June 2027. The conference will include a free performance of opera excerpts by the Vanderbilt Opera Theatre on 12 June.

The conference is being organised by Allison Chu and Jennifer Q. McGuire at the Blair School of Music, and Edward Venn and Katie Gardner from L’ORFEO, University of Leeds. The call for papers and additional information about the conference can be found here.

The conference will bring together scholars, performers, practitioners, and administrators of opera to examine multiple relationships between opera and community. Opera has long been thought to bring communities together, performed for a communal audience, and create community amongst performers. Opera can also represent communities on stage, and opera’s audiences have stereotypically been of a privileged and (often) white demographic. In some guises, community opera has moved out of the physical opera house. Ultimately, these community engagement initiatives and activities have now become integral to an opera company’s function, especially as opera seeks to argue for its own relevance.

The ‘Mapping Community (through) Opera’ Conference is made possible by support from the Peter & Lois Fyfe Faculty Excellence Fund.

For further information, contact Allison Chu at allison.chu@vanderbilt.edu