An Opportunity to Encounter Excellence (And Big News!)
An Opportunity to Encounter Excellence (And Big News!)
We’ve arrived at the end, or the beginning, depending on how you mark time. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia close out this podcast season with an epic career coda and an equally impressive introduction. Join us as we say farewell (but not goodbye) to Andrea and welcome Olga Perez Flora, DMA, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico (UNM), who will assume Key Change co-hosting duties next season. And what would our final episode of the year be without a trip in the trusty Key Change Time Machine? Cue the tears and cheers as we set a course for legacy-defining moments and forward-focused collaborations.
“I have big dreams,” says Olga, the visionary educator and performer excited to “pay it forward” with a collaboration between UNM and Santa Fe Opera. This partnership offers students multiple pathways into performance and other careers in opera. “My dream is for us to build on what has already been happening and give students at UNM just a little bit more room to learn what the professional side of opera is like,” Olga explains.
“We’re gonna work locally toward global impact,” affirms Andrea, who exits Santa Fe Opera after 33 years of championing broader student access to and community engagement with the art form. She leaves behind an enduring legacy that includes Opera For All Voices and this podcast, but not before previewing her exciting new synergies with Santa Fe Opera.
And that’s the curtain call for season five!
FEATURING
Olga Perez Flora, Mezzo-soprano, Voice Area Head, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico
Charles Gamble, Director Of Community Outreach, Santa Fe Opera
Andrea Klunder, producer, Key Change Podcast
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Opera For All Voices
Young Voices Program | Santa Fe Opera
Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera
Shoes For The Santo Niño
The University Of New Mexico School Of Music
Florida International University School of Music & Performing Arts
Ernesto Lecuona
Leo Brouwer
José María Vitier
Nathan Salazar
Marcy Rendon
Brent Michael Davids
Del Sol Quartet
University Of Michigan School Of Music, Theatre, & Dance
RELATED EPISODES
Harmony In Process: The Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera With Amy “Process” Owens
Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion For Kids And Educators Through Opera With Charles Gamble
Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop
Building a Better Society with Florida International University Music Students
The View From 20,000 Feet: An Interview with General Director Charles MacKayConnections Across Time and Space: Opera in the Cosmo
Hometown to the World: Discovering “Postville” with Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed
QUOTES
“The word ‘opera’ essentially means work for all. And, so, an opera only works if there are people from all of the ranks pulling forward. And so yeah, collaboration is definitely, intentionally baked in.” – Olga Perez Flores
“The more pathways we can build, the greater diversity, representation, and contribution we can make to the art form and to the greater community.” – Anna Garcia
“Young singers have so much to think about when they’re going out there, and this resource of getting to work with Santa Fe Opera is gonna give them, I would say, more shape to how they’re gonna go out there and make this work.” – Olga Perez Flora
“My students mean so much to me and, to me, that’s my legacy. It’s beautiful.” – Olga Perez Flora
“Many people have heard me say this, I felt madly in love, and that love affair was with the Santa Fe Opera. It has lasted these many, many, many years.” – Andrea Fellows Fineberg
“New Mexico is so often at the bottom of the list about everything when it comes to child wellbeing and education. Here’s this institution that has so much and the capacity to give back. And it’s been incredible to be a part of that.” – Andrea Fellows Fineberg
“We learned a lot during COVID, and one of the things that became clear to me is there’s a time when regardless of where you are and what you want to still accomplish, it’s time to seed the space and be the step out and let somebody else step in.” – Andrea Fellows Fineberg
“When you create something that says all voices, you just challenge yourself.” – Andrea Fellows Fineberg
“Andrea has been an extraordinary mentor to people within this organization and also without it. The relationships that she’s created over this remarkable time here at the SFO are powerful They’ve been really, really important in terms of shaping the mission and direction of this organization.” – Charles Gamble
CREDITS
Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Produced & Edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia
Audio Engineer Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Technical Director Edwin R. Ruiz
Production Support from Alex Riegler
Show Notes by Lisa Widder
Theme Music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello
Cover Art by Dylan Crouch
This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.