and Human Rights and The Bakery; and joining with the Atlanta Beltline to present Our Walk to Healing.
me to co-found ImprOper, an operatic improv troupe that performs completely improvised operas.
Choosing a favorite is not easy! I'll choose two: The first is 24-Hour Opera Project. It is inherently creative, fast paced, challenging, and exhilarating. It always means an opportunity to work with new, talented colleagues, to be part of the creation process, to interact with audiences who love opera, and to get to experience opera in a new way, though the eyes of people for whom the project is their first exposure to opera. My other favorite is the collaboration between The Atlanta Opera and Dad's Garage Theater to participate in Dad's Garage and Friends at The Fox Theater in 2015, which has ultimately lead to me becoming an improviser and General Company member at Dad's Garage. It also helped
AO: You recently collaborated with The Atlanta Opera, the Atlanta BeltLine, Dr. Karsheik Sims-Alvarado, and Minka Wiltz on Our Walk to Healing, which drew a sizeable procession down the BeltLine. What did this event mean to you? JA: I consider myself to be both a performer and an educator and, as I pursued my degree in music, I established a personal mission statement as a teaching artist. I work to expand opera and classical audiences, I desire to acknowledge and celebrate the presence and contributions of African Americans, especially to classical music and opera, and I seek to explore the power of Jayme with members of the children's chorus from The Atlanta Opera production of Porgy and Bess in 2010, which included her daughter, Malaika (second from right). photo: Jeff Roffman
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