Art of Opera, A Foundation
501(c)(3) nonprofit · Founded 2005 · Boston
Opera is alive, and timeless — never tiring, never history, always art.Mara Devereux
We present and support contemporary opera-theatre: rarely heard new pieces, works that fold multimedia into live performance, and the emerging artists making them.
Mission & history
Opera as an all-encompassing art form.
The character of a community is contained in its stories — the images and ideas we use to understand our own lives. Opera reaches us through celestial stories, envisioned and inspired by music and by the metaphysical mystery of the human voice.
Musical fads come and go and styles become moments in history. Opera's enigmatic truth defies time: it moves forward, transforming the past while delivering the essential matters of the present. The Art of Opera is the art of discovery — social, symbolic and archetypal, with a pressing allegorical question found in the fabric of our eclectic contemporary society.
- Founded
- 2005 in Boston, by lifetime supporters of the arts George Handran and Delora Donovan.
- Status
- A legal nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the State of Massachusetts. EIN 56-2459978.
- Offices
- Massachusetts, with regional offices in California and Kansas.
Public understanding
To give the general public and the community — locally and internationally — a better understanding of contemporary opera for stage, theatre, film, and site-specific locations, in light of the changing circumstances of life.
Research and production
To research, promote, record, and produce known and unknown works for opera, ballet, musical theatre, recital, and orchestra, within and outside the classical-contemporary Western tradition — and to engage them through experimental concepts and unconventional viewpoints from around the world.
Interdisciplinary practice
To emphasize opera as an all-encompassing interdisciplinary art form.
International Voice Competition
To establish an International Voice Competition celebrating and featuring the music of contemporary composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Grants & awards
Where the support has gone.
Recent recipients of foundation grants, commissions, and artist awards.
Love, Honor, Obey
The Great Soviet Bucket
Beth Morrison Projects
Individual Artist Grants
Songs of Mercedes Sosa
Individual Artist Grants
Hawaii Festival
The Silent Steppe Cantata
Produced with major funding from JSC Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna, with support from the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United States, the City of Astana Department of Culture, the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan, and Rixos Almaty and Rixos President Astana Hotels. Initially supported by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, CEC ArtsLink, Art of Opera Foundation, California Institute of the Arts, Puffin Foundation, the Center for Cultural Innovation, City of Almaty Department of Culture, GSM Kazakhstan/KCell, and private donors Delora Donovan, Ken and Eileen Leech, and Askar Shaidildinov.
- Lars Jan, Early Morning Opera
- Daniel Corral, Composer
- Shawn King, The Nomad's Song
- Ori Barel, The Nomad's Song
- Todd Trebour and Alchemical Opera Project
- Brian Carey Chung and Collective Body Dance Lab
- Anne LeBaron, Composer Artist Award
- Sandra Powers, Film Artist Award
Owen Vallis, Sound Artist Grant · DO_SCREAM Opera Project
Student grants: Portia Harris, Abby Whittle, Ross McCorkell, Daxton Bloomquist, Natalia Olinetchouk, Miles Mattal, Geoffrey Pope, Shannon Woolard, Leslie Teter, Hanna de Kleer, Joe Consiglio.
Board of trustees
Who runs the foundation.
The foundation is directed by working artists and lifetime supporters of the arts, across offices on the East Coast, in California, and in Kansas.
Timur Bekbosunov
Executive Director
George Handran
Trustee · East Coast Director
Late Delora Donovan
Lifetime Trustee
Donate
Your gift keeps new work on stage.
A tax-deductible contribution to Art of Opera secures the future of the organization and lets us go on presenting high-quality experimental projects: rarely heard contemporary pieces, new works that combine multimedia and opera, and opportunities that bring young, emerging artists into the creative process.
Secure checkout through PayPal. You can use a card or a PayPal balance, and you'll receive an emailed receipt for your records.
Donate nowDonors, 2015–2025
With gratitude.
Special gratitude to late Delora Donovan for her legacy support of our work.
Through fundraising concerts and benefits
- Delora Donovan
- Jacqueline Nagel
- Sara McCay
- Eileen Leech
- Dr. Abudu
- Dr. Dorothy Crum
- Brian Ward
- Marie Allyn King
- Vera and Allen Siemens
- Dwight and Barbara Glenn
- Ralph Dagenais
- Keith Gravel
- Arlita Heath
- Mara Devereux
- Kim and Camille Kunze
- Eilley Brandlin
- Bernice Miller
- L. Wilson
- William and Patricia Worden
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts
- Puffin Foundation
Additional support
- Marjorie Walton
- Chris Mullin
- Scott and Brenda McCormick
- Dan Rouser
- Woodland UMC community
- Arlita F. Heath
- Betty L. Jenisch
- Betty M. Ladwig
- Betty W. McGehee
- Carol S. Burket
- Caroline R. Johnson
- Charles Chipman and Brian Watson
- David and Vonda Wigal
- David Bonfiglio
- Dolores L. Herrman
- Dorothy Heidebrecht
- Frances Erhard
- Harold and Patricia Cary
- Harriet A. Hickman
- Helen Burt
- James and Myrna Iwig
- Jean and William Mulford
- Jean Duncan
- Joan Kahn
- Karen and Charles Fray
- Lucy Jo Scott
- Nancy A. Whitaker
- Walter and Joan Martz
- Wanda Jansen
- Robert and Nelda Gutzman
- Doris N. Godwin
- Ed Langston
- Chuck and Jan Hadley
- Chris Kubik
- Vic Lonning
- Helen Carey
- David and Angela Allen
- Kathy A. Dittmer and Ed Ehinger
Contact
Send us a message.
Questions about the foundation, a project you'd like us to know about, or a gift you'd rather arrange directly — write to us and we'll get back to you.