SD Opera Words & Music

San Diego Opera’s Words and Music program is a collection of long-term in-school, after-school, and summer artist residencies. San Diego Opera Teaching Artists provide over 2,500 hours of arts instruction every year for hundreds of young people.

Teaching Artists work with students to create original plays, poems, and music based on their life experience. The focus on personal storytelling through culturally relevant music and drama empowers youth to envision a better world through collaborative art creation. Students rehearse throughout the year and perform for audiences of peers, teachers, families, and community members.

Current Words and Music programming focuses on the neighborhoods of Logan Heights, Lincoln Park, and City Heights, partnering with Logan Memorial Educational Campus, Lincoln High School, and La Maestra Foundation Center for Youth Advancement.

Teaching Artists are trained in Restorative Practices.

Words and Music is implemented in close collaboration with community partners.

Community partner Izcalli is a community-based Chicano theatre troupe whose mission is to promote cultural consciousness through the arts, education, and community dialogue.

Community partner La Maestra Foundation Center for Youth Advancement serves the youth of City Heights by providing an after-school and summer program aimed at empowering economically disadvantaged urban youth from 6-18 years old.

Community partner Mariachi Juvenil has three goals: provide a place where students can further their musical knowledge, continue their education after high school, and connect with their culture through music.