MISSION & HISTORY
Stories from living voices around the world, presented by voices living in the Pacific Northwest.
New Wave Opera (NWO) believes that opera is a living art form and that new works best represent the variety of stories, experiences, and identities of NWO's performers and audiences. Our productions uplift composers, librettists, and performers of diverse backgrounds and experiences, while investing heavily in the rich talent pool of our region. New Wave Opera is especially committed to emphasizing treble voices, which are largely underused in standard opera repertoire, and fostering a professional, welcoming, and healthy creative environment for all voice types and identities. We believe opera can be for everyone, and are eager to showcase all that the world of opera is capable of encompassing.
The core team consists of Founder & President, resident mezzo-soprano & composer, Dr. Lisa Neher and Board Treasurer and resident soprano Lindsey Rae Johnson. As individual working artists, they have jointly-produced concerts, operas, and other presentations of contemporary and theatrical music in the Portland, Oregon region since 2018—reorganizing as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization to create a formal home in 2023. Co-founders included Neher, Johnson, and composer Kimberly R. Osberg, as well as substantial support from vocal advisor Susan McBerry and Really Spicy Opera's Basil Considine.
New Wave Opera (NWO) believes that opera is a living art form and that new works best represent the variety of stories, experiences, and identities of NWO's performers and audiences. Our productions uplift composers, librettists, and performers of diverse backgrounds and experiences, while investing heavily in the rich talent pool of our region. New Wave Opera is especially committed to emphasizing treble voices, which are largely underused in standard opera repertoire, and fostering a professional, welcoming, and healthy creative environment for all voice types and identities. We believe opera can be for everyone, and are eager to showcase all that the world of opera is capable of encompassing.
The core team consists of Founder & President, resident mezzo-soprano & composer, Dr. Lisa Neher and Board Treasurer and resident soprano Lindsey Rae Johnson. As individual working artists, they have jointly-produced concerts, operas, and other presentations of contemporary and theatrical music in the Portland, Oregon region since 2018—reorganizing as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization to create a formal home in 2023. Co-founders included Neher, Johnson, and composer Kimberly R. Osberg, as well as substantial support from vocal advisor Susan McBerry and Really Spicy Opera's Basil Considine.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
|
In 2024, New Wave Opera was awarded a grant by the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) to produce a family-friendly opera in 2025 with accessibility in mind. New Wave Opera used these funds to produce WAGS & WHISKERS, an animal-inspired double bill about found family, the roles of pets in our lives, and love that lasts fur-ever! Thanks to the grant, NWO was able to provide live supertitles for both performances, and live ASL interpretation for the Saturday evening show - as well as free tickets to University of Portland students, staff, and faculty.
|
|
|
New Wave Opera also announced an exciting new partnership with Oregon Humane Society as part of this production, donating a portion of ticket sales for urgent shelter needs and providing space for OHS volunteers to accept donated items and share how community members can get involved.
January marked an especially busy time for NWO, as lead-up events to WAGS & WHISKERS also included a live broadcast preview from the show on All Classical Radio's beloved program, Thursdays@3, as well as an evening of animal-themed vocal music at the classical music hotspot, Mendelssohns. Thanks to 2024 end-of-year giving, in January alone, New Wave Opera was able to employ nearly a dozen vocalists and instrumentalists, as well as theatre director Jeffrey Puukka and additional production assistants. Future programming for this season is still being planned - check back again soon to read the latest! |
OUR FIRST SEASON
NWO finished our inaugural season as a company at the end of 2024. The season showcased nearly 40 composers, librettists, vocalists, and instrumentalists—many of which are based in the Pacific Northwest region, but also include a dynamic array of voices from around the world. A vast majority of our repertoire this season was created by currently living composers and librettists, but also included modern settings of landmark writers.
Thanks to generous support from over 25 local arts & entertainment organizations, New Wave Opera was also able to host a silent auction leading up to the capstone production, Night of the Living Opera. Between the silent auction, ticket sales, and other donations, New Wave Opera was able to raise over $10,000 in October alone, ending our inaugural season in a strong place to continue programming for the following season.
Thanks to generous support from over 25 local arts & entertainment organizations, New Wave Opera was also able to host a silent auction leading up to the capstone production, Night of the Living Opera. Between the silent auction, ticket sales, and other donations, New Wave Opera was able to raise over $10,000 in October alone, ending our inaugural season in a strong place to continue programming for the following season.
Summer
|
Music in the ManorMonday, August 19th | 5-11pm
Raven's Manor Haunted Bar NWO heads to Raven's Manor to ring in the transition from summer to fall with a selection ranging from silly to seriously spooky. 
|
Scream
|
Night of the Living OperaOctober 21 & 23 | 5-12am
Raven's Manor Haunted Bar IT'S ALIVE! An evening of spooky, hilarious, chilling, and horrifying opera selections with scary-good food and themed drinks. 
|
OUR BOARD & ADVISORS
Our Board
Lisa Neher | Board President
Founder, Resident Mezzo, Resident Composer |
|
Current Advisors
Basil Considine, Really Spicy Opera - Artistic & Nonprofit Advisor
|
Basil Considine is an award-winning playwright, composer, and opera director. A passionate developer of new works for the stage, he has curated more than two dozen world premieres and authored more than a dozen plays, musicals, and operas. Named one of Musical America Magazine’s Top Movers & Shapers for 2018, he is a queer-identified, multi-racial artist of Chinese and Caucasian descent; his musical and stage works have been performed on three continents, and broadcast on national television. His play “The Abortion Bomb” has been exhibited in multiple university theatre and literature programs, and his opera “The Frat Party” was a Semi-Finalist for The American Prize in Composition (Opera / Theater / Film / Dance Division) in 2017. Basil is the artistic director of the Minneapolis-based opera company Really Spicy Opera. He is an alum of Nautilus Music Theater’s Composer-Librettist Studio and was the 2021-2022 U.S. Fulbright Faculty Scholar to Madagascar. 2023 Winterthur Artist-in-Residence.
|
Sue McBerry, Soprano and Voice Teacher - Vocal Health & Musical Advisor
|
Soprano Susan McBerry, lyric soprano and teacher of voice, has been the coordinator of vocal studies at Lewis & Clark College since 1987. She teaches Art and Science of the Voice and Vocal Literature in addition to private voice lessons. She also directs the Opera Workshop and Musical Theater Workshop.
Ms. McBerry is an experienced and popular recitalist whose specialty is French art song of the 19th and 20th Centuries, which she studied extensively with Pierre Bernac, the famous French baritone. Other coaches include Gerard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Dalton Baldwin. |
She has performed recitals, lecture-recitals, and sacred concerts throughout the United States and Canada and is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator for music conferences and contests sponsored by Music Educators National Conference, American Choral Directors Association and National Association of Teachers of Singing of which she is former Northwest Regional Governor and national board member. (Some of you may also have seen her perform as the infamous diva in the comic vocal recital, The BoZoArtZ Duo.)
As a vocal coach and conductor, McBerry has provided vocal and music direction for plays and musicals at Lewis and Clark, student compositions, operas and opera scenes. In her tenure at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland where she is now Director of Music Emerita, she produced and directed sacred opera and oratorio for twenty years.
She is available as a consultant to Oregon Health Science University Voice Clinic for rehabilitation of singers with vocal problems. Ms. McBerry also maintains a private studio where her students include many award-winning professionals from classical singers to jazz and musical theater performers.
As a vocal coach and conductor, McBerry has provided vocal and music direction for plays and musicals at Lewis and Clark, student compositions, operas and opera scenes. In her tenure at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland where she is now Director of Music Emerita, she produced and directed sacred opera and oratorio for twenty years.
She is available as a consultant to Oregon Health Science University Voice Clinic for rehabilitation of singers with vocal problems. Ms. McBerry also maintains a private studio where her students include many award-winning professionals from classical singers to jazz and musical theater performers.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
We are always eager to meet people who share our mission. If you would like to support New Wave Opera through a voluntary role on our board or advisory council, reach out to us on our contact page to let us know a little more about you and your interest in our organization!