Elgin OPERA (formerly O.P.E.R.A.) appreciates this opportunity to acquaint you with its mission, vision, and history of unique contributions to the Elgin and greater Fox Valley montage of musical offerings. We want you to know about the exciting growth at Elgin OPERA and invite you to consider the many ways you can be a part of it all.We honor and appreciate every contribution of time, ideas, energy, service, and, of course, funding! Here you will find a history of our productions and other programs, including our Opera Training Ensemble, all seasoned with personal anecdotes from participants and audience members.

Elgin Academy has named Elgin OPERA its newest Artist in Residence. Our office is located in Elgin Academy's new Harold D. Rider Family Media, Science and Fine Arts Center (commonly called the "Rider Center"). Performances are rehearsed and staged in the new Kimball Street Theater, a black box theater located in the Rider Center. This space has also become home to the annual Vocal Competition and Summer Community Outreach Festival, bringing professional and developing artists together with the community on the Academy's historic campus.

To create and nourish a greater appreciation of the classical vocal arts and to educate through professional performances and community outreach programs.

To develop an opera company serving the Fox Valley area generally, and Elgin specifically, with professionally produced full operas and opera concerts with piano, chamber ensemble or orchestra, along with community outreach and education programs to inspire new opera lovers and provide a variety of satisfying experiences for all. Elgin OPERA currently provides three to four productions per year in a combination of the above programming formats, keeping them as engaging and accessible as possible for the uninitiated, as well as seasoned opera audiences. Opera tells stories and expresses the full range of human emotion and experience by combining all the high arts: literature, dance, theater, visual arts, and of course, vocal and instrumental music, and crystallizes them into a powerfully moving and engaging experience.

Elgin OPERA has worked diligently since 2001 to bring these great stories to life for our audiences, always weaving in plenty of our hallmark humor with every program and production.

Elgin OPERA was founded as Opera Professional Entertainers Repertoire Association (O.P.E.R.A.) in the spring of 2001 by soprano Solange Sior.

Ms. Sior is a French-Canadian, originally from Montreal, who completed a Masters program in voice from the University of Montreal, then immigrated to the U.S in 1988 to reside in Elgin. Her entrepreneurial spirit led her from the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists in 1991 to a successful music studio.

Solange recognized the need and the potential audience for an opera company in the artistically rich Fox Valley/Elgin area and the opportunity to give many rising Chicago area singers and community members an operatic performance outlet through establishing an opera company and training ensemble.

After organizing a board and receiving its non-profit 501(c)3 tax-deductible status, Elgin OPERA (as O.P.E.R.A.) began performing professional quality programs to the immediate delight of its audiences.