Early in the spring of 2021 when we were valiantly trying to maintain relationships with family, friends, and coworkers via Zoom, the Santa Fe Opera Guild was contacted by Jonanna Hunley, a teacher from a public school in Roswell, asking if we might help arrange a field trip for her students to visit the Santa Fe Opera.

New Mexico law requires that  public schools educate students about career pathways via instruction showcasing a wide variety of jobs. With a classroom of gifted students in third through fifth grades, Mrs. Hunley was eager to give her students a glimpse of the world beyond Roswell. Since the Opera’s campus was closed due to COVID, we suggested that we could reach out to her students online. Because opera production entails a lot more than singing, we proposed PowerPoint presentations about the overall art form and, more specifically, the wide variety of jobs that support a world-class opera company.

We prepared two PowerPoint decks; one for Mrs. Hunley to use with her students and another, presented by the Guild’s Barbara Anderson-Acosta via Zoom, that delved into the Santa Fe Opera’s well-earned reputation for nurturing young talent both on the stage and behind the scenes. Designed for gifted children in elementary school, both presentations made extensive use of video clips and still photography. At the end of the presentation, students were challenged to come up with some of their own designs for an updated version of the plot for Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti. The PowerPoint presentations were a big success.

This program was mentioned at our Guild’s Annual Meeting on McCune Terrace in late August and several members expressed interest in seeing it. The Santa Fe Opera Guild has scheduled a presentation of these materials on Tuesday, January 17 at 3 pm via Zoom. Martha Baker, the Santa Fe Guild’s former Vice President of Education, will present the version designed for teachers and Barbara Anderson-Acosta, a long-time Guild Board member, retired educator, and the Guild’s current Vice President of Social Events, will present the portion about the Santa Fe Opera. You can register for a link to this free Zoom presentation by clicking on the button below. There is no charge for this presentation and we hope you will spread the word  among your friends about its availability. If you know a teacher who would like to have these materials adapted for his or her classroom, please reach out to MarthaBaker@SantaFeOperaGuild.org.