Queen City Opera was founded in 2012 to advance the careers of emerging singers, instrumentalists, designers, and conductors by giving them valuable professional engagements in high-quality productions. We focus our productions on contemporary issues, and we collaborate with other organizations to arrange workshops and discussions around these issues. Our production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni partnered with Jewish Family Services and the Education Department of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio to explore sexual assault and consent. Our production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta was presented in collaboration with Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired to focus on the rights and lives of people with disabilities.

We rehearse at the Warsaw Avenue Firehouse, home to the MYCincinnati Youth Orchestra, an El Sistema-inspired youth orchestra in Price Hill, Cincinnati’s most diverse neighborhood both ethnically and economically. This arrangement facilitates interaction between QCO artists and MYCincinnati students, emulating a 21st century model for performing arts organizations pioneered by the famous Deutsche Kammerphilarhmonie Bremen in Germany. Many members of the QCO Orchestra and staff also serve as Teaching Artists for the MYCincinnati Youth Orchestra.

Our production of Wagner’s Siegfried, the first performance of the work in Ohio in over a century, was recently awarded the American Prize in both Opera Production and Opera Conducting. This was the first time that any opera company or orchestra in Cincinnati won this prize.

QCO was profiled in August 2014 in the Business section of the Cincinnati Enquirer, highlighting our work to transform our community through the arts.