Living Opera: A free event for kids, families, and educators
Monday
Mar 09, 2026
4:00pm
Venue Baumann Centre
Cost Free
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Step into the power of musical storytelling with teaching artists Geoff and Nadia! In this lively, hands-on workshop, students will explore how music communicates emotion and brings stories to life! Using active listening and collaboration, students will identify the emotions they hear in opera excerpts, and the types of musical language used to convey them. Featuring live opera singing, students will play an interactive game that explores how composers express feelings through sound, and how that adds depth to the story!
No musical experience required, just bring your imagination!
Geoff is a dancer, choreographer and teaching artist. Geoff has worked locally with Ballet Victoria (company member 2007-2013), Pacific Opera Victoria (supernumerary since 2007), Kaleidoscope Theatre for Young People, and on numerous independent projects. Currently a Teaching Artist for Pacific Opera Victoria, he creates and facilitates interactive programs which visit classrooms across the CRD, sharing the magic of the performing arts with students, educators, and newcomers of all ages. Fun fact, you might remember Geoff as the Ostrich in Pacific Opera’s production of The Birds!
Based in Victoria, BC, soprano Nadia Lurie “commands the stage with her expressive vocals” (Broadway World). She engages audiences as a dynamic performer in many genres including classical, musical theatre, and jazz. You may have seen Nadia on stage with the Pacific Opera Victoria chorus in shows such as Mozart’s La Clamenza di Tito, Bizet’s Carmen, and Golijov’s Ainadamar; and as Mary Crawford in Dove’s Mansfield Park with Nuova Vocal Arts. In 2024, Nadia was a recipient of the Annamaria Bamji Award for Emerging Opera Singers and also received the Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship for Advanced Study of music in Austria from the University of Victoria. When she’s not singing, you can find her teaching musical theatre, or spinning records and painting. Currently, Nadia is a student at the University of Victoria’s School of Music, studying voice performance with Anne Grimm