The Department of Music is pleased to offer Opera Workshop each year, with an annual course is specifically designed to enhance and advance the development of the music department’s singers and actors. Directed and produced by Doreen Hutchings, the yearly production culminates in a fully staged and costumed opera. Performed in our beautiful Maranatha Hall, a 1500-seat concert venue with experienced production staff and state-of-the-art technology, recent productions have included full operas and scenes from Mozart’s La finta Semplice, The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Cosi fan tutte, Menotti’s The Telephone, and Old Maid and the Thief, Handel’s Julius Caesar, Giannini’s Beauty and the Beast, and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. In April 2008, the world premiere of the opera Ruth was performed by the NWC Opera Workshop, Orchestra and College Choir, having been written expressly for these ensembles by faculty composer Dr. Barbara Rogers.

Northwestern College students gain a wealth of experience and training from this opera workshop, as well as through our outstanding voice program which offers private voice lessons, and vocal master classes by world-renown voice experts. Students and graduates of Northwestern College have received scholarships and acceptance to graduate schools and study programs such as Rice University, Royal Academy of Music in London, Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria, and "Oberlin in Italy" opera program in Arezzo, Italy (through the Oberlin Conservatory of Music). Graduates of Northwestern College vocal program grace the stages from Minneapolis (the Guthrie Theater and Chanhassen Dinner Theater), to performance halls in London, England and Houston, Texas. 

Orchestra/Opera Tour • January 26

Thursday, January 26 • 9:15 a.m.
Wayzata High School*

4955 Peony Lane North
Plymouth, MN 55446
763-745-6600

Thursday, January 26 • 12:32 p.m.
Robbinsdale Cooper High School*
8230 47th Avenue North
New Hope, MN 55428
763-504-8500

*School performances are generally not open to the public.