Director of Community and Learning – Houston Grand Opera

Rebecca Ann S. Kirk, M.Ed. combines her skills in community arts education and curriculum design, creative youth development, creative facilitation, and program management to build sustainable, equitable, and authentic community partnerships. She is currently the Director of Community & Learning for Boston Lyric Opera and has worked in the community arts sector for nearly twenty years with organizations including Washington National Opera, Jacobs Pillow, Caldera Arts, and the Tower Theater Foundation. She has a gift for seeing the potential in others and empowering them to creatively contribute in a way that honors their strengths and supports the community. Rebecca is passionate about cultivating relationships between sectors to build innovative partnerships that contribute to the goals of each partner. She believes the arts and artists have an essential role to play in fostering healthy, engaged communities.

Rebecca is a self-proclaimed life-long learner and integrates her experiences into her work. She embodies the heart and soul of an artist with training and practice in classical voice, dance, theater, and the visual arts. She is an educator with experience as a teaching artist, curriculum design, and has trained and mentored teaching artists. Rebecca is also a researcher who has contributed to the field of community arts education. She holds an M.Ed. from Lesley University in Art, Community, and Education and B.A. in Sociology from Whitman College.

Soprano, Arts Administrator, and Founder of Latina Women in Opera

Cynthia López Pérez is a Xicana operatic soprano, administrator and educator. She is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Latina Women in Opera, an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting femme-identifying Latina, and non-binary & gender non-conforming Latinx. She is a 2021 National Association of Latinx Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute Fellow, a non-profit dedicated to the professional development of Latinx artists and Latinx-led organizations. Cynthia is an alumna of Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a Master of Music degree in Opera Performance. As an arts professional, she is dedicated to championing Latinx representation with intentionality, centering historically-excluded folks within the community in the classical music industry. She has co-curated several concerts in New York City dedicated to highlighting social justice issues and political crises affecting Latinx in both Latin America and the United States, raising funds for nonprofits such as Raíces and SOS Venezuela. She has had the pleasure of combining her work as a professional in the arts and activist through concert work, new work workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and community outreach. She firmly believes that at the heart of leadership work is community, collaboration, and connection.