An integral part of OVI’s mission is the awarding of Matching Grants for projects to train volunteers, provide funds to implement projects and other activities optimizing the involvement of volunteers. OVI’s Matching Grant Program is funded by memberships of of $175 and above and by OVI’s fundraising activity. Applications are reviewed shortly after the deadline; the decision to grant an award is based on merit and funds available.
Click on the link below to get application information and archives of previous recipients. Applicants can choose between two application formats: a Printable Microsoft Word document to fill out, save, and email in, or an Online Form featuring auto-save, so you can complete your form at your own pace. Your application is automatically forwarded to OVI, with a copy sent to you for your records.
Have a Question for our Matching Grant Chair? Reach out via email:
Julie Anne Benson: oviquestions@gmail.com
Click here to complete an Online Form
Click here to download a Microsoft Word document of the application materials.
2026 Grant Applications open October 1, 2025
2025 MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
Historic Properties Volunteer Opportunities – Central City Opera Guild
Central City Opera Guild’s annual Historic Properties preparation and maintenance project includes three core volunteer opportunities – Planting Day, Housewarming, and Inventory Days/Season Closing. The match for this grant will be raised through a combination of the Guild’s annual Spring Membership Drive and individual solicitations. The Summer Opera Festival simply could not happen without the volunteers’ crucial work, preparing the environment and artist homes in Central City each year. During the Summer Festival, the gardens function as a core gathering spot for patrons before and after performances. In 2025, festive outdoor offerings, the gardens will include local musicians, circus performers, etc. The volunteers’ work in maintaining and beautifying the Opera Gardens also benefits the City itself as tourists visit the garden throughout the year.
Planting Day volunteers will be rewarded with a backstage tour of the Opera House and Teller House, the historic former hotel owned by CCO that serves as the administrative HQ during the summer festival. Additionally, volunteers will get to sit in on a class during the Young Artist Training Program. Through these initiatives, volunteers will gain behind-the-scenes views of what it takes to be an opera singer and will also be educated in the history of this 92-year-old organization. In doing so, they will become better-informed representatives of CCO within the wider public. Approximately 60-70 volunteers take part in the Planting Day activities.
Open Mainstage Final Dress Rehearsals for K-12 -Knoxville Opera Camerata
In the 2025-2026 season, Knoxville Opera will offer free access to the transformative power of opera to K-12 students and their families through open final dress rehearsals of our mainstage productions. We will welcome students and families to Bizet’s Carmen in October, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in February 2026, and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in May 2026.
These dress rehearsals offer an extraordinary opportunity for young people to engage with world-class opera in a live and comfortable setting. With significant interest already generated, we aim to expand our capacity to host even more students and their families, especially those who might not otherwise have the chance to experience the magic of opera.
To accommodate the growing number of attendees, Knoxville will rely on volunteers to help greet and check in guests, answer questions about the performances and Knoxville Opera’s programming, and assist attendees in finding their seats at the theatre. Volunteers will play a key role in ensuring a smooth experience for all.
Opera Maine Visitor Engagement Education
Opera Maine is dedicated to providing creative and inspiring opera productions and other performances of artistic excellence, and ensuring that they are accessible to and representative of our community. We foster young operatic talent, provide educational opportunities related to opera, and engage our audiences in ways that excite enthusiasm for the art form. This project ensures that our production is accessible to and representative of our community, helps us engage our audiences, and helps us excite enthusiasm for opera.
The funding requested will support the activities of three Board Volunteers on our Visitor Engagement Committee, 10 Multigenerational Volunteer Ambassadors, one Volunteer Educational Dramaturg, one Volunteer Technician, and technical software needed for our educational dramaturg’s presentations. Opera Maine’s goal is to welcome and inspire people at every step of the opera experience. Our Visitor Engagement Committee and Ambassadors provide the next important layer of welcoming, inclusion, and accessibility. Our free dramaturgical presentations in public libraries are very well attended, but with more than 3,000 people expected to attend Sweeney Todd, we know that many audience members’ first point of contact with Opera Maine will be as they walk through the doors of Merrill Auditorium. Our Visitor Engagement Committee will plan the step-by-step experience for attendees, and recruit and work with our multigenerational Ambassadors to ensure an unforgettable experience for everyone.
Production of Hansel and Gretel – Peach State Opera
Peach State Opera includes local and community choruses and dance groups in as many performances as possible for Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, while expanding on the volunteer experience and education. We tour the communities throughout the southeast that do not have direct access to opera. Hansel and Gretel offers the opportunity to work with choruses (of around 12-25 volunteers) and with approximately. 14 volunteer dancers. As part of the training, the directors of the community chorus/dance groups will be given a recording of the music (provided by our pianist), copies of the music/score, directives regarding costuming, a timeline, and a rehearsal schedule. Final rehearsals are scheduled with PSO’s pianist, conductor, and stage director a few days before the performance. Depending on the size of the theater, each group will vary from 12 to 24 volunteer choristers and 5-14 volunteer dancers per performance.
An opera presentation will be given to the students before rehearsing with the company. In these presentations, they will learn about the business of opera, the training and discipline it takes to be an opera singer, general stagecraft and terminology, and be provided with examples of different styles of opera. Some of the directors, staff, and volunteer board members will accomplish this by traveling at least one day early to venues where we have these volunteer choristers and dancers to provide these educational opportunities for them.
The Art of Making Art – Glimmerglass Festival Guild
During the 2025 summer season, the Glimmerglass Festival will present two stories recently transformed into operas: the world premiere of The House on Mango Street, with music by Derek Bermel and libretto by the story’s author, Sandra Cisneros, and the youth opera Odyssey, with music by Ben Moore and libretto by Kelley Rourke. The Guild introduces area school children to the stories during the school year to increase attendance at our summer student events. This will also give them insight into the creativity that turns these stories into operas. Our projects fit well with the theme of the 2025 Festival: The Art of Making Art. Volunteers will be drawn from Guild members who are available to assist with our programs during the school semester. Additional volunteers can be recruited in the summer. For ‘The House on Mango Street Alive!’, a Committee member has been coordinating with middle school teachers in several semi-rural communities. Students in their classrooms are reading Cisneros’ book this winter. We will use project funds for an online author visit to the schools. The conversation with Sandra Cisneros will be moderated by the Festival’s Dramaturg and Librettist, Kelley Rourke, and will be recorded to share on our website. The Festival will set aside some tickets for students to attend a selected performance of this new work. They will also assist us in pre-performance programming and activities at A Day at the Festival for Students. Introducing the community and local students and their families to the art form of opera has been part of the mission of the Guild and its Education/Community Engagement Committee since its inception.
Young Voices Northwest Competition – Portland Opera Guild
Young Voices Northwest Competition seeks to nurture the next generation of professional opera singers. The competition is an opportunity to identify new operatic talent and provide a springboard for additional career investment. Volunteers will be drawn from the Portland Opera Guild in collaboration with the Monday Musical Club, Opera in the Park, Portland State University, and other musical educator groups and local educational institutions. In addition to a core committee of volunteers, over 50 volunteers will be used for front-of-house and back-of-house production. The local-based vocal competition will take place in October 2025, and judges will celebrate local talent.
In the past, the MONC/Laffont brought competitors and judges from other areas of the country. This event will focus on local competitors. The event will bring greater awareness of young talent to the attention of a substantial base of potential donors and supporters in the area.
2024 MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
HISTORIC TOUR – Central City Opera Guild
Central City Opera Guild’s annual Historic Properties preparation and maintenance project includes three core volunteer opportunities – Planting Day, Housewarming, and Inventory Days/ Season Closing. The match for this grant will be raised through a combination of the Guild’s annual Spring Membership Drive and individual solicitations of donors who are interested in CCO’s historic preservation mission.
The Guild’s work in the Historic Properties division of CCO performs a crucial function: the organization’s Summer Opera Festival simply could not happen without the volunteers who prepare the environment and artist homes in Central City each year.
FAMILY OPERA – THE MAGIC FLUTE – Chattanooga Symphony & Opera
In our 2024-25 season the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera will expand our opera offerings to children by presenting three Family Opera performances of The Magic Flute, including two in Title I schools. These performances are initially planned for either October 2024, January 2025, or May 2025 at Collegedale Commons or the Chattanooga Public Library, but dates and the venue are yet to be finalized and are still subject to change.
50TH ANNIVERSARY PROJECT – Chicago Opera Theater
To support this project, COT formed a 50th Anniversary Committee, which is made up of long-time Chicago Opera Theater Board members, patrons, and artists (approximately 12) that are primarily seniors. Volunteers will work closely with Chicago Opera Theater staff in order to create the general guidelines for how the display will best function.
Once the guidelines are established, the volunteers will be given a greater sense of autonomy to execute the display to the committee’s content. Staff seeks to use this time capsule as a way to provide these volunteers with a greater stake in this Gala as there is an acknowledgment that these volunteers are the lifeblood of COT and have seen the organization through much, if not all, of the history they are helping to represent through this display.
WORLD OPERA DAY RECITAL – Erwin H Johnson Fund
The Erwin H. Johnson Memorial Fund Inc., for Opera, proposes a collaborative recital with the Tormenta D’Amore Baroque Ensemble, in celebration of World Opera Day in Buffalo, NY. The event will feature a repertoire of 17-18th century celebratory arias, art songs, and pieces, played on period Baroque instruments—harpsichord, lute, and Baroque violin— as they would have been centuries ago. Performers will briefly introduce each piece: highlighting historical performance practices, composer information, and interesting facts about the music and instruments featured. These will double as mini music appreciation and music history lessons, educating audiences and fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of an often-underrepresented genre of operatic and classical vocal music.
OPERA ON THE STEPS – Niagara Arts Cultural Center
NACC Opera on the Steps will take place July 2024, at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center in a weeklong celebration of the 100-year-old Niagara Falls High School building. It will be a free outdoor concert organized by volunteers from the NACC opera committee. Staff will also provide fundraising for the project. This will be the first free outdoor event for NACC.
INVOLVING LOCAL PERFORMERS IN LA TRAVIATA – Peach State Opera
Peach State Opera will increase our efforts to include local community choruses and dance groups into as many of our performances as possible for the 2024–25 season of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La traviata” (The Fallen Woman). Our goal is to have these local groups of volunteers perform alongside our professional cast which not only gives these artists the opportunity to be on stage in an opera, but helps us to attract their community as a whole by encouraging their friends and families to attend. This provides us with a better chance to engage these underserved communities that would usually not be exposed to opera.
ALL ACCESS OPERA – Young Patronesses of the Opera-Miami
Implementation of an All Access Opera Materials for Autistic and Neuro-diverse Children that includes development of materials for our In School opera performances of Hansel & Gretel mini opera to 25 elementary schools and producing opera events for neuro diverse audiences. YPO has supplemented our Opera Funtimes Hansel and Gretel children’s workbook with a story board and other materials to make them more accessible.
We have joined with Nashville Opera to implement a revolutionary program, All-Access Opera Education, to make opera inclusive for ALL students— providing special evidence-based toolkits designed in collaboration with the Treatment and Research Institute of Autism Spectrum Disorders at Vanderbilt University. The program bolsters accessibility for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other disabilities and creates exciting new learning opportunities and audience experiences for students through opera. It is the first program of its kind to be documented for replication in communities across the United States.
CHILDREN’S CHOIR IN LA BOHEME – Knoxville Opera
To launch the 2024-2025 season, Knoxville Opera is set to stage the timeless operatic classic, Puccini’s La Bohème. The Children’s Chorus featured in Act II is a unanimously beloved highlight of the show. Knoxville Opera is thrilled to enlist a segment of the Knoxville Opera Children’s Choir to play the part for the production. The Knoxville Opera Children’s Choir is part of Knoxville Opera’s initiative to provide important arts education to a diverse array of Knoxville neighborhoods, including historically under-resourced communities. This past year, 32 enthusiastic participants from 18 local elementary schools joined us to make up the choir. These children represent neighborhoods all over Knoxville, reflecting a diverse range of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and access to music education.
The Children’s Choir’s benefits extend beyond teaching students to read music and sing well. The choir promotes community, connection, and empathy, and we aim to expand its offerings further, introducing our children’s choir participants to the magic of opera. To include the Knoxville Opera Children’s Choir in our fall production, help from parent and guardian volunteers will be needed at all musical rehearsals, staging rehearsals, tech rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and performances. Parents or guardians will ensure the children are checked in, fed and hydrated, properly costumed, at the proper stage doors for all stage entrances and exits, safely led through the backstage of the theater, and in their assigned dressing rooms when not on stage.
2023 MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
The Guild of the Glimmerglass Festival
Volunteers Support: A Day at the Festival for Students The Guild will use their matching grant to support volunteer efforts for A Day at the Festival for Students at the August 1st performance of La Boheme. Area high school students will be treated to lunch and a performance. The Guild’s Hospitality Committee will provide the meal, serve as ushers and greeters, and ensure educational materials and teacher resources pertaining to the opera are posted on the Glimmerglass Festival website. Approximately 20 volunteers will participate.
Lyric Opera of Chicago Chapters’ Executive Board
Revealing the Lost Music of the Holocaust was a concert held at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. Pianist and educator Paul Dykstra, who has dedicated his career to uncovering and promoting the music of the Holocaust, was joined by Cantor Susan Friedman. Volunteers were recruited to greet the attendees and assist the Museum staff in attendee tours of the facility. Among the goals for this program project are: introducing the Lyric family of volunteers and patrons to those of the Holocaust Museum, and putting into practice Lyric’s commitment to the IDEA values of Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Access while growing a more active and engaged volunteer membership. A full report will be given at the opera conference and in a future OVI Newsletter.
Opera Maine Opera for All film
Opera for All film screenings The 2023 Film Series, conceived, researched and planned by the Volunteer Programming Committee, will present a series of filmed operas from some of the world’s most acclaimed opera companies, orchestras, directors and soloists, including Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II, La Fille du Regiment by Gaetano Donizetti, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, by Giochino Rossini. Admission is open to all, and free to selected senior communities and, through Opera Maine’s Opera for All initiative, free to audience members aged 25 and under. New volunteers from the University of Maine graduate program will offer pre-show talks and set up and operate audio visual equipment and provide tech support. As always, the volunteers will provide friendly greetings and serve as ambassadors for Opera Maine.
Minnesota Opera Light Walkers Project
“Light Walkers” are volunteers who stand-in for the principals during the often-tedious, yet much-needed technical rehearsals to set light cues in a given production. Approximately 28 Light Walkers will be recruited for the staging of Don Giovanni. The volunteers will be recruited and managed by Minnesota Opera using Galaxy (a volunteer recruitment, management and communication tool). Volunteers will be given an orientation and directed by MN Opera Staff. These volunteers will get an “up close and personal” behind the scenes experience in the creation of an opera. MN Opera tracks the cost of staff hours dedicated solely to volunteer support and training, and this project will come to roughly 148 hours, which is roughly $3700 on average. Ancillary supplies such as printed training materials and light refreshments are also provided.
Opera Theater Oregon Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea’s Story
Opera Theatre Oregon’s project centers on Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea’s Story, an intercultural collaboration with Agai-Dika/Lemhi-Shoshone culture bearer and descendent of Sacajawea, Rose Ann Abrahamson. Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea’s Story will reimagine the extraordinary Shoshone woman who was a crucial member of the the Lewis and Clark Expedition in a new opera-theater work. OTO will premier a 35- minute scene of this new work alongside excerpts of music, soundscapes, and presentations of traditional Agai-Dika/Lemhi-Shoshone language and culture. As many as fifty volunteers will be recruited throughout the production period to assist with everything from fundraising, marketing, organizing the benefit soiree, to set design, accounting and more.
2022 MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
Central City Opera Guild: Volunteers Maintain a Denver Tradition with Virtual Holiday Home Tour
For the past 45 years, Central City Opera Guild’s L‘Esprit de Noel Holiday Home Tour has served as a major fundraiser and Denver holiday tradition. Utilizing scores of volunteers, this walking tour of lavishly decorated historic Denver homes is a major volunteer effort. The 2021 Virtual Walking Tour will feature the home of Peter Court, brother to Baby Doe Tabor. In 1956, the CCO commissioned the Ballad of Baby Doe, and it is traditionally programmed every ten years. This year will again be a virtual tour of three historic homes, and the live feed will include holiday music from CCO’s touring artists. The grant will help support volunteer efforts for the virtual tour, including training on the historic significance of the homes featured as well as recognizing an opera company and Guild with roots deep into the 1930’s—the fifth oldest company in the nation. The virtual tour is scheduled to go live Friday, November 19 – midnight December 25, 2021.
Opera Maine: Training Opera Maine Volunteer Ambassadors
Opera Maine (OM) plans to use the OVI Matching Grant to help fund training and educational materials for five Opera Maine Volunteer Ambassadors, chosen from the current volunteer cadre and the Opera Maine Teen Program. Ambassadors will be trained to engage in conversation with audiences attending productions of L’elisir d’amore – The Elixir of Love—by Gaetano Donizetti and As One, by Laura Kaminsky. Opera Maine has not presented a bel canto opera in ten years, and the Opera Ambassadors will help introduce the opera -goers to Donizetti, a great master of that style.
OM believes the Opera Ambassadors will play a particularly important role for the production of As One, a contemporary chamber opera centered on the coming-of-age of a transgender woman. The As One production will present Mainers with a unique opportunity to explore the inclusion and engagement of people of diverse identities and backgrounds. Ambassadors will be prepared to guide audience members to available resources that are specific to both productions, and will be trained to converse about Opera Maine. The use of Teen Ambassadors will help grow future audience members and volunteers.
Nashville Opera Guild: Launching a Diversity and Inclusion Initiative
The Nashville Opera Guild plans to use the OVI Matching Grant to launch its Diversity and Inclusion Initiative. Nashville Opera Association and Nashville Opera Guild will celebrate the company’s 45th anniversary in Season 2025-26. As they move toward that date, they have embarked on an eight-month strategic planning process. A major focus is diversity and inclusion to grow audience and volunteer base as well as provide programming to lift up the stories and experiences of a diverse audience. The Nashville Opera Guild’s Diversity and Inclusion Initiative has four key focus areas: growing volunteer members; diversity education for the NOG Board; producing a “series for awareness and learning”; and, partnering with the Opera Board on its Advisory Committee for Artistic and Social Impact. The grant will help support funding for training, speakers for “Lunch and Learn”, and overall education and materials to train the full Guild Board in Diversity Education. The Guild’s current membership of about 180 members must be expanded and diversified to fulfill the goals set by the Guild Board.
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