EMBRACE THE DIFFERENCE

The International Brazilian Opera Company (IBOC) is a New York-based non-profit (501c3) organization with a mission to support the creation of a new operatic repertoire that combines ideas from Brazilian and international artists while providing an educational structure for emerging talent.

Diversity is embedded in our DNA.

The three pillars of our mission:

Creation of a new repertoire that is relevant to our time for a diverse audience.

Trans-cultural collaboration, supporting voices from underrepresented demographics.

Professional development and education for early and mid-career artists.

We believe that opera is the art-form of the future. It can be an transmedia event that encompasses cutting-edge technology in the service of human connection. It unites all art forms, providing an experience that has no parallel. We understand opera as a community-building effort.

TEAM

IBOC was co-founded in 2013 by a group of professionals of LatinX, Immigrant, African American, and Jewish Origins. We formed the company because of a need for diversity in the operatic repertoire and our immigrant artist's community needed a door and a platform to leverage the vast skills they've amassed. We believe that through developing storytelling and business skills through the tools of opera, our support of artists will help communities bond and blossom.

Co-Founder + Artistic Director + Board Member

João MacDowell

NY based Brazilian composer Joao MacDowell has been identified by the international press as “a new thinker in the genre” (Dagens Nyhatten 2018) A career that spans from electronic music to bossa nova to opera, the composer for ESPN soundtrack to the 2014 FIFA World Cup premiered his fifth opera “The Seventh Seal” in the Stockholm Modern Art Museum (Moderna museet), as part of the Bergman Festival for the centenary of the director, in 2018.

His third opera “Cries and Whispers,” premiered in New York on March 26th, 2015 at Scandinavia House and in June at Bergman Week, Fårö, Sweden. In 2014 the National Theater Orchestra (OSTNCS – Brasilia) premiered his Symphony No.1. The documentary “Parece Que Existo” detailing aspects of his life and career won Best Feature Film and Best Soundtrack awards at the Brasilia Film Festival (2012). His second opera, “Plastic Flowers” (New York, 2012) has received two staged productions in Brazil (Vidigal, 2014 and Copacabana, 2015). Tamanduá -Tamanduá – his first opera (New York, 2008) was later staged at Montclair (NJ-2009) and New York (20014). It has received the Boston Metropolitan Opera Merit Award (BMO-2014).

Co-Founder + PR Director + Board Secretary

CHRISTINA MORGAN

Master of Ceremonies, Editor, Dramaturg, Librettist and Public Relations Director.

A founding member and Secretary of the IBOC Board, Christina Morgan has been a professional writer and editor for over ten years. She has worked at some of the world’s most prestigious publishing houses including HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt where she was privileged to work with some of the world’s most renowned authors including Umberto Eco, Jose Saramago, Alice Walker, and others. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and a lifelong classical music enthusiast.

Stage Director + Board President

JONATHAN ARAK

Stage Manager, Director. Jonathan Arak Directed the World Premiere of TRAVELS with Opera Roanoke, as well as their production of SWEENEY TODD. Mr. Arak also directed the European Premiere of Neil Simon’s BILOXI BLUES (in Limerick, Ireland). In New York, he helmed JOHNNY PYE AND THE FOOLKILLER with The Harold Prince Musical Theatre Program. At The Warner Center for the Performing Arts, in Ohio, he directed AMADEUS, AS IS, AMERICAN BUFFALO, and COMPANY. He spent two seasons in Los Angeles where he worked on the sets of FRASIER, THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN, NEWSRADIO, and HOME IMPROVEMENT. Prior to his time on the west coast, he assisted Harold Prince for six years, on such productions as New York City Opera’s DON GIOVANNI, KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN, and the World Premiere of GRANDCHILD OF KINGS. He graduated Oberlin College with Honors in Theatre and is a recipient of a Revson Foundation Directing Fellowship.

Co-Founder + Executive Director + Board Treasurer

ATHENA AZEVEDO

Athena Azevedo has produced with IBOC since our “Brazilian Opera” debut concerts in 2014. She also serves as Visual Director and the Treasurer of the IBOC Board.

As a creative producer with a background in art exhibits, cinema, and photography, Azevedo has managed projects and produced photo shoots with world-class photojournalists, portrait and fashion photographers such as James Nachtwey, Henry Leutwyler and Walter Chin.

Before coming to IBOC, she has worked on development projects with non-profits and arts organizations such as the Berkeley Film Archive and Art Museum, The Mint Museum of SF, Burn Magazine, Vanderbilt Republic and the East Bay Center for Performing Arts.

She also worked as a producer at an award-winning branding and graphic design agency, IF Studio. Athena Azevedo received her BA in “Cultural Construction and the Narrative Image” from the University of California, Berkeley and found her passion for Brazilian culture and arts during a year abroad program to Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

Athena Azevedo is a designated Graphis Master Photographer work as a photographer and art director has gained 155 international awards, since 2014.