Mission Statement

Orion Opera Company was created to promote the integration of disabled performers on to the mainstream operatic stage. Our mission is to promote new works and to highlight the artistic abilities of all walks of performers. Our goal is to unify both the disabled and non-disabled communities and eliminate existent boundaries.

About Us

Orion Opera Company's founder and Artistic Director Tanya Crist is a soprano, composer and librettist who was born with Cerebral Palsy.  We firmly believe that we have a responsibility to maintain the authenticity of the art form, while simultaneously providing new and innovative opportunities for mainstream performance to disabled artists.  It is our dream that audiences will remember the ability of our artists to communicate music as drama within any given framework, instead of focusing on their outward limitations.  In addition to full and concert productions (including the premier of Great Expectations, a new American opera) and a concert series, the OOC is developing an outreach program that will bring opera to the disabled community through joint presentations and performances with charitable organizations such as United Cerebral Palsy, Autism Speaks and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  We also look forward to developing a training program for performing artists from the disabled community.  In addition to workshops and master classes with industry professionals, participants would work with movement experts.  Through Alexander Technique, Feldenkreis, Pilates, Yoga, Physical, Occupational, Behavioral and Speech Therapies, participants would be able to find solutions and strategies for the many unique challenges that they face.  The program would culminate with a production involving all participants. 

 
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Archive of Disabled Performers

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The Orion Opera Company is creating an archive of disabled performers, both past and present.  If you would like information about this project, or to submit your materials for inclusion, please fill out the form in the Contact Us tab. 

pictured left, Artistic Director Tanya Crist