When the coronavirus pandemic hit in mid-March, Indianapolis Opera began shaping its eLearning program to replace music education in the classroom.
The Indianapolis Opera website features free programming from previous performances to launch the program.
“It’s been seen by hundreds of people — school teachers, parents, kids and families for extended education in the spring, and we carried (it) into the summer,” Indianapolis Opera General Director David Starkey said.
In the fall, Starkey said there will be a new group of resident artists providing content.
“Instead of going into the classroom, we will be creating weekly education content that will be new,” he said. “It will be available to schools and teachers, parents and families. Some of it will be free and some of it will be at a low cost. We have some funding that is coming together to be able to make this affordable.”
Starkey said there will be a video menu of music education material for elementary through high school students.
Those materials will become available in mid-September. Starkey said it will be in association with all state standards for music education curriculum.
“We are working with funders to replace the lost revenue of us not being in the classroom this fall,” Starkey said. “We’ve got this wonderful facility with the Basile Opera Center in this very large room we are able to transform into a studio where we are going to do the rehearsing and taping of the material.”
Starkey said it will be similar to a video broadcast center.
The website now features summer activities for kindergarten students through fifth grade: “The Tails of Cats and Mice” (children’s opera); fifth through ninth: “Vedem” by Lori Laitman and Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis’ teacher resources for Holocaust education and sixth through 12th grade: “Singing for Success.” Those activities will be available through end of August.
For more, visit eLearning on indyopera.org.
