Long Beach Opera Announces $300,000 Mellon Grant

Long Beach Opera (LBO) has announced the award of a three year grant in the amount of $300,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Foundation provides multi-year arts grants on an invitation-only basis to a small number of leading US orchestras, theater, opera, and modern dance companies. The grant will support LBO's new Outer Limits series, a project designed to expand the boundaries of the opera form.

While LBO's main season productions will continue to broaden the possibilities of opera through new and rare works, Outer Limits will feature musical outliers that defy classification. LBO's Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek comments, "We are proud to be a recipient of the Mellon Foundation grant for this adventurous initiative. We also see it as an endorsement of the work we do and an encouragement to create thisnew artistic path for LBO."

With support from the Mellon grant, the company will create a haven where Southern California's most adventurous audiences can experience highly progressive productions which challenge stage conventions and explore new approaches to contemporary music. The Outer Limits' series will be staged in intimate, alternative venuesaccommodating 300 people.

For the inaugural production of Outer Limits in September 2012, LBO will stage Gavin Bryar's PAPER NAUTILUS at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Since Outer Limits will span a broad spectrum of music styles, theatrical innovation, and experimental storytelling, LBO intends to reach out to artists from "non-theater" disciplines, collaborating with video artists, painters, and installation artists to infuse productions with a fresh design aesthetic.

Separate from LBO's main winter/spring season of four operas, the Outer Limits series will take place in the fall and include at least one production in 2012 through 2015 and two productions starting in FY 2016. The expansion of its schedule to five and six productions annually reflects the enormous growth LBO has experienced since its inception in 1979 as the first professional opera company in the Los Angeles/Orange  County region.

Despite the recent economic downturn, LBO's subscription and donor base has grown exponentially and its budget has steadily increased to over $1.2 million in the current fiscal year. Season attendance has more than doubled over the past several years with subscriptions rising by 500% from 2008 to 2011.

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