Our Story

The Asian Opera Alliance (AOA) comprises a diverse group of Asian-identified industry professionals, who join together to uplift one another and to advocate for greater Asian representation in opera, while striving for broader equity.

Inspired by the Stop AAPI Hate and Black Lives Matter movements, and by the exemplary work of our colleagues in the Black Opera Alliance, the founders of the Asian Opera Alliance came together to create a network of mutual support for Asian-identified opera professionals.

There is a dearth of Asian representation in the opera industry, onstage and off, at every level, and our underrepresentation perpetuates itself. When aspiring Asian opera professionals look around the theatre and see no one who looks like them, it can make a career in this industry seem daunting. We can attest, as working artists, that sustaining careers in this industry can be daunting. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has wrought destruction on a global scale, threatens to extinguish the careers of artists and technicians who the industry tends to overlook.

Opera is on the brink of resurgence, and while we are hopeful for what is to come, we also want to be proactive in advocating for ourselves and our Asian colleagues, who historically have been neglected.

We are committed to working alongside companies to improve the industry and its current biases and to cast a new generation of role models, to inspire future generations of Asian opera professionals.