White House-Honored Arts Education Specialist and Four Young Talents Arrive in Fort Worth as Opera Gears Up for Season of Excellence and Outreach
Fort Worth Opera announces the arrival of a new Director of Education and Community Engagement, along with four outstanding young vocalists — the winners of a nationwide audition process — who will join the company as the 2024-25 Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists.
“We are thrilled to welcome Anthony Pound as our new Director of Education and Community Engagement,” said Fort Worth Opera General & Artistic Director Angela Turner Wilson. “Anthony brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to this role, making him an incredible asset to the company and the Fort Worth community.”
Originally from Memphis, TN, Pound spent almost two decades honing his craft in New York City. He worked with well-known companies and renowned theaters such as Blue Man Group and Radio City Music Hall, then found his passion reaching audiences of every age at the New 42 / New Victory Theater, where he served as Assistant Director of Education and Youth Engagement.
“There can be a stigma around youth theater,” Pound said. “But at New 42, we understood that if you introduce challenging art right from the beginning, you can stretch the bounds of what theater should be for the whole family. We had marionettes doing Shakespeare, a magic show from Korea, and a South African company in a Mozart opera. The glorious possibility of art is what makes it magical, not playing to some lowest common denominator.”
Audiences and peers agreed with his vision, and in 2014, Pound was honored with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, presented at the White House by Michelle Obama.
At Fort Worth Opera, Pound’s responsibilities will involve expanding the audience for that most glorious and magical of the high arts — opera — as well as planning and overseeing the activities of the young artists tapped to join the Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists program.
Established in 2015 with a grant from the Hattie Mae Lesley Foundation, the Resident Artist program offers professional training and experience to a group of exceptional young singers every year. The four vocalists selected for the 2024-25 season are:
● Hannah Madeleine Goodman (soprano): Goodman comes to Fort Worth from New York, Los Angeles, and Oregon with credits that include performances with Los Angeles Opera and Portland Opera, a semifinalist position in the 2023 Camille Coloratura Awards, an invitation to the iSING! Young Artists Festival in China, and a guest star appearance on television’s Glee.
● Mariam Mouawad (mezzo-soprano): Originally from Zahlé, Lebanon, Mouawad began her singing career in the Middle Eastern style, then moved to San Diego as a teenager and now excels in the Western classical style as well. A graduate of the University of Houston’s Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy program, Mouawad recently completed a program with Music Academy of the West where she sang the title role in L’enfant et les sortilèges and won the Marilyn Horne Song Competition.
● Ndumiso Nyoka (tenor): Originally from Ladysmith, South Africa, Nyoka completed his Performer’s Diploma and MA in Voice from Southern Methodist University (SMU), his Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Oklahoma, and his Artist Diploma at Texas Christian University. He has previously performed with both Dallas Opera and Fort Worth Opera and was honored to sing at the funeral for former South African President Nelson Mandela.
● Seth-Emmanuel Clarke (bass-baritone): Dallas resident Clarke recently completed a Voice Performance Diploma and received an MA from SMU. He performed as Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the 2024 Hart Institute Conductors Showcase and proudly boasts three seasons as an Education Artist at The Dallas Opera.
During the program year, the Resident Artists (RAs) will be mentored by seasoned professionals in the company’s mainstage productions of Little Women and La Cenerentola — while themselves serving as mentors for I.M. Terrell High School students in The Elixir of Love in January 2025. The RAs will also sing at community, donor, and social events, and receive lessons, coaching, and masterclasses with experts brought in to foster their professional development.
In sharing their formative experiences with opera, the RAs echoed Pound’s words about the importance of introducing high art to young people. Clarke spoke of the life-changing advice he received from a mentor in high school, who told him that “singer” was something you could pursue as a real career. Goodman remembered a summer camp music director who told her she was “too loud” for the chorus, but encouraged her to explore opera performance instead. Nyoka shared the experience of seeing opera for the first time as a schoolboy in South Africa, and of realizing that his high-pitched voice — which made him the target of schoolyard bullies — was actually an in-demand, nimble leggero tenor. And Mouawad shared the joy of working with young people during a recent performance at the Music Academy of the West, “They're so excited to be onstage where everything is new to them. It makes it new to you, too. You get to experience opera from their point of view, where everything is full of wonder.”
Here's an example of that wonder: during their end-of-year evaluations, more than half of the I.M. Terrell choir students reported that their participation in the 2024 production of The Tragedy of Carmen was their most impactful school experience. Some even planned to explore majors in opera.
“I’m excited about the future in Fort Worth,” concluded Pound. “I moved to New York to learn everything I could about live theater. Then I discovered New 42 and found my calling in sharing those vital experiences with young people. Now, in Fort Worth, I can bring that passion to an entire community. Here in Fort Worth, the opera is part of the fabric of our community, and we get to make that fabric richer through art every day.”
To learn more about community outreach at the Fort Worth Opera and the Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artist program,, or to browse and purchase available single tickets or season ticket packages for the 2024-25 season, please visit the Fort Worth Opera website at fwopera.org.
ABOUT FORT WORTH OPERA
Founded in 1946 by three visionary women — Eloise MacDonald Snyder, Betty Berry Spain, and Jeanne Axtell Walker — Fort Worth Opera is the oldest opera company in Texas, and one of the oldest opera companies in the United States. The organization has received local and national attention from critics and audiences alike for its artistic excellence, pioneering spirit, and long history of community-based cultural engagement. In addition to producing traditional repertoire with rising stars and inspirational young talents, the company is known throughout the operatic world as a champion of new American works.
With a dedication to the community both on and beyond the operatic stage, Fort Worth Opera boasts a highly successful opera education program, consisting of The Lesley Resident Artist program and the Children’s Opera Theatre, which brings opera to nearly 40,000 school children each year across the state of Texas.
Fort Worth Opera is committed to producing opera of the highest possible artistic quality and integrity; to identifying and training talented young singers; to serving as a crucible for creating new American operas; to joining forces with other arts organizations in significant collaborations; and to enriching the community by stimulating cultural curiosity and creativity in people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
Visit fwopera.org for more information.
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