INTERNATIONAL BRAZILIAN OPERA COMPANY

Our mission is to support the creation and development of new operatic repertoire that combines ideas from both Brazilian and international artists while providing an educational structure for new talent to emerge.

The three pillars of our mission:
- Creation of new repertoire
- International collaboration
- Educational structure

Our by-laws determine that Simple Consensus should be used in the decision-making process through the different units. Consensus favors transparency and fosters group enthusiasm. It is a practical formula for success in the arts in a long-term strategy.

We understand opera as a community building effort. As we create an environment for composers to develop new works, we are bringing together professionals and amateurs to collaborate on full productions. We are educating new performers and providing opportunities for experimentation to seasoned ones. Our Brazilian Chorus and Orchestras have the dual educational goal of Musical practice and Brazilian culture knowledge.

IBOC services the Brazilian community by providing a positive image of the culture in a highly accomplished and professional environment. IBOC services the international audience by providing content that is fresh and relevant in a production environment of innovative sustainable solutions to the genre.

We believe that Opera is the multimedia event of the future. The genre unites all art forms, providing an experience that has no parallel.

We believe that this is a great moment for the creation of innovative repertoire that is relevant to third-millennium audiences. We aim to channel the aesthetic contributions of a broad historical and cultural background into a new way of perceiving the genre.

Four stage development plan for new productions:
1. Curate creative collaborations and creative feedback in the writing and development process of new repertoire.
2. Concert Performances of new works for revision and audio recordings.
3 . Staging production, including DVD recording.
4. Touring production

How:
• We are creating an international network of artists and producers, connecting professionals and companies, aiming to establish a touring platform that will be usable to all creators while connecting new audiences.
• We are experimenting with broad contemporary theater structures, seeking the rituals that once originated drama.
•  Our focus is on original operas starting with small casts and intimate performances and gradually developing to larger projects.
• We are creating portable operas that can travel anywhere and inspire all audiences at affordable prices.
• We are moving towards the future of stage directing.
• We are committed to creating a global opera theater that interconnects different nations. By establishing a working relationship with the Brazilian branch of the company we plan to develop a collaboration between artists based in NY and Brazil and also travel in both directions with full productions.
• We are committed to creating more with less.
• We want to challenge the limits of the theatrical experience, creating immersive experiences and bringing artists closer to their audiences.
• We are bringing concepts from a wide range of realms to the opera genre. This includes film sound design, pop culture, Virtual Reality technologies and new philosophies of performance.

IBOC originated from a group that has been working together since 2008 when we premiered "Tamanduá (The Anteater), an opera by João MacDowell that brought the aesthetic contributions of Tropicalism into the genre. As far as we know, this was the first time an opera in the Portuguese language was produced in the USA.

In 2014 we established the corporation and received our 501c3 certification. In that year we produced a series of concerts featuring four new operas by three different composers.

Since then we have been presenting a robust series of concerts and small staged performances. We have commissioned 5 new complete operas, as well as smaller compositions for vocal and instrumental ensembles. We maintain a Composer's program that currently serves six composers of three nationalities, including one Mexican, one Italian and three Brazilian women. We also maintain the International Brazilian Chorus through our partnerships with The Brazilian Endowment for the Arts and Our lady of Pompeii Shrine Church.

We have established an office in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, working closely with the Ministry of Culture and international embassies to create opportunities for cultural exchanges. We are working with partnerships and have representatives also in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rome, and Stockholm.

In a world that seems bound on building walls, we are creating bridges.

In our first four years of existence, IBOC has produced 37 concerts and brought to life five new complete operas. Our work has had a major impact on the lives of a number of international artists. Many of these are extremely talented singers and performers, who have come to New York searching for a dream and are faced with the reality of an unfair market that offers little support or development structure for new immigrant artists.

Each time we audition we hear over one hundred singers, most of these are able to perform at a very high standard. There is a demand for new repertoire that connects to the audiences on an emotional level, we are meeting this demand head on. We are training new composers to produce relevant new works integrating multicultural expression and a variety of artistic voices.

Currently, we are working on “The Seventh Seal" an opera that is being produced on a multinational scale. The concert previews of Act 1 happened in New York; the full concert will happen in Sweden with Brazilian and Swedes working together, the fully staged premier will happen in Brazil. This work will be sung in Swedish, adapted from the original Ingmar Bergman text. It speaks to the diversity and cultural relevance of the production that a Latin American composer received the rights to adapt this fundamental script of the most respected Swedish artist.

We believe that the structure we are creating will serve a greater number of artists at all levels of production. As we develop new projects our performance technology arm becomes stronger, as it faces new challenges and comes up with creative solutions to integrate virtual reality and interactive media into new forms of performance.