Due to the overwhelming success of the these programs and the enthusiastic responses from students, teachers, parents and opera newcomers of all ages, Opera Ignite was created to focus solely on educational initiatives and to expand our reach to new audiences.

We have been privileged to collaborate with many outstanding organizations including, Gateway to the Arts, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, The Three Rivers Arts Festival, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Point Chamber Orchestra, The Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra, I ragazzi della lirica of Chianciano, Italy, Westland Academy for the Arts and Studio Cappezuti.

Founding Director, Christina Farrell, received her BFA in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon University. She has performed with Washington National Opera, Baltimore’s Opera Vivente, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, Greensburg American Opera, and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a Finalist with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloists’ Competition. She sang five seasons with the Washington National Opera Chorus where she was privileged to work with the world’s foremost singers and directors.

Christina has also been an enthusiastic advocate of arts education. She has served on the voice faculties of The Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore and The Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., and taught six years as a middle school music teacher. In 1998, she founded the Show Stoppers musical theatre program for children in Edgewater, MD. She is a Master Teaching Artist, teaching children and teachers through the Gateway to the Arts Aesthetic Education Institute and the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning in the Arts.

Whether as a performer, teacher or director, she hopes to share her own passion of the arts and foster the same enthusiasm in others.