Lowbrow Opera Collective

Lowbrow Opera Collective was born out of the desire to push the envelope of opera. In the summer of 2018, co-founders Kate Kelley, Christine Oshiki, and Nic Varela met at a pub to gripe over the difficulties of being a young opera performer. Freshly graduated from the University of Washington’s School of Music, their opportunities to perform on mainstages were few and far between. They also asked themselves how many productions of the Magic Flute they would have to endure singing. (No offense, Wolfie.)

So, they said “to hell with it” by creating opportunities for themselves and other young singers to tell stories that resonate with modern audiences. As one supporter phrased it, they decided to “remove the monocle from classical music’s…” ahem, rear end.

Their beer-soaked dreams became a reality when they organized a ragtag group of musicians into a moldy basement with an out-of-tune piano and began working on their inaugural production, a Brooks/Elder/Melnyk/Nuckols creation called #adulting. With the support of a generous community of artists and supporters, LOC presented the West Coast premiere of #adulting at Seattle’s black box theater 18th & Union in May of 2019. And the rest, as they say, is her-story.