(Credit: Taso Papadakis)

A diverse group of 73 Los Angeles kids and teens, aged 9 – 17, recently presented “Then I Stood Up: A Civil Rights Cycle.”

The two performances held on Aug. 3, 2019 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion marked the culmination of this year’s LA Opera Camp, a three-week intensive but fun-filled program designed to foster friendships, explore social justice issues, and offer arts education.

The production combined music from several works, including Hans Krása’s “Brundibár” and Eli Villanueva’s “Friedl,” “The White Bird of Poston,” and “Then I Stood Up.”

Aside from preparing for performances, Opera Camp participants are given the opportunity to “learn about the real life stories behind the opera, take field trips, and hear directly from people who lived the history,” according to the press release. This year they met Carlotta Walls LaNier, took part in civil rights workshops with Chaka Forman, learned fundamentals of music with Nia Franklin, visited immersive exhibits on the African-American civil rights movement, went to see a life-size recreation of a wooden slave ship, took a virtual walk down a 1960s-era street in the deep south, and explored the LA Museum of the Holocaust and Japanese American National Museum.