Portland Opera has announced the second year of its Ensemble Leaders Fellowship Program, which aims to provide artistic and administrative career advancement opportunities to those from underrepresented backgrounds.

The pilot fellowship took place last year, with Jasmine Johnson being named the first Ensemble Leaders Fellow. Johnson will return for the 2022-23 season as the company works towards expanding the program for the following season.

In her time thus far, Johnson has worked closely with the Education and Community Engagement team to assist their award-winning Opera a la Cart program and Opera to Go educational tours. She has also worked with General Director Sue Dixon, Artistic Director Priti Gandhi, and the External Affairs department in marketing, communications, public relations and development.

“Sharing in Jasmine‘s insight, dedication, and growth has been inspiring. She continues to develop as both an artist and an entrepreneurial leader, and we love that those attributes are not mutually exclusive”, says Dixon. “In developing this program, we purposely took away the structured guardrails to allow for more flexibility and customization based on the individual need of future participants. This past year was filled with listening to what was important to Jasmine in her professional growth and it allowed us greater understanding of the needs of young artists striving to break into the administrative opera field.”