College of Arts and Sciences

On this week’s episode of Segue, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s weekly radio program exploring the lives and work of the people on campus and beyond, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Dean Kevin Leonard, PhD, interviews Chase Hopkins, founding artistic director of Opera Edwardsville and general director of Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company.

This episode of Segue airs at 9 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 5. Listeners can tune into WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound or siue.edu/wsie.

Hopkins, an Edwardsville native, is the founding artistic director of Opera Edwardsville, as well as the general director of Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company. He received his bachelor’s in music and arts administration from Northwestern University and a master’s in music from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. He trained with the Dutch National Opera Academy in Amsterdam, as well as the Opera Studio at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Opera Edwardsville will present its signature holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18 in Dunham Hall Theater as part of SIUE's Arts & Issues series.

“Welcome to Segue, Mr. Hopkins,” Leonard begins. “First, can you tell our audience a little about yourself? How did you become interested in opera?”

“I first became interested in opera after being recruited by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis to train as part of their amazing high school training program called ‘The Artists in Training,’” states Hopkins. “They provided lessons, coaching and mentors, but they also took the cohort of participants to see operas. Following my training there from ages 16-18, I went for an undergrad degree at Northwestern and continued my journey in this industry.”

Hopkins discusses the mentors he had while in training at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and how they had a profound effect on him as a young student. He goes on to talk about his interests while at Northwestern as wanting to pursue both performance and arts administration and the advice he received that he’d need to choose to focus on only one of those for his career. While completing his degree in performance, he interned for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for three years, and decided upon graduation to pursue opera.

“There wasn’t a sort of lightbulb moment that changed it,” says Hopkins. “It was really because of these amazing mentors I had during training, and I didn’t really even think there was something else I should consider.”

“Rather than going the path of arts administration, you decided to pursue performance and you went to Europe to receive further training. Tell us a little bit about what that was like to go from Edwardsville to Manchester to Amsterdam.” Leonard says.

“When I finished my training at Northwestern, I had the opportunity to go on a full scholarship to train in Europe,” explains Hopkins. “For me this was a very exciting opportunity that I wasn’t going to pass up. The thing I discovered about myself in terms of my arts management internships and courses was that to be a part of the industry, you really need to understand the art form. To suddenly be living abroad was an unbelievable experience. There’s just nothing like it. I continued to train and perform for about five years, which was amazing.”

He credits his inspiration for Opera Edwardsville from his time living in Europe. He discusses the many festivals he performed at across Europe and says it reminded him of his hometown and the community feeling that was present at those festivals, and how he felt that would be possible to recreate it in Edwardsville.

Tickets for the Opera Edwardsville at Dunham Hall holiday concert are on sale now and can be purchased at siue.edu/arts-and-issues/purchase-tickets. Masks are required and seating is limited. The concert will also be broadcast online live from Dunham Hall through 88.7 WSIE FM The Sound.

Tune in at 9 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 5 to WSIE 88.7 The Sound to hear the entire conversation.