Our Mission

Using artistic excellence paired with innovative, relevant, and varied arts programming, MIOpera is committed to the promotion of exceptional emerging vocal talent, educating the central Illinois community and beyond about the opera genre, and creating inclusive, thought-provoking performances that inspire, uplift, and teach lessons about humanity and the world we live in. MIOpera strives to create relationships and collaborations with other non-profit arts organizations to help create a more vibrant and varied arts community in central Illinois.

Our Vision

Artistic Excellence: MIOpera is committed to creating productions that are thought-provoking, entertaining, and invigorating to its audiences. Our audiences can expect to experience productions with artists who perform at a professional level and are artistically excellent.

Artistic Diversity: MIOpera is committed to creating diverse programming for the community that includes producing Opera, Operetta, Classical Musical Theater, and concerts.

Non-traditional Experiences: MIOpera is committed to finding non-traditional venues for its productions to encourage and foster new audiences to attend our productions

Collaborations: MIOpera is committed to create relationships and collaborations with other non-profit arts organizations to help create a more vibrant and varied arts community in central Illinois. MIOpera truly believes that arts communities are better when they work together.

Fostering Creativity: MIOpera is committed to providing educational experiences to its patrons through pre-concert lectures and through its media on its YouTube Channel.

Supporting the next generation of artists: MIOpera's International Vocal Competition recognizes exceptional emerging artist talent with monetary awards and performance opportunities.

Our History

Beginnings: Midwest Institute of Opera (2011)

In 2011, our founders John and Tracy Koch created the Midwest Institute of Opera to help artists bridge the gap between being an emerging artist to a professional artist. The program was designed for vocalists, conductors and pianists to hone their skills under seasoned professionals and to receive professional level résumé building opportunities and experiences that would make them more competitive in the music industry. Artists were given the opportunity to learn, coach and perform a full opera role in its original language, experiences that were lacking in many music institutions of higher learning, but were necessary to building a successful career. These performances became a fixture in the artistic life of the arts community in Bloomington-Normal and added to its offerings a genre of music that was infrequently accessible in central Illinois. As the program, productions and patrons increased, our vision for the Midwest Institute of Opera organically began to expand into becoming a professional opera company.

A New Era and a New Vision: MIOpera: 2019

In 2019, we decided that we had outgrown our initial purpose and had to evolve our company to reflect who we were becoming, starting with our name. Retaining its roots from its original name Midwest Institute of Opera, and creating the acronym MIO, also the Italian word for "my," MIOpera was formed and with a new artistic purpose and vision was born.