Opera Orlando Youth Company and Studio Artists Bring Brundibár / Vedem to Orlando Family Stage for t

ORLANDO, FL — November 10, 2026 — Opening on the final day of Hanukkah, Opera Orlando offers families a production of remembrance and hope. The stars of Opera Orlando’s upcoming December show are kids. The Opera Orlando Youth Company takes the stage in Brundibár / Vedem, an Opera for the Community production sung in English, running about ninety minutes with no intermission. There are three performances: Saturday, December 12 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 13 at 2 p.m. in the Universal Orlando Foundation Theatre at Orlando Family Stage.

Led by education director Sarah Purser, the Youth Company is an auditioned ensemble of 32 singers ages 8-18 from across Central Florida. This is opera training for the next generation of artists, and they share the stage with three of the Company’s 2026-27 Studio Artists:

mezzo-soprano Sarah Kathryn Curtis and tenor Benjamin Ruiz as Vedem’s central soloists, and bass-baritone David Kahng in the title role of Brundibár, the bully the children out-sing.

Brundibár / Vedem is presented in partnership with the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, continuing the collaboration from the Company’s 2024-25 presentation of The Defiant Requiem. The two works, both born inside the Theresienstadt ghetto during World War II, are staged as one. Vedem, with a libretto by David Mason incorporating poems from the secret underground magazine written by teenage boys imprisoned there, frames the evening. Hans Krása’s children’s opera Brundibár, sung in Tony Kushner’s English translation, plays within it just as it did in the ghetto, where imprisoned children performed it more than fifty times. The production places the audience at the moment Vedem recalls the Red Cross’s June 1944 inspection of the ghetto, a visit the Nazis staged to convince the world that all was well. The Center provides historical context and educational support for audiences and performers alike.

“When young people perform the work of young people who lived through the Holocaust, history stops feeling distant,” said Stephen Poynor, senior director of education and community engagement at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. “The children of Theresienstadt made music and wrote poems because they wanted to be heard. We are grateful to Opera Orlando for giving a new generation of Central Florida youth the chance to carry their voices forward.”

“December at Opera Orlando is meant to be a gift to the whole community, and this year the gift comes from our youngest artists,” said general director Gabriel Preisser. “These young people have worked hard to tell a true story with joy, honesty, and enormous heart. Bring your children, bring your grandparents, and be ready to be moved.”

“When we were programming this piece, what excited me most was putting two of our artist programs on the same stage,” said Ms. Purser, who also oversees the Studio Artists program. “Our Studio Artists are early-career professionals and our Youth Company singers are just starting out, so everyone is learning from everyone else. That feels right for a story about young people lifting each other up.”

“I’ll happily be out-sung by this Youth Company,” said Mr. Kahng. “In Brundibár, the kids always win, and I think that truly meant everything to the children who first sang it.”

Stage director Kaley Karis Smith, a 2023 winner of OPERA America’s Women Directors Grant whose credits include Houston Grand Opera and The Glimmerglass Festival, and conductor Whitney Reader, general and artistic director of Wichita Grand Opera, make their Company debuts. They are joined by production stage manager Tiffany Meadows-Green, lighting designer Ardean Landhuis, hair and makeup designer Destinee Steele, and production designer Grant Preisser.

“The children who made these works didn’t have much, but they had each other, and this production is built on that,” said Ms. Smith. “Watching the Youth Company find the same sense of ensemble in rehearsal has been the best part of the process.”

“Brundibár is irresistibly tuneful, and Vedem asks you to lean in and listen closely,” said Mr. Reader. “Put them together and the audience gets to feel everything at once, which is what great music does.”

Each performance is followed by a talkback for all ticket holders, giving families a chance to ask questions and talk through what they have experienced together.

Graciously supported by the Winifred Johnson Clive Foundation.

The combined version of Brundibár / Vedem was conceived by David Craig Starkey and Matt Cooksey of Indianapolis Opera in conjunction with Lori Laitman. Brundibár is presented by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes. Vedem: a Holocaust Oratorio was commissioned by Music of Remembrance.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

Brundibár / Vedem

Brundibár - music by Hans Krása with a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister presented in an English translation by Tony Kushner

Vedem - music by Lori Laitman with a libretto by David Mason incorporating poetry from issues of the underground magazine

Saturday / December 12, 2026 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sunday / December 13, 2026 at 2 p.m.

Universal Orlando Foundation Theatre / Orlando Family Stage

Sung in English with English and Spanish supertitles. Approximate run-time of ninety minutes with no intermission.

Individual tickets range from $21 to $42, inclusive of fees, and are on sale exclusively through the Opera Orlando box office, online at OperaOrlando.org/Brun-Ved26, or by calling (407) 512-1900 ext.0.

See YOU at the Opera!

ABOUT OPERA ORLANDO

Opera Orlando produces opera in Central Florida — fully, seriously, and for everyone. Now in its eleventh season, the Company presents MainStage productions, educational programs, and community performances rooted in the conviction that this art form belongs to this city. Opera Orlando's Youth Company program and Apprentice and Studio Artists programs develop the next generation of opera talent for and from within the community it serves. (OperaOrlando.org)

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