UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The soaring sounds of operatic singing echoed through Gray’s Woods Elementary School in early June as a yearlong immersive program in the College of Arts and Architecture’s School of Music, which taught second-grade students to write, produce and perform an original opera, came to a celebratory end.
“Teaching Artistry with Opera in Schools” is a program developed by Dawn Pierce, assistant professor and director of Penn State Opera Theatre; Sarah Watts, associate professor of music education; and a group of four School of Music graduate students to share the art of opera with elementary school students while building community through outreach education.
The fruits of the pilot program were on display June 3 when three second-grade classes taught by Gray’s Woods faculty members Erin DiPerna, Tara Kauffman and Mehgann Petersen came together for two performances of the students’ adaptation of the award-winning children’s novel “Because of Winn-Dixie” written by Kate DiCamillo.
In front of audiences that brought together Gray’s Woods students and parents of the performers, more than 60 second graders showcased their transformation from students with limited knowledge of opera into young artists who went into summer break a few days later with a credit in a unique and uplifting production.
“During the second performance, I was backstage peeking around the curtain and watching the parents’ faces. As different beats would hit and funny lines the kids wrote were performed, the parents had perma-grins and were in such joy,” DiPerna said. “It was an incredible experience from day one but to see the whole thing come together was something I will never forget.”
The seed for the opera collaboration, which was the first of its kind between the College of Arts and Architecture and the State College Area School District, was planted in the summer of 2024 when Pierce moved to the area to begin her tenure at Penn State.
Pierce has two children in Gray’s Woods and when meeting with DiPerna ahead of the school year, the two spoke about opportunities to bring opera to the students. With a few ideas in mind, Pierce approached Watts, who specializes in early music education, and the two were off and running.
Both faculty members were aware of grad students who had interest in working with grade school students and ultimately brought Cole Denton, Pei-Hsuan Lu, Anisa Adkins and Natalie Scerbo into the fold.
With the team assembled, Pierce introduced her experience as a young artist with music educator Tim Kennedy, who developed a curriculum called “words to music” in which students write the words and music to an original opera. The concept resonated with DiPerna.
“At Gray’s Woods we are always trying to introduce the kids to new and exciting things,” DiPerna said. “We are a close-knit school, and our culture is very collaborative, which really made the opportunity for the students to create their own opera a perfect fit.”
With Gray’s Woods onboard and a team in place, one of the first steps was to bring Kennedy to Penn State. During a weeklong residency in the fall, he met with not only the Penn State cohort but with the Gray’s Woods teachers as well.
“The goal was to establish a relationship with the Gray’s Woods community and the teaching artists to develop a mindset of creativity,” Pierce said.
Cole Denton, a graduate student pursuing master’s degrees in voice performance and pedagogy and musicology, said that Kennedy’s time at Penn State helped to form a bond with the Gray’s Woods teachers and provided the framework for project.
“We spent at least one day per week at the school, and it started with some of the most basic concepts such as ‘what is opera?’” Denton said.
As the work progressed, and on Kennedy’s advice, the team empowered the students to choose the theme of the opera. They had just finished reading “Because of Winn-Dixie,” which served as the source material.
Over the late fall and winter months, the team worked with students on group improvisation exercises with the goal of building trust and promoting buy-in. DiPerna said watching the growth of the students during those sessions is when she knew the project was going to work.
During one of the exercises, students would gather in a circle and take turns singing their name in a theatrical and expressive way. One student, DiPerna explained, started by sheepishly saying her name with little expression. But as time went on, and the improv exercises became commonplace, one of the many breakthroughs occurred.
“One day, we gathered in our circle and when we got to this student, I expected the normal muted response,” DiPerna said. “The student threw her hands up in the air and belted out her name with enthusiasm and it just blew me away.”
Moments like this became regular occurrences and with those also came meaningful progress on the opera. For weeks, the students wrote songs, created new characters, developed scenes, constructed scenery, explored sound effects and created marketing material. In short, they became an opera company doing what all true artists do — create something out of nothing.
“The process was magical,” Denton said. “A buzz was building, and the kids were amazing.”
As word spread amongst parents, DiPerna said she received an email from Julie Snyder, a faculty member in the College of Education and a costume designer. Snyder, who had a child in DiPerna’s class, designed and sewed more than 60 costumes for the show.
“This really speaks to the spirit of the project,” DiPerna said. “Julie’s work was amazing, and it helped to make the experience bigger and better than we could ever have possibly conceived. When the students put the costumes on, they became those characters.”
The three-act opera with multiple scenes and nine songs and raps ended with a standing ovation and, according to DiPerna, left the team with lasting memories and more.
“When I walk around my house, I’m always singing the opera songs; they were just so catchy and fun,” DiPerna said, “and now my family is fearful that they’re going to hear those songs until the next opera.”
Talks are underway between Pierce and Gray’s Woods to bring the program back for the 2025-26 academic year, with hopes of expansion to other schools.