UC Merced Children’s Opera, a performance that delights and enlightens thousands of schoolchildren a year while giving Bobcat students experience in theater, has received support from a generous grant from the Central Valley Opportunity Fund.
The three-year, $90,000 grant to the opera and the Merced County Office of Education (MCOE) will strengthen the sustainability of the opera, which is produced annually by UC Merced Arts and operates largely on the work of dedicated contractors and the seemingly bottomless energy of Jenni Samuelson, the opera’s director and a music lecturer for UC Merced Global Arts Studies.
“This grant provides the sustainability we need to keep the Children’s Opera thriving,” said Samuelson, an opera singer herself who grew up in Merced and has taught at UC Merced since 2011. “It ensures we can continue presenting engaging, high-quality performances that connect our community’s youth with our campus through music and storytelling.”
The Children’s Opera is performed each spring in coordination with MCOE’s arts program. This academic year’s production, “The Ghost in the Opera House,” marks the opera’s 16th year, with a free community performance scheduled for May 23, 2026, at the Art Kamangar Center at The Merced Theatre downtown.
Each performance features professional opera singers, musicians and designers. UC Merced students work alongside these professionals, both on stage and in the production crew. The book and lyrics for each show are written by Nancy Steele Brokaw, an Illinois-based educator and writer.
The shows feature classic opera tunes recognizable from pop culture but with words rewritten to fit a family-friendly plot. Audience members are taught songs and cues early on and are urged to interact with the performers.
“Jenni and our production team are extremely efficient and do incredible work with a fairly modest budget,” said Collin Lewis, executive director for UC Merced Arts. “The Children’s Opera looks and sounds like any educational program that you would find at a major performing arts center.
“We’re thrilled that these high-quality productions continue to engage and educate thousands of children in Merced each year and have attracted philanthropic partners in the area, such as the Central Valley Opportunity Fund.”
The CVOF grant will be used to increase compensation for the professional performers, upgrade production equipment, and launch a new educational outreach program that will strengthen the opera’s connections with its annual attendees and attract new schools and educators.
CVOF, part of the philanthropic Central Valley Community Foundation, is a private, donor-advised fund dedicated to improving the lives of residents of the greater Merced community. CVOF strives to be a catalyst for additional public and private resources, and for establishing regional partnerships aimed at equitable, lasting and systemic change.
“One of my favorite things in this community is the Children’s Opera. You can immediately see the impact on those little faces,” said Kim Garner, Merced regional director of the Central Valley Community Foundation and facilitator of the Opportunity Fund.
“Having infrastructure that shows the benefits of arts in education is so important,” said Noelle Chandler, MCOE arts program specialist. “The grant allows us to not only help with funding and support, but to unite the curriculum for multiple opportunities.”
