The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority has awarded a $50,000 grant to Opera Baltimore in support of its project “Voices in Solidarity: Baltimore’s Black and Jewish Operatic History,” which celebrates the historically intertwined Black and Jewish cultural legacies in the city.
“Voices in Solidarity” is a heritage tourism initiative centered around Baltimore communities and will explore the intersecting Black and Jewish legacies through “music, conversation and public learning,” based on the unique Baltimore geography and identity, according to an Opera Baltimore press release.
“History is an active force for promoting economic development and building strength in our communities,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.
The idea behind Voices in Solidarity started several years ago, when Julia Cooke and Nicole Steinberg were thinking about a way in which they could explore Black and Jewish culture through opera.
Cooke is the president and general director of Opera Baltimore, and Steinberg is the organization’s cultural programs coordinator. The pair has been coordinating this project for several years.
After receiving this grant, Opera Baltimore stated that the project would launch late in 2025, with the bulk of the programming taking place in 2026 and into 2027.
The project brings together community partners in the Jewish Museum of Maryland and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, who will be collaborating to bring audiences a concert featuring music from Black and Jewish composers, symposium conversations at large cultural venues, public learning sessions and events designed to highlight the history of the Jonestown neighborhood.
Steinberg said that the project will consist of conversations and bringing Black and Jewish community members together to discuss their respective histories in Baltimore and the areas of overlap, including times of contention and times of allyship.
“We are not hiding from the tough parts of this history, but rather we’re bringing the nuances and complexity of these two minority groups — Baltimore [has a] primarily Black [population] and has one of the largest Jewish communities in the country — to the forefront of the conversation on social responsibility here in Baltimore City,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg said that both Black and Jewish communities have rich musical styles that frequently overlap. She added that both groups have historically used music as a tool to connect with each other, address trauma, reconcile their histories and move their stories forward.
Steinberg said that using opera, traditionally seen as a “white European art form,” is a great way to showcase the contributions of Black and Jewish people through composers, singers and more.
Cooke said that having the cultural celebration and conversation centered around opera is a way to bring everyone together in a place that’s nonthreatening and forces people to share some vulnerability in a space that may be unfamiliar.
“Doing it through the unexpected medium of opera, which no one would suspect, is like a great meeting place, not just for Black people and Jewish people, but for all people. Something that our company, Opera Baltimore, really believes in is the civic impact, the meaning that this art form [can have] that so many people feel is alien to them,” Cooke said.
Opera Baltimore has also announced two of the singers who will be featured in a concert as part of the project: Sara Duchovnay, a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and Liberty Heights native Daniel Rich.
Both singers have previously been involved with Opera Baltimore. Cooke explained that the singers had taken part in a concert in January in honor of the late Baltimore Hebrew Congregation music director and Opera Baltimore board member Jimmy Galdieri.
“At the rehearsal, it was just this very organic thing that happened where we all just talked, and we talked about how each of us as a Black or Jewish person navigated our world within that skin, within that framework,” Cooke said. “And the two of them were not only musically fantastic, which we already knew, but they also were so incredibly vulnerable and open in this conversation.”
Cooke and Steinberg also expressed the importance of the Jewish Museum of Maryland and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum as partners in this program, as each will be hosting one of the symposiums in 2026.
The project will have a special focus on the Jonestown neighborhood, which Black and Jewish communities have called home over the decades, highlighted by the two partner museums built a few blocks apart in the area.
“We not only want people to come into Baltimore City, to come into this neighborhood, into Jonestown … but to also really consider how this community has been important to both demographics in terms of its part of the Baltimore Heritage Area. By using music, we hope to invite people into spaces that they wouldn’t commonly think they’re welcome in,” Steinberg said.
Opera Baltimore plans to start most of its events in the spring of 2026, with more stretching into the fall. And as this is a two-year project, it said it will be listening to community feedback to make changes for 2027 that people can enjoy.
