Givonna Joseph

As Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning OperaCréole, Givonna Joseph’s research on 19th-century New Orleans free classical and operatic composers of color and Creole history and heritage was recently featured on NBC Nightly News, NPR, and in magazines such as Black Enterprise,  64 Parishes, and Atlas Obscura. Previous cover articles include BreakThru Media Magazine and NOLA Boomers magazine.

Since 2011, the international soloist, arts integration specialist, and university lecturer, along with her daughter, Aria Mason, OperaCréole co-founder, has received several honors for mounting lost or rarely heard operas by composers of color.

In 2022, she received The Torchbearers Award from The New Orleans Regional Chapter of The National Coalition of 100 Black Women.

The former Education Director for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra was most recently featured in educational documentaries, including  Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, Dillard University’s Ray Charles Center for Material Culture’s Legacy of American Slavery, and The Nous Foundation’s Voices of Renewal, celebrating the Creole language.

The Loyola graduate also teaches a class there, Opera, Classical Music, and Race, and gives back to several organizations such as The Council of French Societies, The Symphony Chorus, The Black Administrators of Opera, and Opera America.