We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Victoria Isernia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Victoria below.

Alright, Victoria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2021, as a young Opera Singer facing contract cancellations during COVID, myself and two other opera singers co-founded what is now Amelia Island Opera. It felt extremely scary at the time as I personally didn’t have any experience in Artistic Administration. However, it felt like the right move for us as we saw we were facing a world of shrinking opportunities for singers during this extremely trying time on the arts. We wanted to create opportunities for singers and musicians. We produced our first concerts in August of 2021 with minimal marketing and few resources. What we found was an incredibly enthusiastic audience who welcomed us with open arms. Their unwavering support, of which we are so grateful for, has continued to grow and we are now coming into our fifth season having produced many concerts and several fully staged productions.

Victoria, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Victoria Isernia and I am an Opera Singer and Performer from Long Island, New York. With an aunt I absolutely idolized starring in Off-Broadway shows and countless productions, I fell in love with the theater from attending her shows and watching her. I started taking voice lessons and performing in shows at age 10, attended Manhattan School of Music in my college years and the rest is history! Aside from my own singing career, having appeared with companies such as The New York Philharmonic, Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, Gulfshore Opera, First Coast Opera, etc. I am extremely proud of the work myself and my colleagues have been able to do with Amelia Island Opera. Having hired nearly 130 musicians, produced numerous concerts and put on several fully staged productions, we have created a platform for artists to come and be a part of a special community who greatly appreciates all of the work they do. We have cultivated an audience who have become family to us and I feel very blessed and grateful to get to know so many wonderful people who are brought together by gorgeous music and the highest level of storytelling.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I am extremely blessed to have two wonderful Co-Founders alongside myself. Robyn Marie Lamp, an incredible Soprano, and John Tibbetts, an incredible baritone and also, my husband. I met John when we were both singing a callback for Portland Opera in NYC. By chance I caught an earlier train (something that very rarely happens haha) and got to the callback venue almost an hour early- an event that changed my life, as I ended up meeting John just as he was coming out of his callback. Fast forward several years and we were moving to Amelia Island where we met Robyn. Her mother lived on the island (at one point very close to John’s Mom). We felt it was meant to be that three opera singers found themselves on beautiful Amelia Island and that it was a perfect spot to start an Opera Company.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Our visibility in our community has greatly helped Amelia Island Opera thrive. It has always been a company for the community and we work very hard to give back to the community as a whole. We offer community lectures, Library programming, Children’s programming, Youth Performance Workshops, Participation in important community events such as performances at our “Shrimp Festival” and “Dicken on Centre” amongst many other outreach initiatives. Through our passion for community outreach and attention to desirable performances we really work to make sure we are giving our audience what they want and I know it has helped to maintain our reputation and garner their trust.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected] & victoriaisernia.com
• Instagram: victoriaisernia
• Youtube: victoriaisernia

Image Credits

Brittany Powell Photography, Lea Gallardo, Alwynne Lamp