Our Story

Nevill Holt Opera was founded in 2013 with a clear mission to enrich lives and empower young people through the power of music and the Arts.  We do this by:

• Creating outstanding opera in the East Midlands, at Nevill Holt Opera.
• Developing the most talented young opera singers breaking into the industry.
• Delivering our extensive education and community programmes in areas of limited arts provision, in partnership with the David Ross Education Trust.

Our audiences

Since opening our new theatre in June 2018, nearly 6,000 people have attended our Summer Festival, over 1500 have attended an NHO Community Event, and over 1200 artists and local people have sung or performed in the Theatre. We work hard to develop new audiences in the East Midlands. In our 2019 season, 65% of our audience came from the East Midlands region, and 33% of them were new to NHO. 

Education and Community

Nevill Holt Opera began in 2013, and since then thousands of young people have seen a performance at NHO free of charge, taken part in an NHO workshop at their school, performed on our stage or received individual singing lessons.

We are constantly inspired by the young people we work with, but the statistics support the importance of this sort of work too. Research shows that students from low-income families who take part in arts activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree, while people who take part in the arts are 38% more likely to report good health. The employability of students who study arts subjects is higher and they are more likely to stay in employment, while access to culture is one of the most important factors determining a young person’s well-being. Reaching young people with music and creative activities is clearly more important than ever.