Shira Renee Thomas is the General & Artistic Director of Valley Opera and Performing Arts (VOPA), which just completed its 20th anniversary season in Los Angeles. Shira has produced over 40 fully-staged productions, in addition to numerous concerts and other events, overseeing everything from auditions and casting, to audience development and marketing. VOPA has helped launch the careers of many singers who’ve gone on to perform in such prestigious organizations as English National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and San Francisco Opera, to name a few, including NYOA’s own Johnathan McCullough. 

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As a singer herself, Ms. Thomas has performed as a soloist alongside such superstars as Quinn Kelsey and Christian Van Horn, as well as renowned artists such as Nicole Cabell, Rodell Rosel, and Milena Kitic. Among the numerous awards earned by Ms. Thomas, she won 1st prize in the prestigious Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod Vocal Solo Competition in North Wales, which has hosted such legendary singers as Luciano Pavarotti and Bryn Terfel in past years.

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Having suffered from debilitating recurrent Depression for over 25 years, Ms. Thomas has become an advocate for mental health, particularly among the artist community, and is frequently invited to attend various events in order to tell her story of finally finding a treatment that put her Depression into remission. She has also written articles on the subject that have been published in HuffPost and Classical Singer Magazine (CS Music), and she has been interviewed by National Geographic and local L.A. news stations about her experience as a performer and producer with Depression. Ms. Thomas seeks to bring attention to the major mental health issues like Depression and Anxiety that are so prevalent in the singing community, and is working toward destigmatizing mental illness and educating about treatments, old and new, that are available to help treat them.