Twin Cities Opera Guild has excelled at introducing students to opera and quality music since 1952. We are dedicated to cultivating music education and outreach, both in the schools and for the general public. As an all-volunteer non-profit organization, we rely on our members and friends to help us fund our grants for music education.
TCOG is Hiring for the First Time
After 74 years of solely volunteer, unpaid support, TCOG seeks a paid, part-time employee program administrator to assist in administering TCOG's activities, working primarily remotely and on site at meetings and events. TCOG anticipates that the program administrator will work a variable schedule of approximately 10 hours per week. The full position description is here. If you have questions about the position, please contact Colleen Nelson at president@twincitiesoperaguild.org or (651) 249-4083. If you are interested in the position, please send your resume to Colleen Nelson at the same email address.
From TCOG’s President, Colleen Nelson
What’s Going On? TCOG enters 2026 full steam ahead. With visions of 2025 still in our
heads (and sincere thanks for all that our members and supporters helped us accomplish), we
kick off the new year celebrating 2025’s successful year of fundraising, trying out new venues,
and implementing our new Cocktail Collaboration.
Our Winter 2026 Newsletter is Here. As we gear up for another busy and collaborative year, I
hope that you will read our current newsletter which is available through the “Newsletter” link on
this page for what went on last year and what’s going on this year. It highlights the funds we
raised, the grants we distributed, and the events we held, as well as the well-deserved
retirement of our highly respected and beloved treasurer, Arlene Alm, who for more than 48
years served in various roles as a president, long-time treasurer, and more recently executive
director of TCOG.
Our Transition to Mostly Email Communication. As I’ve previously mentioned, we are
transitioning to email delivery of newsletters, invitations, and announcements. One of our
continuing goals is to more efficiently and cost-effectively produce and distribute our
newsletters, invitations, and announcements by emailing them to our constituents for whom we
have email addresses (our “email subscribers”), rather than mailing them. You’ll see more
about this in the newsletter.
Upcoming Fun. Looking ahead, and as always, we would love to welcome you to our
upcoming events: First, our February 10, Members and Friends “Opera with Lunch” at The Club
at Golden Valley. Next, we are tickled to be holding our second Cocktail Collaboration on
March 22 with Lakes Area Music Festival – this one a mid-day Sunday mimosas and brunch
bites event. After that we gear up for our Spring Benefit on May 19 at Interlachen Country Club
and our Party in Pink at the North Oaks Golf Club. More fun follows in the fall, so stay tuned
for those events. We hope you can join us as we gather to celebrate and continue our 74-year
history of supporting music education and performance experience for the young.
Cheers to an active new year. With warm regards from Colleen Nelson
A national pioneer in opera education for children
How we make it happen
Our grants fund:
- Delightful musical productions in-school, staged and performed by students -- in both the cast and orchestra
- Interactive in-school student programs conducted by professional singers and musicians
- After-school music programs for children, including student choirs
- Special student matinees at operas produced by the Minnesota Opera
- Summer music programs for children
Coming events
Winter Members & Friends |
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Cocktail Collaboration with Lakes Area Music Festival |
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SPRING BENEFIT |
Impact
(over the past 5 years)
In the past five years our organization:
- Served a total of 96,890 children
- Served children from ages three through college
- Granted funds to an average of 25 organizations and schools each year
- Gave grants totaling $384,970
Grants that enrich our youth
School children are the principal beneficiaries of our funds. During the last past five years, we have funded programs bringing music education to more than 96,890 children, both in the seven-county metropolitan area and throughout the state of Minnesota, western Wisconsin and eastern North Dakota.
Twice each year (Fall and Winter), we review applications for new education grants.