Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point is an annual summer opera festival and opera training program in

Eureka Springs, Arkansas Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States, and one of two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas, near the border with Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the city populati ...

. Founded in 1950 by Henry Hobart and Gertrude Stockard, the festival serves as a training ground for young opera professionals. Several alumni of the festival have gone on to have prominent performing careers, including

Mark Delavan Mark Delavan is an American operatic bass-baritone. He was a national finalist of the Metropolitan Opera auditions and an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. Early life His mother was a soprano and his father was an Opera singer, co ...

Stephen Dickson Stephen Dickson (16 February 1951 – 18 October 1991) was an American baritone who had an active career in operas and concerts from 1972 through 1990. He was active with the United States's most important opera companies during the 1980s, sharing ...

, Tom Fox,

Carroll Freeman Carroll Freeman is an American operatic tenor, opera director, and music educator. He began his career as a prominent boy soprano in the 1960s. From the late 1970s through the mid 1990s he performed widely as a tenor with opera companies and orche ...

Beverly Hoch Beverly Hoch (born August 26, 1951) is an American coloratura soprano and music educator who has had an active performance career in operas, concerts, and on recordings since the late 1970s. She has been teaching at Texas Woman's University sinc ...

, Hei-Kyung Hong, Sherman Ray Jacobs,

William Johns William Johns (born 2 October 1936) is an American tenor who sang leading roles in the opera houses of Europe and the United States in a career spanning more than 25 years. Several of his live performances in Germany and Italy during the 1970s hav ...

, Patricia Johnson, Gwendolyn Jones,

Marquita Lister Marquita Lister (born 24 April 1961) is an American operatic soprano. She has sung with major companies in the U.S. and abroad, specializing in the spinto soprano, lirico-spinto repertoire. Lister is considered one of the leading interpreters of B ...

, Chris Merritt,

Leona Mitchell Leona Pearl Mitchell (born October 13, 1949, Enid, Oklahoma) is an American operatic Grammy Award-winning soprano who sang for 18 seasons as a leading spinto soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In her home state of Oklahoma, she rec ...

, Brian Montgomery,

Latonia Moore Latonia Moore (born 1979, in Houston, Texas) is an American soprano. She grew up listening to Black music, and began singing in the church choir of the New Sunrise Baptist Church (where her grandfather Cranford Moore was a pastor) at age 8. In her ...

Louis Otey Louis Otey (born 22 November 1954) is an American baritone singer born in South Dakota. He performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and other major international companies. He is notable for his per ...

, Kay Paschal,

Cyndia Sieden Cyndia Sieden (born September 10, 1961) is an American coloratura soprano on the opera and concert stages. Biography Cyndia Sieden was born in 1961 in California, USA, and received her first vocal instruction there. A significant early milesto ...

Richard Vernon Richard Evelyn Vernon (7 March 1925 – 4 December 1997) was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled into playi ...

, and

Jennifer Zetlan Jennifer Zetlan is an American operatic soprano who has sung leading roles with many opera companies in the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Seattle Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera among others. She has performed in the world prem ...

. History Charles Mowers, a German-born engineer and inventor, came from Texas to the Ozark Mountains around 1900 to hunt wild game. He bought the land known as the Big Rock Candy Mountain in 1928 and began construction of a “castle” based on his memories of buildings along the Rhine River. Using stone quarried on the property, he incorporated an unusual building method he called Egyptian Rock Work. After the stock market crash of 1929, Mowers abandoned his castle and returned to Texas. The castle was finished in 1932 by the Reverend Charles Scoville (1869–1938), a renowned preacher of th
Disciples of Christ
who planned to use it as a retreat from his evangelistic labors. He named the site “Inspiration Point.” After his death, his widow gave the property to Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, for a conference and retreat center. Ten years later, however, this project was abandoned, and Henry Hobart, formerly dean of fine arts at Phillips, joined with Gertrude Stockard, director of music at Eureka Springs High School, to organize a music camp, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony (IPFAC), which held its first session in the summer of 1950. Hobart and his wife financed extensive repairs to the buildings with loans and donations from Eureka Springs businesses. Some furnishings were obtained from government surplus stores. Practice pianos were donated by area churches and schools.

References

External links

Official Website of Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point
{{authority control Opera festivals American opera companies Music schools in Arkansas Eureka Springs, Arkansas Private universities and colleges in Arkansas Music festivals established in 1950 1950 establishments in Arkansas