An Ode to Black Opera at CAAM

The California African American Museum hosted “LA Opera: An Ode to Black Opera” on Tuesday, May 19, at its Exposition Park campus in Los Angeles, according to the museum’s event page. The one-hour evening program was presented through LA Opera Connects and billed as a performance “celebrating Black composers,” with four LA Opera artists scheduled to appear. CAAM listed the event for 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Eventbrite showed it as a free public program. ### Which artists were scheduled to perform at CAAM? CAAM named Cedric Berry, Ashley Faatoalia, Thalia Moore and Alonso Pirio as the featured performers for the May 19 program. The museum identified Berry as a bass-baritone, Faatoalia as a tenor, Moore as a soprano and Pirio as the pianist. LA Opera Connects was described by CAAM as returning to the museum for the event, tying the concert to an ongoing partnership between the museum and LA Opera’s community programming arm. (caamuseum.org) The museum’s listing did not publish a full set list, but it said the evening would focus on music by Black composers. ### When did this concert happen, and was it part of a larger week of events? (caamuseum.org) Tuesday, May 19, was the scheduled date for “An Ode to Black Opera,” placing it inside a week of Los Angeles cultural listings highlighted by the local events site We Like L.A. The site included the concert in its May 18-22 roundup of things to do around the city. (caamuseum.org) CAAM’s own upcoming-events page placed the opera program between a May 17 scavenger hunt and a May 20 conversation featuring Jamilah Lemieux, Angela Nissel and Tika Sumpter. That listing situates the concert as part of a broader run of free museum programming in late May. ### What exactly was CAAM promising audiences? CAAM’s event description said the program would be “an evening of music celebrating Black composers.” Eventbrite used similar language, saying LA Opera Connects was returning to CAAM “for an evening of music celebrating Black composers with LA Opera.” (welikela.com) A separate community listing on Meetup described the event as a live performance “celebrating the legacy and impact of Black composers and vocalists through classical music and storytelling.” That language did not appear in the museum’s own listing, but it reflected how outside organizers were presenting the concert to potential attendees. (caamuseum.org) ### Was the event free, and where was it held? (caamuseum.org) Eventbrite and Exposition Park’s venue calendar both listed the program as free. The venue was the California African American Museum at 600 State Drive in Los Angeles, inside Exposition Park. We Like L.A.’s May roundup also marked the event as free, reinforcing that the concert was being promoted as an open public program rather than a ticketed commercial performance. (meetup.com) The museum page linked visitors to an RSVP page for the event. ### Why does the May 19 date matter for this program? CAAM had previously posted a February 5, 2026 version of “LA Opera: An Ode to Black Opera,” but that event was postponed after what the museum called a security incident in Exposition Park. (eventbrite.com) The February listing named Cedric Berry, Ashley Faatoalia and Thalia Moore again, though it listed Grace Lee on piano instead of Alonso Pirio. (welikela.com) The May 19 program appears to be the rescheduled return of that concert, based on the matching event name, venue and three of the four named artists. CAAM’s May listing does not explicitly call it a reschedule, but the sequence of postings points in that direction. ### What comes next at the museum? CAAM’s next listed public event after the opera program was “In Conversation: Jamilah Lemieux, Angela Nissel, and Tika Sumpter” on Wednesday, May 20, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the museum. (caamuseum.org) The upcoming-events page also lists “Self Care: Yoga” for May 23 and a screening of “Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story” for May 27. (caamuseum.org) (caamuseum.org)