LA Opera Connects is adding a new program to its ever-growing rotation.

Connects teaching artists will lead free breathing and singing workshops that help UCLA patients who are struggling with lung function after contracting COVID-19.  

The pilot program (taking place via Zoom) kicked off on May 21 with its first group of participants. A limited number of patients who received pulmonary rehabilitation at UCLA after undergoing intubation for COVID-19, or those who are suffering from long-haul COVID, were introduced to different operatic exercises that are designed to support breath control and mindfulness.  

These exercises are the same ones your favorite opera singers use to train their own breath and lungs (because we all know if singing were a sport, opera singers would be the Olympians).  

“The only instrument an opera singer has is their body,” Stacy Brightman, Vice President of LA Opera Connects said in an interview with UCLA Health. “It takes years and years of that development of your instrument. It essentially is like being an Olympic athlete.” 

Our phenomenal teaching artists, Michele Patzakis and Nandani Sinha, lead these classes alongside Rondi Charleston of Rondi Charleston Studios. Rondi was integral in bringing the Connects team and UCLA Health together to create this inspiring program. 

“It’s a program that hopefully people will adopt all over the country,” Charleston said. “It’s been such a joy to watch these long-haul patients taking their first deep breaths, some of them in a year, and to witness them grow their lung capacity and get so much joy out of singing and making music together.” 

Participants start off each session with warm-ups and mindfulness techniques, then move on to breathing exercises with visualization.  

“Imagine a technique where we’re saying, ‘Close your eyes, relax your shoulders down, lean in slightly and breathe in that rose,’” Brightman said. “It’s visualization that will help you achieve exactly what your therapist wants you to – a long, deep, calm breath.” 

In true LA Opera fashion, each class ends with an optional invitation to sing familiar songs like “Amazing Grace” and “You Are My Sunshine,” except on this “stage,” the ability to carry a tune isn’t required.  

“There’s no pressure,” Brightman said. “We have some of the most charming and loving and warm-hearted teaching artists doing this program. Folks will just come in and go, ‘This is family.’”