The Des Moines Metro Opera has named Dr. Naomi André as its Fellow-in-Residence.

The Fellow-in-Residence will create, participate in, and lead podcasts, conversations, and events centered around her research on opera, gender, voice, and race.

André, who received her B.A. in Music from Barnard College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Musicology from Harvard University, is the author of “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement,” a work that has become a leader in the field of opera. She is also the author of “Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and Second Woman in Early-Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera” as well as the co-editor of “Blackness in Opera.”

André is also currently a Professor of Women’s Studies, Department of African American and African Studies, and Residential College Arts and Ideas in the Humanities Program at the University of Michigan.

“The Iowa Summer Festival and Scholarship will explore different worlds and important works by universally known authors, with themes of race and family, among others, which is why I am delighted to have the opportunity to experience this type of festival as sophisticated, lyrical and carefully curated where drama, music and atmosphere provide a welcoming environment for audiences experienced and new, seeking classics and innovation,” said André in an official press statement.