Dr. Naomi Barrettara is a musicologist, teacher, public speaker, instructor, and digital media producer/consultant. In summer 2023, Naomi founded Mountain Melodies, an initiative dedicated to creating accessible and local community, children’s, and family music-making opportunities in Hope, BC. This initiative is sponsored by the Hope Rotary Club, and currently features group music classes and rhythm and movement classes for children and families.

Naomi has previously worked primarily in the classical music sphere, with her longest running engagement being a program development consultant and lecturer at The Metropolitan Opera Guild, where she was involved with several of the Guild’s community programs for almost a decade. She was a cohost of The Metropolitan Opera Guild Podcast, and in her work producing the podcast between fall 2015 and summer 2020, the podcast reached over 1.25 million listeners. She was a lecturer for the Opera Boot Camp lecture series at The Cosmopolitan Club for over 8 years, and was also integral in launching the Guild’s Online Learning course offerings in spring 2019. She is passionate about music education and outreach and specializes in communicating her musical knowledge and study of the operatic art form to audiences and classrooms in an approachable and engaging manner, connecting with groups of all ages and knowledge levels. Naomi is a cofounder and cohost of the podcast Opera After Dark, and has worked on various freelance digital media projects, including advising on digital media components of Dr. Joseph Straus’ video series on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (launched in 2023). In both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 season, she worked for Arizona Opera, presenting lectures and public events as part of their season of Community Engagement offerings, has been featured twice as a guest expert on the Arizona Opera podcast, and produced a series of educational videos for their K-12 programming. She has been a guest lecturer for Boston Lyric Opera, and has appeared as a guest panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz. In addition to public lecturing and content development projects, Naomi has led workshops on podcasting, social media use in academic scholarship, and digital identity at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and has presented research at various conferences, including The American Musicological Society National Conference. Naomi was also on the Douglas College Music Faculty in New Westminster, British Columbia, where she taught music history.

Naomi holds a PhD in Musicology with an additional certificate in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy from The Graduate Center at The City University of New York, where she previously completed a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy in Music. She was a Fellow in The Graduate Center’s Digital Initiatives program for several years, and acted as the team coordinator for The Graduate Center Social Media Fellows from Fall 2017 through spring 2019. Her dissertation, titled Cyber-narrative in Opera: Three Case Studies, focused on newly composed operas with cyber-narratives (such as disembodied digital communication, artificial intelligence, and transhumanism in operatic storytelling), analyzing works such as Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, Søren Nils Eichberg’s Glare, and Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers. Her research areas include opera studies, public musicology, and classical music in the digital age.

Naomi is based in British Columbia, Canada, and when she is not teaching or working on consulting projects, she is a full-time Mom to her daughter, Isabella. She loves exploring the mountains with her family, hosting playdates and themed parties, is an avid swimmer and baker, and enjoys travelling the world with her husband and toddler whenever the opportunity arises!