RESIDENT ARTIST HOUSING – Adam Flowers, tenor & teaching artist

From May of 1998 until May of 2001, I lived in IRENE DALIS’ childhood home on Delmas Avenue, a few blocks from SAP (San Jose) Arena and Diridon Amtrak Station in Downtown San José. OSJ housed resident and visiting artists in this house, in an 8-unit apartment building on 15th Street between Santa Clara and San Fernando Streets near the SJSU campus, and a 6-unit building on North First Street between Taylor and Mission Streets in Japantown. My room was at the back in what had once been a sleeping porch. during those 3 years I lived with Resident Artists BRIAN LEERHUBER, THOMAS TRUHITTE, & CHRISTOPHER DICKERSON; visiting artists ROBERT MCPHERSON, CARL KING, NMON FORD, B. KIMBERLY ADOLFO, and Technical Director JOEL WILMOT. Many cast parties and good times were had here before I moved to the North First Street building in May of 2001.

I never lived at the company apartment building on 15th Street between San Fernando and Santa Clara Streets, but I spent many hours there visiting my friends JOSEPH WRIGHT, LORI DECTER, JESSE MERLIN, PAUL LINNES, CONSTANTINOS YIANNOUDES, SCOTT BEARDEN, MIKE FORNER, DONNA OLSON, SANDRA RUBALCAVA, and conductor GEORGE CLEVE when he was billeted there during one of the many productions he conducted while I was a Resident Artist

OPERA SAN JOSÉ owns two apartment buildings and a house where resident artists live rent-free as part of their compensation package. It allowed us to put most of our pay into savings and build a war-chest for our careers after OSJ. When I first joined the Resident Ensemble, I lived in the house on Delmas Avenue, near the SAP Arena, the birthplace of OSJ founder IRENE DALIS. In May of 2001, I moved into a studio unit at the rear of the Spanish Colonial building OSJ owned on North First Street between Taylor and Mission Streets on the northern edge of San José’s JAPANTOWN. In May of 2003 I moved into the roomier one-bedroom unit in the front of the building. It was there in “Number 4” that NICOLE and I lived in the months before our wedding in 2004 and until my residency ended in May of 2006. This special place will always be the home of some of my most cherished memories.

MEMORIES OF OPERA SAN JOSÉ