Anna Valcour

Anna Valcour serves as an adjunct professor at Murray State University, where she teaches in musicology and higher education. She previously worked as an assistant professor of practice at Southern Illinois University. After earning a BA and BM from Lawrence University, she pursued a professional opera career, completing a master's at UNT while working with the Dallas Opera and later as a resident artist with companies including Toledo Opera. Valcour transitioned to music history following challenges in the opera industry, including economic hardships and sexual misconduct. She is a PhD student at Brandeis University, where her dissertation examines the operatic apprenticeship model and Young Artist Programs in the U.S. since the 1950s, with chapters addressing sexual misconduct, fatphobia, and precarity. Her research and writing incorporate an activist lens on systemic harms, power dynamics, and oppression in opera. Valcour holds a second master's in Music and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies and is an SVI-trained vocologist. She is a first-generation college student and McNair Scholar who has received the AAUW Scholar Award and PEO International Scholar Award. She maintains memberships in AGMA and the Soloist Collective for Emerging Artists (SCEA).