AEDO is not only an acronym, but also a word that captures the essence of what this programs strives to teach. Aedo is the Italian word for what, in English, can be most closely translated at "orator", but it is also poet, communicator, story-teller. Aedo is the word for one that practices the craft of Horace, the ancient sung-text tradition of translating story into drama and finally into catharsis. The art of the modern singer is to communicate through voice and text, to use those tools to move the human spirit. In the Greek tradition, sung drama was the tool and forum where communities came together, after war, after destruction, for atonement, for celebration, and found common ground in their own humanity. Opera carries on that tradition in contemporary life, and by calling this program AEDO, we connect across more than 2000 years with the heart and meaning of our own art.