Our FAQs

Operanauts values the combination of creative and positive efforts, the development of friendship, and the discovery of common ground between our musicians and audiences, to name a few big ideas. Learn more about our story.

We measure success in lives touched, not dollars earned. Every instrumentalist who performs in a concert we produce, every singer who memorizes the scores we give them to learn, every child who takes music lessons we provide – these are our measures of success. 

Though our definition of success is not dependent on our finances, the two are still related. The more donations we receive, the more outreach we are able to organize. Money speeds up our progress and increases the scale of what we can do. Learn more about our fundraising goals.

If your definition of “safe” involves walking your dog late at night in an average American suburb, then the answer is probably no.  But if you have travelled to other developing countries before, say, in Central America, South America, or Africa, then safety in Congo is par for the course. 

In our own recent trips to Kinshasa, we were welcomed as guests with many invitations to visit our Congolese friends. Learn more about our adventures in Kinshasa in 2018.

Yes! The Stade des Martyrs stadium in Kinshasa was the venue for Ali and Foreman’s famed 1974 heavyweight championship match. 

If you want to know more about this historic event, we recommend “When we were Kings: the untold story of the Rumble in the Jungle” (1996) directed by Leon Gast.

Yes! If you would like to visit Kinshasa with us, let us know. Get acquainted with our facilitating partner, Congo Travel and Tours. CT&T has created bespoke tour packages for Operanauts, which include concert tickets, hotel accomodations, sight-seeing day trips, and more. The packages can also help with your visa, flight, and insurance arrangements. 

We’ll hold off on our next trip until the global pandemic is less of a health threat. But when country borders open again to guests and tourists, we hope to see you there! In the meantime, read about the amazing Congo river. 

The young people of Kinshasa frequent many of the same places you might expect in your own city. They relax around the swimming pools in the Nsele commune, and students spend weekends enjoying watersports at Lake Ma Vallée, as do the tourists and many families. Young people play soccer or basketball at various fields around the city and even at the Stade des Martyrs. In the evening, they go to concerts at the Wallonie-Bruxelles, or to the nightclubs, bars, and outdoor terraces in town. Just like anywhere else, students in Kinshasa love their city’s nightlife.