Hilde Roos serves as the General Manager of the Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation, where she is responsible for the institute’s daily operations. A music historian by training, her PhD investigated the indigenization of opera in South Africa. Her research explores both historical and contemporary representations of opera in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on the genre’s role and significance within broader societal contexts. She has published widely about the Eoan Group, a so-called coloured opera group who performed opera during Apartheid. She is the author of The La Traviata Affair – Opera in the Age of Apartheid (University of California Press, 2018), and joint editor of “Sorry. I am what I am.” The life and letters of the South African pianist and opera coach Gordon Jephtas (1943–92) (Basler Afrika Bibliografien, 2023) and EOAN – Our Story (Fourthwall Books, Johannesburg, 2013). In 2020 she co-edited African Theatre – Opera and Music Theatre, exploring historical and contemporary traces of opera and music theatre on the African continent. 

Hilde is also a founder member of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN), an international network of scholars that engage with conversations on the history, experiences, politics and practices of Black Opera.