Matt Peacock

Photo: Tadashi Okouchi

Matt Peacock

Chief executive of Streetwise Opera
Streetwise Opera (SWO) is a British social art organization established in 2002. In addition to presenting a full-scale opera production once a year with a cast of professional musicians and participants from homeless centers, SWO also holds music workshops on a regular basis at cooperating homeless centers as a means to help homeless people toward social independence and self-reliance. SWO’s founder, Matt Peacock, was recently among 30 top social entrepreneurs and community activists featured in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s book Britain’s Everyday Heroes . Still in his mid-30s, Peacock started SWO as an outgrowth of his experience from years of working simultaneously as a music journalist and homeless shelter worker with the aim of using his expertise in the field of music to help homeless become involved in society again and change people’s preconceptions about the homeless and the reasons for homelessness.