From Opera to AI: One UAFS Alum Shares His Journey

Written By: Ian Silvester

“The path doesn’t always have to be linear. … Your career can take shape in unexpected ways that you didn’t plan for or expect, but be willing to take those leaps to grow.” 

As a classically trained baritone, University of Arkansas – Fort Smith alum, Chris Lopez, ’09, has used his approach to learning a piece of music as a parallel to the journey he calls life. 

The Houston, Texas, native grew up in the shadow of the NASA Johnson Space Center both at home and in his city. Lopez’s mother and father both worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with his mom contributing to the design work related to the International Space Station and his dad working on software and weather monitoring connected to mission control. While it would have been easy for him to be set up for lofty goals, Lopez wanted to find his own way. 

After beginning his college journey at Texas State University, Lopez left home for Norman, Okla., to attend the University of Oklahoma. Lopez walked on the Sooner football team, but a lingering desire to return to his passion for singing was ultimately the first step to cementing his future. 

“I was missing singing, so I got a voice lesson from someone who was involved in the opera at OU. I did voice lessons with him while I was there, and he asked, ‘Have you ever heard of opera?’ I said, ‘No, what is that?’ and he said he thought my voice was suited for it and to try,” Lopez recalled. 

Lopez auditioned for and was accepted into OU’s opera chorus. A few members he grew close with transferred to UAFS and encouraged him to do the same. 

An audition with Dr. Elizabeth Momand, professor of music for voice and director of opera and musical theatre workshop, and the late choir director, Tom Lippert, landed Lopez a scholarship to UAFS. 

His path to UAFS wasn’t direct, but Lopez said it is the school and education he can confidently say laid the groundwork for what has since transpired. 

“UAFS gave me that foundation to then continue to grow,” Lopez said. “From those professors and those courses that helped build me into what I am today, to set that foundation and help me progress.” 

After graduation from UAFS with a bachelor’s degree in music for vocal performance, Lopez received a scholarship to pursue a Master of Music in Opera Performance at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music before singing opera across the country and internationally.  

“I spent about a month and a half in France doing opera performances there,” he said.  

Despite his meteoric rise from what he described as basically starting without a true musical background while at OU to performing in France, Lopez felt like his path with his budding family needed more stability. 

“Performance wasn’t going to last my whole life. My wife and I talked about the life we wanted to build. A performance career often means constant travel and moving from one engagement to another, and it wasn’t the long-term plan we wanted,” he said, explaining the intentional decision the couple made. “I was going to have to figure something else that I could do as well.” 

Leaning into his music background, Lopez returned to Houston, where he began working in elementary education, teaching music, then intermediate music and choir. Two years later, he became a middle school choir director. 

Without a formal background in teaching music, Lopez said this time was crucial for him to see how far he could push himself to be better. 

“I was learning and teaching myself along the way,” Lopez said. 

Lopez had realized long ago that he wasn’t keen to sit on his laurels. He traded teaching for joining and managing his family’s insurance agency. This decision became a new fork in the road, reinforcing his belief that journeys don’t have to be a straight line. 

Lopez took his experience with his family’s agency to start his own. He developed and honed his strengths in entrepreneurship, sales, and relationship building. With his insurance company thriving and the day-to-day operations handled by the management team Lopez put in place, it was time for a new challenge. This time, inspired by NASA’s shadow over Houston. 

“I always felt drawn back to technology of some sort, but I never knew what my end would be,” he said. “I wanted to challenge myself in something new in this area, and that’s when I found Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), who had an opening for business development, focusing specifically on HPC (high-performance computing) and AI.” 

Over the next few years, Lopez climbed the ladder at HPE until he eventually became a sales specialist, leading accounts in the central U.S. for HPC and AI sales. Earlier this year, he made the move to AMD, “The high performance and adaptive computer leader, powering the products and services that help solve the world’s most important challenges,” to “advance the future of the data center, embedded, gaming and PC markets.” 

At AMD, Lopez works in AI infrastructure and data center business development. 

“I’d be lying if I said I imagined going from music to this (AI) was what I initially had planned,” he said with a laugh. “But with every major career transition, I had to become a beginner again. I learned that being willing to be uncomfortable, put in the work, and continue learning is where the greatest growth begins.” 

Lopez travels a fair amount with his role at AMD. He said it provides him with time to reflect on where he’s been and how he got to where he is now. In a sense, life is a bit of a full circle: He’s still traveling to provide for himself and his family, and he still “performs,” but instead of figuring out where the story of music takes him, he is delivering talks at conventions and conferences related to AI. 

He said he couldn’t have envisioned this path, but the stepping stones along the way kept him moving in the direction he needed, and it all started when he set foot at UAFS. 

• Tags:
• College of Arts and Sciences
• Bachelor of Arts in Music
• Alumni