National Opera Studio announces its Young Artists for 2024-25

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by Opera Charm Magazine

June 19, 2024

National Opera Studio announces 16 new singers and repetiteurs for its flagship Young Artists Programme. Singers and repetiteurs drawn internationally including 7 UK Young Artists.

The UK’s foremost opera training organisation, the National Opera Studio (NOS), this week announces the new cohort of singers and repetiteurs for its flagship Young Artists Programme for the 2024/25 season.

Following in the footsteps of NOS alumni including Gerald Finley OC CBE, Elizabeth Llewellyn MBE, Marie McLaughlin, Susan Bullock CBE and Nicky Spence OBE among many others, these handpicked musicians will undertake a fully funded, nine-month bespoke training programme that prepares them for the myriad challenges of a complex and demanding industry.

Eric Melear, Artistic Director of National Opera Studio, said:

“We are pleased to announce our 2024/25 cohort of Young Artists. During their nine months, these talented artists will participate in fully funded, bespoke training in partnership with the six leading UK opera companies. Selected through a rigorous audition process, from over 300 applications, our Young Artists represent the very best of talent, not just from the UK, but around the world.

Under the guidance of industry-leading singers and coaches, our Young Artists will grace the stages of Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne and Opera North. This year will also include several performances in London at prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall. We look forward to supporting their development and showcasing their talent.”

The 16 joining the Young Artists Programme in 2024 comprise five sopranos, two mezzo-sopranos, two tenors, three baritones and four repetiteurs. Along with the UK, artists come from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Poland, Netherlands, Russia and South Africa. In addition to funding the training, the National Opera Studio provides the Young Artists with a performance stipend, a bursary and additional funding for external lessons and auditions.

A full list of the 2024/25 National Opera Studio’s Young Artists can be found here.

Having undergone an intense application process, participants on the Young Artists Programme will hone their skills and leverage NOS’s unique partnerships with the six leading UK opera companies: English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Royal Ballet and Opera, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera.

The intensity of the training reflects the environment of the professional opera world, exposing artists to the huge range of skills necessary for working in opera at the highest level. In addition to their musical tuition, the comprehensive and holistic training includes coaching, mentoring, skills development and stagecraft classes, audio-visual technical training, coaching in physical and psychological resilience, PR/marketing advice as well as performance opportunities. These are taught with unparalleled one-to-one supervision, allowing for individually tailored learning, helping the Young Artists progress by providing a springboard from which to launch international careers.

Among the many performance opportunities for the Young Artists in the 2024/25 season are:

A workshop at Glyndebourne in December
An opera scenes performance at the Studio, directed by Keith Warner, in December
A Welsh National Opera residency in January / February
A masterclass at the Royal Ballet and Opera
A Scottish Opera residency in February
A Wigmore Hall concert in spring
An opera scenes performance at the Studio in spring
An Opera North residency in May

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Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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