Plácido Domingo, LA Opera’s Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, has announced the 2018-19 season’s LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists. Out of the 650 applicants, 200 live auditions and, ultimately, 28 final candidates, five singers were chosen.

The five singers chosen were baritone Michael J. Hawk, who has worked with the Santa Fe Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, and mezzo-soprano Niru Liu, who will participate in the Pacific Music Festival this summer. Soprano Erica Petrocelli was also chosen, as were tenor Jose Simerilla Romero and soprano Sarah Vautour. The program will also include conductor/pianist Louis Lohraseb and pianist Brendon Shapiro, selected through special auditions for Richard Seaver Music Director James Conlon and LA Opera’s music staff.

The finalists auditioned in April for a panel led by Domingo that included Sebastian Paul and Marybelle Musco President and CEO Christopher Koelsch, the program’s Artistic Advisor Susan Graham, and Artistic Administrator Samuel Gelber. Also on the panel was Stephen King, head of vocal instruction for the program, and Nino Sanikidze, head coach for the program.

In a press statement Domingo noted, “Identifying and encouraging talented young performers has long been an incredibly important and gratifying mission for me. I am both humbled and proud that opera companies around the world look to the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program as one of the premier training grounds for the next generation of opera stars. I am thrilled to welcome these exceptionally talented young performers to the LA Opera family.”

The program, which begins at the start of the LA Opera season, will also see the return of baritone Juan Carlos Heredia, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, soprano Liv Redpath and tenor Joshua Wheeker.