(Credit: Roberto Ricci)

The Accademia Verdiana has selected 12 singers in its VI edition to perfect the Verdi repertoire.

The academy selected singers out of 94 candidates and 20 countries. All singers were during auditions that were held during the course of three days by a jury that includes Francesco Izzo (Accademia Verdiana), Giannina Seccia (Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma), Vincenzo De Vivo (Accademia d’Arte Lirica di Osimo), Damiana Pinti (Scuola di musica di Fiesole), Cristiano Sandri (Teatro Regio di Torino), Barbara Frittoli (soprano), and Annalisa Stroppa (mezzosoprano).

This year’s students are Zizhao Chen, Fernando Cisneros Oñate, Guan Bowen, Carmela Lopez, Sara Minieri, Galina Ovchinnikova, Licia Piermatteo, Matteo Pietrapiana, Anzor Pilia, Lei Wu, Bo Yang, and Litai Zhuo.

The program will include individual and group lessons as well as seminars that will total 1,000 hours. The program will begin on Feb. 20 and ends in October. There will also be work on stage movement and choreography and the students will have the opportunity to work in labs, seminars, and with directors, conductors, and singers from the Teatro Regio di Parma. The students will also get a chance to perform in the Verdi Off 2023.