The Kennedy Center together with the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra have announced the 2024 roster for the Center’s prestigious summer training programs.

The company announced that 24 high school students from around the country will participate in the WNO’s Opera Institute, celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The company also announced that more than 60 instrumentalists who plan to pursue a professional music career have been selected for NSO’s intensive four-week tuition-free Summer Music Institute, now in its 31st year. The two programs demonstrate the Kennedy Center, WNO, and NSO’s commitment to music education.

The WNO Opera Institute is a three-week training program for high school singers who are seriously considering pursuing opera in college and as a career.

The three-week program (July 29–August 17) is led by Artistic Lead Dr. Carl DuPont and Associate Artistic Lead Tavish Forsyth and includes private voice lessons and coachings, master classes with Dr. DuPont; classes in movement, acting, special topics in opera, and improvisation (musical and theatrical); and workshops in practical skills for arts professionals. They will also study opera scenes and art songs from the Baroque through modern eras.

Meanwhile the NSO’s SMI is a tuition-free, four-week, summer music program for instrumentalists from across the country and around the world, ages 15–20, who are interested in pursuing a career as a professional musician. The students will receive private lessons, chamber music coaching, master classes, side-by-side rehearsals, and performance activities with the guidance of more than 40 National Symphony Orchestra and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra faculty. This year’s program is from July 1 to July 29.