The Performing Arts Laboratory announces the official opening of applications for the 2025 edition of the Opera Camp™ Composition and Libretto Program.

The program offers a transformative experience that empowers artists to co-create new operas under professional mentorship, with international premieres and global dissemination. It is designed to provide the platforms needed for all music, cultures, and communities to be empowered and take an active role in transforming the performing arts on a global scale.

The program is open to composers and librettists of any nationality. Composers must be experienced in vocal and orchestral writing. Librettists must have a background in dramatic narrative or libretto writing. Both must have a functional command of English, along with another language relevant to their cultural identity, a willingness to collaborate and commitment to meaningful storytelling, and the availability for an intensive creative experience conducted entirely online (with optional residency in Bloomington, USA, in 2026).

Opera Camp™ will select one professional composer and one professional librettist to co-create a one-act opera and six pre-professional creators (three composers and three librettists) to develop original arias or scenes. Those selected will receive direct mentorship from Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez and the Performing Arts Laboratory’s team and will be given the opportunity to participate in an immersive co-creation process centered on their cultural identity. The one-act opera will receive its premiere at the Bloomington Opera Camp™ in June 2026. Overtures will performed by professional-level international orchestras throughout the 2026-28 season. Pieces will also be professionally recorded. Finally, the winners will become part of the CommunityOperaScores™ catalog, which shares works globally.

Maestro Diego Barbosa-Vásquez, creator and artistic director of Opera Camp™ says in a press release, “Opera, in its essence, is a collaborative art form that unites all creative disciplines — music, poetry, theater, design, and movement. With this program, we return to opera’s original roots: a living, inclusive experience deeply connected to communities.”

The early application deadline for Opera Camp™ 2025 is Aug. 10, with the final deadline being Aug. 25.

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