Opera for Peace Academy will hold its annual gathering for a third time, this year in Rome and Paris.

For the 2024 edition, a record number of 360 applications from 76 countries were received. The fourteen selected artists, from ages 21 to 37, hail from five continents. This year’s participants are sopranos Celine Mun (South Korea), Johanna Will (Germany / Kosovo), Khayakazi Madlala (South Africa), and Livia Louis-Joseph-Dogué (Martinique / France), mezzo-sopranos Ekaterina Chayka-Rubinstein (Germany/Ukraine – Opera Europa Artist) and Hannah Jones (United States of America), tenors Samuel White (United States of America), Sen Xu (China), and Víctor Jiménez Moral (Spain), baritone Maxim Lisiin (Russia), bass-baritones Arturo Espinosa (Chile) and Jasurbek Khaydarov (Uzbekistan), pianist Naoki Hayashi (Japan) and stage director Xolane Marman (South Africa).

The emerging artists will come together from April 15-25, 2024, beginning at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, then at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris (CIUP). For eleven days they will attend vocal coachings, movement and stage classes, and learn about the role of an artist in society, and how to manage social networks with the support of the Opera for Peace team including Kamal Khan, Julia Lagahuzère, and Jenna Wolf. The group will also participate in masterclasses led by Larry Brownlee, Étienne Dupuis, Thomas Hampson, Brian Jagde, Sumi Jo, Damiano Michieletto, and more. Select classes will be made available via the support of partners OperaVision and Opera Europa.

There will be two concerts open to the public, the first at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici on April 19, and the second at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris on April 22, on the occasion of the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death. A private concert is also planned with tenor and Opera for Peace Ambassador René Barbera at Villa Medici.

Julia Lagahuzère, co-founder and General Director of Opera for Peace said of the upcoming program, “The emerging opera professionals participating in Opera for Peace’s Academies come from many different backgrounds, including war-torn countries like Ukraine, Armenia, or Iran. We select them based on their exceptional talent and motivation to build a professional career. We also look at their commitment to supporting emerging artists and their desire to become “citizen artists” and entrepreneurs with societal responsibility. This is our “social pact,” at the very heart of our program. When we look at the work accomplished over the past three years it is clear that we have established a network and a community of unique artists, that inspire future generations of artists by becoming new models for opera on an international level.”