Opera for Peace – Leading Young Voices of the World has been announced as a new leading international cultural nonprofit organization, promoting unity through artistic excellence, global collaborations, and social justice endeavors.

The new movement is set to be used in order to reflect the reality of today’s globalized world and will be used as a mission to connecting nations and transcend differences through the unifying communication of opera.

The organization was co-founded by Julia Lagahuzère from Paris, Dmitry Vdovin from Moscow, Paolo Petrocelli from Rome, and Kamal Khan and Jenna Wolf from New York.

The organization will be presented at the Opera Europa Conference & World Opera Day Launch on Oct. 24 in Strasbourg, France in which Julia Lagahuzère and Jenna Wolf will formally present the organization and its mission to attendees, in tandem with the launch of World Opera Day on Oct. 25, 2019.

Featured artists will include Victoria Karkacheva, Leonardo Sánchez, Jacob Scharfman, and Nicola Gaudino.

The organization will then be launched in the US with The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors in November 2019. Opera for Peace Team Members Julia Lagahuzère, Dmitry Vdovin, Paolo Petrocelli, and Jenna Wolf will participate in the 2019 Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera as Faculty Members, presenting seminars and master classes for the program. Featured artists include Tiffany Chang, Tamara Dworetz, Jane Kim, Marta Kluczyńska, Madeline Tsai, Molly Turner, Brian Jagde, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Meryl Dominguez, Kangmin Justin Kim, Andrei Kymach, Gabriella Reyes, Chuma Sijeqa, and Ángel Vargas.

In March 2020 the organization will collaborate with the Washington National Opera and the Voices of South Africa Trust and will give an opportunity for 2019 first-prize winner, mezzo-soprano Lebogang Polori, to have extensive study and training in the US.

During the residency, taking place in March 2020, Lebogang’s schedule will include coachings, concert preparation, language studies, movement, and dramatic coachings, voice lessons, and performance experiences at Washington National Opera, with a weekend visit to New York City and The Metropolitan Opera.

On Friday, March 27, the exchange will end with a grand joint concert and reception, featuring all the members of the exchange and the WNO and Bolshoi Theatre Young Artists taking place at the Russian Embassy.

In February and March 2020 Opera Australia will also host a young artist from The Houston Grand Opera Studio.

The organization also announced that among the Peace Ambassadors Zeina Barhoum, Lawrence Brownlee, Nicole Car, Rihab Chaieb, Etienne Dupuis, Ying Fang, Soloman Howard,
Brian Jagde, Dmitry Korchak, Isabel Leonard, Jakub Józef Orlinski, Lisette Oropesa, Ailyn Pérez, Luca Pisaroni, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Daniele Rustioni, Golda Schultz, Nadine Sierra, Christian Van Horn, and Lidiya Yankovskaya.

Thomas Hampson will serve as the Education & Technology Artist for Peace advisor, while Sumi Jo will serve as the advisor for UNESCO Artist for Peace.

Among the partners include The Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, The Dallas Opera – Hart Institute for Women Conductors, Houston Grand Opera, The Juilliard School, San Francisco Opera, and Washington National Opera, Antibes Festival, The National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus, Bayerische Staatsoper, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, International Opera Studio of Zurich Opera House, Opéra Studio de l’Opéra National du Rhin, The Israeli Opera, The Norweigan Opera and Ballet, Rossini Opera Festival, Royal Danish Opera, Royal Opera House – London, Teatro Regio di Torino, Wexford Festival Opera, Amman Opera Festival,
Opera Lebanon, Armenian National Academic Theatre, Azerbaijan State Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Cape Town Opera, Township Opera Company, Voices of South Africa Trust, Opera Australia, The Bolshoi Theatre Young Artists Opera Program, National Philharmonic of Russia, St. Petersburg Palaces International Music Festival, The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre, Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi, EMMA for Peace, Opera Europa, Ópera Latinoamérica, Deutscher Bühnenverein (DE) FEDORA, International Theatre Institute, Opera America, Opera.ca (CA), Opera & Music Theatre Forum, Opera XXI, National Centre for the Performing Arts, National Centre for the Performing Arts, RESEO, and Réunion des opéras de France.