OperAffinity Festival 2026 has announced the young artists selected to participate in this year’s edition, alongside the launch of its inaugural Composer-in-Residence Programme.

The festival’s newest additions arrive through partnerships with the Aspen Music Festival and School and the National Opera Studio in London.

Through the Aspen partnership, supported by Alan Fletcher, Renée Fleming, Patrick Summers, and Myra Huang, American soprano Alexandra Rose Hotz and Australian collaborative pianist Ashly Zhang have been selected to join the festival. Hotz, a recent Los Angeles District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, has appeared at Spoleto Festival USA and with the Music Academy of the West. Zhang is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

Through the festival’s new partnership with the National Opera Studio in London, Australian soprano Georgia Melville, a gradute of the National Opera Studio who is a recipient of the Michal Byrne Vienna State Opera Award, joins the roster. The soprano also previously appeared with Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

The 2026 festival also marks the launch of OperAffinity’s Composer-in-Residence Programme, developed in collaboration with Fletcher and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Italian composer Riccardo Palomes, born in Udine in 2000 and selected by composer Salvatore Sciarrino from the Accademia Chigiana’s composition programme, will serve as the inaugural resident. His music has been performed by leading contemporary ensembles including FontanaMix Ensemble and MDI Ensemble in venues across Milan, Bologna, Lucerne, and Madrid.

The residency will culminate in a concert of contemporary music on September 24 at the Beverly Pepper Studio in Todi, featuring works by both Palomes and Fletcher.

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