Please choose a program:
The COAA is an elite international program that provides singers, pianists and directors with the skills to obtain, realize, and sustain a prolific and rewarding career in the operatic profession. An internationally recognized faculty from celebrated institutions provides the participants with invaluable insight into the multifaceted world of opera – its preparation, performance, and business through a variety of forums. Topics include role preparation, performance practice, collaboration, dramatic exercises and study, audition training, promotion, management, and vocal and physical health. The program culminates in a public performance through which all participants will gain practical experience.
Singer Program
As members of the Canadian Operatic Arts Academy, singers participate in a number of diverse scenes offering exposure to leading and supporting roles across the repertoire, as well as a variety of vocal styles, genres, and languages. The program also includes performances with Orchestra London Canada. Vocalists of the Accademia Europea Dell’Opera are given the opportunity to learn and perform full operas with orchestras in a program that models the rhythm and energy of the professional operatic experience. Through this elite academy singers are exposed to the European opera performance tradition. Singers of both academies receive coaching and direction aimed at furthering their understanding of character through music, text, physicality, and drama. Artists participate in masterclasses, sessions in movement, stage combat and dramatic workshops, as well as sessions on professional development.
Audition Requirements: Three arias that best demonstrate your abilities
Pianist Program
COAA/AEDO offers an international program for pianists who aspire to excel in the world of opera. Pianists gain experience as repetiteurs playing for masterclasses, musical rehearsals, staging rehearsals and private coachings with singers. In addition, pianists have the opportunity of working with our distinguished faculty pianists in private lessons and classes to become skilled in the art of vocal coaching and more proficient in operatic keyboard technique. This year we have the honour of welcoming back as our special guest internationally renowned pianist Martin Katz. This program provides an invaluable opportunity for pianists with a vocal accompanying background to further their training and prepare for professional opportunities in the operatic world.
Audition Requirements: Two brief opera excerpts to be sung and played; Two arias to be performed with a singer; One short solo work.
Assistant Director Fellowships
COAA/AEDO is proud to also offer fellowships in stage direction for opera. Fellows have the opportunity to work closely alongside Artistic Directors, directing a number of scenes, assisting on all other scenes, or taking a primary directorial role in fully staged operas. The Directing Fellows have access to all of the COAA/AEDO activities, including work in movement, stage combat and professional development. In addition, the Assistant Directors receive one-on-one mentorship in developing and realizing their dramaturgical ideas. Working alongside an international team of directors and stage management, the Directing Fellows form an important part of this unique program.
Audition Requirements: Résumé (please include language skills and any other work in movement and/or dance); A brief statement describing your experience in opera or theatre as a performer or director, and expressing both the reason for your interest in COAA’s fellowship program, and your eventual career goals.
Faculty & Guest Presenters
See a list of Faculty & Guests Presents
Performances with Orchestra London
Canadian Operatic Arts Academy will partner with Orchestra London to present concerts of opera arias and scenes. Based on their auditions, singers will receive the opportunity to perform with a professional orchestra. Maestro Alain Trudel and Simone Luti will lead a series of concerts with the orchestra and members of COAA.
Audition/Application Information
To register for an audition please submit the application form, an 8” x 10” headshot, Curriculum Vitae, and the $45 application fee - cheque or money order payable to The University of Western Ontario. Pianists must submit a vocal repertoire list. The age limit is 34 years.
Application Deadline
*Applicants who reside more than 350km from an audition site may submit a DVD recording in lieu of a live audition (due no later than November 15, 2012 with all audition materials including the $45 application fee). If sending application material from outside Canada, please indicate that the material has no commercial value on the outside packaging. Otherwise, customs clearance charges may delay receipt.
Singer Program
Pianist Program
Assistant Director Fellowships
Singer and Pianist Audition Dates
Assistant Director Fellowships
Interviews will be conducted after singer/pianist auditions are complete. Chantal Lambert, Program Director of Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal will be present for these auditions.
Auditions for COAA are being held in conjunction with those for the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal.
Should you wish to audition for the Atelier, please apply separately by going to the website www.operademontreal.com and clicking on the “Atelier Lyrique” tab.
Information will be provided upon successful admission into the program.
AEDO, the Accademia Europea Dell’Opera, is a uniquely focused European opera experience, created in collaboration between the University of Western Ontario, Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, and Opera Studio Nederland, centered on the preparation, creation, and performance of full operatic roles. The international program brings together selected singers from around the globe to work with pianists, conductors, and directors from some of the world’s most celebrated opera institutions, during an intense period of musical and dramaturgic study and rehearsal, followed by a series of public European performances.
Participants work at an extremely high level to understand firsthand the musical, intellectual, and physical tools required to build an opera character from concept to performance, and are prepared for similar professional experiences in European and North American opera houses. The program also includes masterclasses and coachings with special guests from Europe’s leading opera programs (past guests have included the head coach from Teatro alla Scala, and the heads of the National Opera Studio London, Opera Studio Nederland, and the studio of Opera du Rhin), and private voice lessons, all in context of a compelling European life setting.
New this Year: AEDO’s 2013 program takes place in the spectacular Tuscan city of Lucca, birth place of Puccini, home of the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago. This picturesque setting provides the quintessential Italian experience and backdrop to AEDO’s program of opera production and musical and dramatic study. Performances take place throughout the Tuscan countryside and artists live in Lucca’s stunning historic centre, less than an hour’s journey to Pisa, Florence, or Mediterranean Sea
With a commitment to focusing on quality and integrity of performance, AEDO is one of the most affordable summer programs available.
Tuition – (Full four-week program cost, apartment housing in Lucca, masterclasses, coachings, lessons, and new this year, Italian Lessons) - Singers 2,600 Euros.
Pianists and Assistant Directors are offered fellowships covering all program costs outside of housing (700 Euros).
* HST number R10816 2587
Operas for AEDO Italy 2013 (fully staged, with orchestra)
Faculty and guest presenters for AEDO to be announced. Please check the AEDO website at www.aedopera.org for updated information.
All programs, faculty, dates, and fees are subject to change.
