About the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies

The mission of Juilliard’s Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program is to encourage individuality and humanity in emerging artists, to empower them with multifaceted technique as actors and singers, and to offer fearless, powerful leaders to our field.

The ideal candidate for the program is an advanced vocalist with:

• a strong musical personality
• intellectual curiosity
• a clear sense of artistic mission
• a demonstrable hunger for deep exploration of theatrical craft.

The technique class centers on mental concentration and freedom, physical release, and emotional availability. The short-term goal: more focused, connected work in performance, rehearsal and particularly in audition. The long-term goal: collaborative, open, inventive singing actors who can work on any stage, in any style, in any circumstance, and with any director, who are fully committed in their work, who are leaders in the room wherever they go, and who are outstanding singers. The training focuses on the seamless melding of vocal and acting techniques, so actors leave the program camera-ready and prepared for a career that lasts.

The weekly schedule includes 9-11 hours of acting instruction (class and private), a voice lesson with a Juilliard teacher, a session with Principal Coach Diane Richardson, and an otherwise elective schedule of coachings with Juilliard’s legendary music, language and movement faculty.

This Artist Diploma program is also part of Juilliard Opera, which produces three staged operas each season, an opera (either fully staged or in a concert staging) in collaboration with the Met’s Lindemann program, and a wide variety of other performance opportunities – including recitals, orchestra concerts, and collaborations with musicians from the Historical Performance division. The operatic performance element of the program is obviously crucial, and therefore required.   

A certain amount of professional leave is encouraged, and the performance requirement can sometimes be met with stage work outside Juilliard.

Artist Diploma singers in the last few years alone have been offered, while still in the program, Fest and guest contracts at Frankfurt Opera, Vienna State Opera, Zurich Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, Leipzig Opera, English National Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Aix en Provence and Glyndebourne festivals, and many other international companies; contracts at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, and many other Northern American companies; engagements with major symphony orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic, The San Francisco Symphony, the New World Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and others; and management with IMG Artists, Opus 3 Artists, Columbia Artists, and many others. Artist Diploma singers have also won or placed in most of the top competitions and appeared in spoken theater productions in the U.S. and Europe.

Another strong focus of the program is career placement at the highest possible level, with regular private auditions for and consultations with top artist managers and general and artistic directors of opera companies, and regular hearings by musical and administrative staff at the Metropolitan Opera, with whose Lindemann Young Artist Development Program we enjoy a close collaboration.