Click here if you’re interested in supporting our Young Artists Scheme. 

Auditioning

Applications for the Young Artists Scheme 2025 are now closed. Please check back in Autumn 2025 for details on how to apply for the Young Artists Scheme 2026.

Opening doors

The Young Artists Scheme at Opera Holland Park was launched in 2011 to open doors into the industry for emerging directors, conductors and singers, with the generous financial support of the late Christine Collins.

The Young Artists rehearse alongside the main cast in the lead up to our summer season. For a four week period before their performances, they enjoy a dedicated rehearsal space of their own and their own sitzprobe with City of London Sinfonia.

Although ticket prices are reduced for Young Artists Performances, the artists are paid for their work. They are expected to perform at a high level and are given the support to do so. Our Young Artists act as covers for the main cast, stepping in when principals are unable to perform.

The OHP Young Artists programme was a revelation. It was my first professional contract with an opera company and it provided a really supportive atmosphere to make my debut on a major London stage.
Joel Williams, Young Artist 2017

 

Industry leading

Critics, agents and managers are invited to the Young Artists Performances. In 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 the Young Artists Performances of The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin, Hansel and Gretel and The Barber of Seville sold out. In 2016, the International Opera Awards marked the success of the OHP Young Artists Scheme with a posthumous philanthropy award to Christine Collins. In 2018, the Young Artists performed OHP’s inaugural Schools Matinee alongside their public Young Artists Performance.

 

Alison Langer presented a heroine who was all of a piece, naturally sympathetic and retaining a certain reserve… her vocal interpretation, anchored in the caressing warmth of her middle register, was admirably integrated…. Alys Roberts [was] a compact spitfire projecting her sweet, vibrant soprano with arresting clarity…
Yehuda Shapiro, Opera Magazine

 

Ongoing relationship

Opera Holland Park’s relationship with the Young Artists rarely ends after one season. Many of the Young Artists return year after year to perform on our mainstage in the cast and creative teams for main stage productions. They include: Matthew Kofi Waldren, Charlotte Corderoy, Alison Langer, Blaise Malaba, Thomas Mole, Henry Grant Kerswell, Julien Van Mellaerts and Elizabeth Karani.