Juilliard School & The Met Create Joint Training Program

In a unique partnership between two prestigious musical institutions, the Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School will join forces for a joint training program to identify and train the finest young opera singers and accompanists, preparing them for careers in the world's great opera houses.

The newly-named Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in Partnership with The Juilliard School was announced today by Peter Gelb, the Met's General Manager, and Joseph W. Polisi, President of The Juilliard School. Met Music Director James Levine will serve as the program's Artistic Director, and Dr. Brian Zeger, Artistic Director of Juilliard Vocal Arts, will serve as Executive Director. Through this program, which will begin with the 2010-2011 season, participants will have access to both organizations' considerable resources and personnel, in an effort to expand learning and performing opportunities for young artists. This will include one fully-staged or concert opera production per year at Juilliard, conducted by Maestro Levine, featuring members of the Young Artist Program and the Juilliard Orchestra.

Zeger, who will also continue in his current Juilliard role as Artistic Director of Vocal Arts, will assume his new duties as of June 1, 2008, when he begins developing the new expanded program, which will become fully operational in the 2010-2011 season.

The program's yearly opera production will mark the first time that the Lindemann Young Artists, who as before, will be cast in Met productions, will take part in a fully-staged opera performance mounted for them in the 900-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard.

Program participants will continue to receive the yearly stipend that the Met provides, in addition to musical and language coaching with the Met's artistic staff. Vocal coaching, master classes, acting and movement classes, and Juilliard's related educational courses will be available to the young artists. Participants will have access to practice rooms and studios as well as the Juilliard Library's extensive resources.

The Met's young artist program has always been open to participants with a variety of educational backgrounds from the United States and abroad. This new partnership will continue to train artists from all over the world, selected through auditions held at the Met. Participants will take part in the program for a maximum of three years, with contracts renewed on an annual basis.

Juilliard's Vocal Arts program annually enrolls more than 70 singers in a variety of undergraduate (bachelor of music, diploma) and graduate degrees (master of music, graduate diploma, Artist Diploma, doctor of musical arts). Between 12 and 14 Artist Diploma students currently study and perform in the Juilliard Opera Center, which is the most advanced of the three opera-performance groups in Juilliard's vocal program. When the new program with the Met begins in 2010, Juilliard will continue to admit between 6 and 8 Artist Diploma singers each year, but without the specific focus on opera. Juilliard Opera Center will be reconfigured so that all of the school's vocalists—from bachelor level through Artist Diploma–will be eligible to perform in two staged public performances at Juilliard each season.