The Opéra Studio

Training for excellence in Colmar

Artists of the Opéra Studio are selected from the most promising candidates from around the world. Based in Colmar, they spend one or two years honing their skills and technique through a practical curriculum that includes master classes and coaching in a variety of disciplines. This first-class training program caters to the needs of the modern stage and aims to get the artists of each intake started in the professional world.

Alysia Hanshaw, soprano
Ana Escudero, soprano
Camille Bauer, mezzo-soprano
Bernadette Johns, mezzo-soprano
Massimo Frigato, ténor
Pierre Romainville, ténor
Pierre Gennaï, baryton
Carlos Reynoso, baryton
Michał Karski, baryton-basse
Thibaut Trouche, pianiste chef de chant
Annalisa Orlando, pianiste cheffe de chant
Matthew Straw, chef d’orchestre assistant

Musical director

Sandrine Abello is a graduate of the École normale de musique de Paris and the conservatories of Nîmes and Aix-en-Provence. She began her career as a conductor at the Avignon Opera. She then successively joined the teams of the Toulon-Méditerranée Opera, then the Angers Nantes Opera. She is in charge of vocal studies and production at the Dijon Opera. She opened the way to a collaboration between the Jean-Philippe Rameau Conservatory and the Dijon Opera by offering the students of the singing class the opportunity to participate in several opera productions. Particularly interested in skill sharing, she created the Ars Nemausa association, including the Académie de Thil, wich is dedicated to the training of young singers. Her career then turned to choral conducting, at Angers Nantes Opéra and then at the Opéra national du Rhin from 2013 to 2018. Here, she initiated a training program for young singers in collaboration with the Strasbourg Academy of Music. In 2017 she succeeded Ekaterina Nikolova at the music college of the consultative commission for the attribution of deconcentrated aids to the performing arts, Grand Est region. Until July 2021, she is choirmaster at the Opéra de Tours. She has worked with young soloists in training such as Angélique Boudeville, Mathias Vidal, Julien Behr and Julien Dran as well as with established artists such as Joyce Di Donato and Michael Spyres. She collaborates with conductors such as Jeffrey Tate, Myung Whun Chung and John Nelson. In December 2020, she was named Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In August 2021, she joined the Opéra national du Rhin as musical director of the Opéra Studio.

Here are some of our alumni: Elsa Roux Chamoux, Karolina Halbig, Enrico Casari, Eve-Maud Hubeaux, Andrea Sanguineti, Hanne Roos, Sora Elisabeth Lee, Fanny Lustaud, Kristina Bitenc, Lamia Beuque, Jean-Gabriel Saint-Martin, Peter Kirk, Jérémy Duffau, Tristan Blanchet, Rocío Pérez, Pauline Sabatier et Antoine Foulon.

Applications are now open before December 11th, 2024.

• Age limit: under 30 on 1 September 2025
• Auditions: 27 January and 3 February 2025 at the Opéra de Strasbourg
• The short-listed applicants will receive a personnal invitation to the audition in January. They will also be asked to recite a text from a play in French.

Applications open

• January 2025 according to forecasts.

Application content

• Pianists: curriculum vitae, letter of motivation, list of works to be played at the audition
• Conductors: curriculum vitae, covering letter, two video excerpts with orchestra

Age limit

• Pianists: under 32 years of age on September 1, 2025
• Conductors: under 35 on September 1, 2025

operastudio@onr.fr
+33 (0)3 89 29 69 24