 | |
| Abbreviation | BYO |
|---|---|
| Established | 1987 |
| Founder | Denis Coe MP |
| Type | Opera Company |
| Legal status | Charity |
| Headquarters | London Coliseum |
| Website | byo |
British Youth Opera (BYO) is the United Kingdom's national opera training company, helping young singers, directors, designers, stage managers and music staff build careers in the opera industry. [1] [2] [3]
British Youth Opera was started by British MP Denis Coe in 1987, to give high-standard performance opportunities to singers straight out of music college. Denis was a member of the board of the National Youth Theatre and had seen that the practical experience participants were receiving was greatly enhancing their opportunity for entering the profession. In the days before the opera companies had young artists’ programmes, British Youth Opera was conceived as a ‘bridge’ organisation, to offer young singers performance opportunities in a fully professional but nurturing environment, in which they could train on the job and perform before a paying audience of the public, and before industry professionals whose influence could help them in their ongoing careers. Alumni have gone on to advanced training courses at the Royal Opera House and the National Opera Studio, and to professional careers. Alumni include Peter Auty, Lucy Crowe, Rosemary Joshua, Katarina Karnéus, Sally Matthews, Christopher Maltman, Claire Rutter, Nicky Spence, Matthew Stiff, and Mark Stone. [4] [5] [6] [7]
The company gave the first London performances of Flight by Jonathan Dove in 2008 [8] and the European premiere of The Enchanted Island by Jeremy Sams in 2018. [9]
British Youth Opera is a registered charity and since 2002 has been core funded by Arts Council England. Charles, Prince of Wales is its patron. In 2021 it was announced that Dame Sarah Connolly had replaced Dame Felicity Lott as President, and vice-presidents include Sir Bryn Terfel. [10]
British Youth Opera works in collaboration with Southbank Sinfonia. [11]
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performance, composition, conducting, music theory and history, and has trained some of the most important figures in international music life. The RCM also undertakes research, with particular strengths in performance practice and performance science.
The Juilliard School, often abbreviated simply as Juilliard, is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named after its principal benefactor Augustus D. Juilliard. Juilliard is one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the world.
Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa,, is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Her extensive discography includes three albums which featured in the top forty in charts in Australia in the mid-1980s.
The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Conservatory of Music. In 1947, King George VI incorporated the organization through royal charter. Its Toronto home was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995, in recognition of the institution's influence on music education in Canada. Tim Price is the current Chair of the Board, and Peter Simon is the President.
Aberdeen International Youth Festival was a festival of performing arts and one of Scotland's major international cultural events, which ran from 1981 to 2017.
Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.
Jonathan Dove is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.
Beatrice Mary June Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair,, FRSAMD, commonly known as Lady Aberdeen, was a professional musician and patron of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival and founder and musical director of Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society.
The London Opera Centre, a school for the training of opera singers and other opera professionals, existed in England between 1963 and 1978. It was located in the former Troxy Cinema on Commercial Road in London's East End Borough of Stepney. The Troxy, with 3,520 seats, opened in 1933 and was one of England's largest cinemas. As a result of wartime damage and the general decline of the area, the cinema closed in November 1960.
Dame Margaret Berenice Price was a Welsh soprano.
Voces8, styled VOCES8, is an a cappella octet from England. They have appeared internationally and made recordings of classical music, jazz, pop, and their own arrangements. Recent recordings are for Decca Classics and under their own label, Voces8 Records. Educational efforts are run by the Voces8 Foundation.
National Youth Choir (NYC), formerly known as the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and the British Youth Choir, is a family of choirs for outstanding young singers, and those with outstanding potential, in the United Kingdom. It comprises a total of five choirs for around 900 young people between the ages of 9 and 25:
The Ambrosian Singers are an English choral group based in London.
Dame Sarah Patricia Connolly is an English mezzo-soprano. Although best known for her baroque and classical roles, Connolly has a wide-ranging repertoire which has included works by Wagner as well as various 20th-century composers. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to music.
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation, founded in 1975, carries the name of Richard Tucker. The foundation is a "non-profit cultural organization dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of the great American tenor through the support and advancement of the careers of talented American opera singers by bringing opera into the community. The Foundation seeks to heighten appreciation for opera by offering free performances in the New York metropolitan area and by supporting music education enrichment programs."
HGO Trust (HGO) was founded in 1990 by Roy Budden as an evening class at the Hampstead Garden Institute, London. Its objectives are to advance public education in the art and science of music with emphasis on operatic music.
The Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, also known as CSO, is a combined symphony orchestra and opera company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At the time of the merger in 1985, it was the only such combined organization in the United States.
Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is a non-profit international youth ballet and contemporary dance competition and scholarship program established in 1999.
This is a summary of the year 2017 in British music.
Bridget Cunningham is a British-Irish harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist specialising in music of the Baroque period. Cunningham is Artistic Director of British period orchestra and research group London Early Opera.
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