Pacific Opera Will Offer $115,000 Of Scholarships To Young Artists And Alumni In 2020

Pacific Opera has announced the creation of cash scholarships for Young Artists in partnership with Prue Kennard and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust.

The Prue Kennard Scholarships will be offered to young Australian singers with a total value of $90,000. Generously sponsored by arts philanthropist Prue Kennard, who has a special interest in furthering the studies of young Australian opera singers, there will be two cash scholarships of $10,000 each for three years ($30,000 total per singer), plus smaller cash grants to be made to Young Artists within Pacific Opera's 2020, 2021 and 2022 programs.

"Prue Kennard understands that the financial costs of being a young opera singer are very high," Christine Douglas, Founding Artistic Director of Pacific Opera, said. "Weekly singing lessons, vocal coachings with repetiteurs, language coachings, music scores, expensive gowns, acting training, dance classes, and the list goes on!"

"Often singers can't afford to pay for extra specialist coaching in areas where they may fall short, such as French or German language coaching, so we hope that these cash grants will help the singers to achieve a specific goal that they would not have otherwise been able to afford to do."

The addition of the Australian Elizabethan Trust music scholarship overseas study grant, with a total value of $25,000, will be awarded to a Young Artist who has spent at least two years in the Pacific Opera Young Artist Program and who is intent on studying overseas in 2020-21.

"The cash scholarship provided by the AETT will be a great financial boost to the talented Young Artist who receives the award," Douglas said. "This kind of money can often be the difference between being able to take up international study offers, or delaying their professional development by years as they save to fund themselves. It is a very exciting scholarship and very generous of Warwick Ross and the AETT."

Scholarships will be awarded via a rigorous process at Pacific Opera's annual auditions for 2020, to be held next month, November 2019. Details of the scholarships are available on Pacific Opera's website: www.pacificopera.com.au

In further news, International baritone, Peter Coleman-Wright AO, will guide the first half of Pacific Opera's 2020 Young Artist Program as Guest Artistic Director, ably assisted by new Music Director, Bradley Gilchrist. Further Guest Artistic Directors will be announced in 2020.