Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program
The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program is an integral part of Central City Opera’s annual Summer Opera Festival. Held in the historic town of Central City in the mountains of Colorado, the training artists’ program includes daily opera training in diction, movement, stage combat, individual vocal coaching, and sessions in career management, combined with rehearsals and performance opportunities.
There are many places to learn how to sing; there are few places to learn how to be a performing artist. The difference is subtle, but it is a difference on which Central City Opera has built an effective and successful training program perennially sought after by gifted early-career singers.
The program, which selects approximately 30 participants from nearly 1,000 applicants each year, has provided valuable voice training for many of America’s most notable opera professionals, including Denyce Graves, Michael Kuhn, Francesca Mehorta, Emily Richter, Tessa McQueen, and Galeano Salas. (View all of the past program members here.)
Program Overview
About the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program
Meet the Artists
Meet the current Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists!
Join the Program
Audition, apply and find out more about the program
Support for this program comes from:
The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation is proud to have endowed the Central City Opera Artists Training Program in 1998 with a total gift of $2.5 million. Our original namesake benefactors, May Bonfils and Charles Edwin Stanton, both loved Central City Opera and would be honored that this program that carries the Foundation’s name has become a national model for the development of young opera singers. The Foundation believes deeply in the power of the arts to transform lives and communities, and for the arts to remain vibrant we must cultivate and support our young artists, which this program does so well.