Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program
The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program is a national model for the professional development of young singers. Created by Artistic Director Emeritus John Moriarty in 1978, the rigorous 10-week program integrates daily opera training in diction, movement, stage combat, acting, stage technique, individual coaching and role study; sessions in career management; rehearsals and performance opportunities in the summer’s main stage and additional festival productions.
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, Alan Held, Cynthia Lawrence, Margaret Lattimore, Alexandra Loutsion, Michael Mayes, Mary Mills, Emily Pulley, Greg Turay, Latonia Moore, Matthew Polenzani, Jesus Garcia, Chad Shelton, Daniel Belcher and Celena Shafer. (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.