Here is a list of summertime camps for high school aged students to study classical voice, art song, or opera. Information about the program is in their own words.

Opera By The River

Opera By the River is a 7-day program for high school vocal students focuses on training young singers on vocal technique, acting, dance, body awareness, professional development, and more, all while exploring the beautiful City of San Marcos, Texas in the summertime! Applications and additional information can be found here.  

Washington National Opera Institute

The WNO Opera Institute at American University is a 3-week summer program for advanced singers ages 15-18 from around the nation (and beyond!) interested in exploring vocal performance in college or as a career.  Students get a taste of life as a college music major, participating in university-level academic courses, career development workshops, recitals of Italian art songs and opera scenes, master classes, and private lessons and coachings, while navigating a college campus and schedule.  Applications and additional information can be found at kennedy-center.org/operainstitute.  Application deadline:  January 20

The WNO Young Associates program is for high school singers local to the greater DC area who are interested in exploring various aspects of the performing arts.  Open to advanced as well as beginning singers and those interested in other areas of music and theater, students get exclusive access to WNO artists and production processes, observing as a world-class company puts together a professional production.  Applications and additional information can be found at kennedy-center.org/wnoyoungassociates.  Application deadline:  January 24.

Boston University Tanglewood Institute

Young Artists Vocal Program –Under the direction of Penelope Bitzas, this intensive and comprehensive curriculum is based on a conservatory model of training; one that develops all the essentials for healthy vocal technique, sensitive and informed musicianship, and convincing performance. Six weeks. Ages 14-19.

Schmidt Vocal Institute

The Schmidt Vocal Institute (SVI) for high school singers was established to strengthen the educational mission of the William E. Schmidt Foundation. The prestigious institute will pair gifted high-school aged singers with an artist faculty in an intensive college-preparatory experience in vocal performance. Each year SVI enrolls approximately 30 students between the ages of 15-18. During the thirteen-day intensive, students receive lessons and coachings, participate in master classes, take courses in acting, lyric diction, vocal health, college audition preparation, historic performances, and stage craft. Each student will also receive a wide-range of performance experiences including an opera and musical theatre scenes programs, song recitals, and master classes with world-renowned master teachers. SVI will take place on the beautiful Miami University Campus in Oxford, OH.

Colorado Vocal Institute

Join us in beautiful Copper Mountain, Colorado. CVI is a pre-college program specifically designed to nurture the development of high school singers (incoming 9th graders through recent high school graduates, ages 13-18). Students will have private voice lessons, vocal and dramatic coaching, classes in vocal pedagogy, diction, acting, improvisation, and more!

Brevard Music Center

(Cancelled in 2020)

All High School students:

• receive weekly private lessons from Brevard’s artist faculty
• take classes in music theory and literature
• may perform solo and chamber music in Brevard’s student recitals
• may participate in masterclasses
• may attend open rehearsals with world-renowned concert soloists
• may attend nearly 80 orchestra, chamber, solo, and opera performances

High School Voice students participate in three-week sessions.

Interlochen Center for the Arts

High School Vocal Artist Summer Program– If you are a serious classical solo singer, the six-week vocal artist summer program for high school students is excellent preparation for training at the college, university, or conservatory level. You will develop a great breadth of knowledge and elevate your solo singing skills, guided by an accomplished and supportive faculty.

ArtsBridge

Summer ArtSong – ArtsBridge Summer programs are designed to hone the skills of students who pursue acting, musical theater, and classical music at the college level and beyond. In the ArtSong program, high school voice students concentrate on solo classical vocal skills within the art song repertoire. The curriculum is focused on vocal technique, diction and language, repertoire, acting for singers, and performance and audition skills in addition to guest master classes and workshops on various musical topics and college/conservatory auditions.

Curtis Institute of Music

Mikael Eliasen Voice Program-Singers in this select program pursue activities focused on vocal artistry, surrounded by elite faculty from Curtis’s renowned vocal studies department.

• Study privately in voice lessons and private coachings
• Benefit from daily master classes
• Perform for peers at the Sing-In, and for family and friends at the Sing-Out
• Learn the basics of the Alexander technique
• Practice in studios with Steinway pianos
• Learn from professionals working in the opera field

Delve more deeply into your existing repertoire, with the space and time to follow your curiosity. Singers in the program are largely self-directed, coming together as a group midday to observe those selected to perform in a daily master class. Faculty offer immense insight in each private session, and are looking for marked improvement between sessions. All participants should bring songs and/or arias you already know as well as music you would like to learn during the program; and should be open to additional repertoire suggestions from faculty.