Every two years, Acclaim conducts its prestigious two-week-long Italian Opera Masterclass.
The Acclaim Awards Masterclasses objective is to provide intense teaching by one of Australia’s and Europe’s foremost sopranos and teachers, Michelle Cook.
The next Acclaim Masterclass will be conducted from Monday 23rd September to Saturday 5th October 2024.
Are you eligible?
The Acclaim Masterclass is open to any:
• Australian Opera singer;
• Australian citizen;
• Singer aged between 18 and 34;
• Singer who has had some professional performance experience;
• Singer with 2 Italian arias prepared;
• Singer who commits to attend at least 90% of the teaching components of the Acclaim Masterclass.
The Masterclass is designed so that up to 8 artists will receive a significant benefit by attending the Masterclasses with intensive one-on-one teaching by Michelle Cook. This will be an invaluable experience for all participants.
As part of the Masterclass, Acclaim will offer singers the opportunity to compete for an Acclaim prize, including the Acclaim Awards Academic Scholarship. The Acclaim Awards Academic Scholarship comprises 1-3 Scholarships per annum. The Scholarship generally will include two components, 1) Italian language lessons via Skype with Acclaim’s Italian language partner in Italy, Italiano & Co, and 2) six months of weekly singing lessons with Michelle Cook. The Acclaim Awards Fellowship is available for 1-3 individuals every two years.
The Acclaim Awards Academic Scholarship will only be granted if Acclaim believes there are singers of a high enough standard.
The Selection Process
Stage 1
The first stage involves submitting an Application Form with a Preliminary Audition CD/DVD/YouTube link presentation. The presentation must include two contrasting arias and be sung in Italian. The CD/DVD/YouTube will be reviewed by Acclaim as a Stage 1 Preliminary Selection Process.
All applicants will be assessed on the following criteria:
• Quality of the voice
• Vocal technique
• Age and Potential
• Musical skill and knowledge
• Artistic interpretation
• Demonstration of comprehension of the pieces
• Italian Language skill
Stage 2
Acclaim will then review all applications and recommend eight finalists whom she believes would best benefit by participating in the Acclaim Masterclasses.
Stage 3
At the conclusion of the Masterclass, Michelle Cook and Acclaim’s Professor Valeria Esposito will then review all Finalists and if they believe an artist is of high enough standard and ready, they will make a recommendation to the Acclaim Board for consideration of awarding an Acclaim Awards Academic Scholarship and/or an Acclaim Awards Fellowship. If no Finalist is felt to yet be of a high enough standard or ready to maximise all the benefits of an Acclaim Awards Fellowship, then one will not be awarded at that time.
Applications
All Applications must be sent between Monday 8th April 2024 and be received by Acclaim no later than 5.00 pm on Friday 19th July 2024.