Royal Opera House Names Jette Parker Young Artists for 2024/25 Season

Four singers and three music staff will join the prestigious program in London

London's Royal Opera House has announced that seven new artists will join its prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist program for the 2024/25 season. They will be salaried Young Artists for a two-year tenure, and will join the seven artists who are continuing from last year's program.

The selected artists are as follows:

• Marianna Hovanisyan (soprano)
• Jingwen Cai (mezzo-soprano)
• Siphe Kwani (baritone)
• Ossian Huskinson (bass-baritone)
• Peggy Wu (conductor and répétiteur)
• Sophie Gilpin (stage director)
• Richard Fu (répétiteur)

Over the course of the program, these seven young musicians will work alongside leading international artists, and become experts in musical style and interpretation — preparing repertoire for staged performances, concerts, and recitals.

The singers will receive coaching and mentoring to further their technical and artistic capabilities, and they also perform small roles and cover larger roles for The Royal Opera on their Main and Linbury stages.

Répétiteurs get the opportunity to play for leading conductors on Royal Opera productions, and often also get to conduct players offstage or serve as assistant conductors.

The stage directors act as assistant directors to a broad variety of international directors, instructing cover casts and taking responsibility for the dramatic integrity of a run of performances.

The Jette Parker Young Artist scheme was first launched in 2001, and auditions are held in Fall each year. The program was initially targeted only at singers, but since 2022 it has also been open to conductors, répétiteurs, and stage directors.