Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA)

Admission into ava's four-year program is determined by highly competitive annual auditions. Those who are accepted receive tuition-free intensive training. (continued on schedule o. )The Academy of Vocal Arts returned to full opera productions, recitals, and events in The 2022-23 ava opera theatre season. Audiences were welcomed to The helen corning warden theatre for october's new artists recital, where six first-year resident artists were introduced. The new resident artists hail from across The country, china, turkey, and ukraine. The season again included The giargiari bel canto competition at The kimmel center. Past winners have gone on to win some of The most prestigious competitions and this year was no exception. The season officially opened with november's la traviata. Two recitals followed in The interim time before our next fully staged opera: The fall recital featured excerpts from janacek's kata kabanova, smetana's The bartered bride, and marschner's der vampyr and The winter recital continued our exploration of art song with melodies dramatiques featuring The art songs of french opera composers bizet, massenet, gounod, and offenbach. Audiences and critics were delighted by geatano donizetti's comic opera don pasquale, including a hometown twist set in mid-1960s south philadelphia. The ava orchestra returned in march for both performances of jubilate!, our popular annual concert of sacred music. The season concluded with mozart's don giovanni in a run of performances at ava, The haverford school, and central bucks south high school in april and may. Nearly 2,000 audience members saw don giovanni.