Thank you for your interest in Teatro Nuovo's 2026 Resident Artist Program.
Applications are now closed.
If you submitted an application but haven’t heard from us, please check your spam folder before contacting auditions@teatronuovo.org.

Deadline:

Applications must be received by midnight on Monday, September 1, 2025. 

Eligibilities:

No age limit. All positions must be filled either by US citizens or permanent residents; by singers with sufficient credentials to qualify for an artist visa; or by singers with OPT/CPT eligibility.

Materials Required:  

Two recent recordings (made within the last 24 months) and a current résumé must be included as part of the completed application form.

At least one of the recordings should be in video form. The selections may be in any genre (opera, song, or oratorio), any period, and any language, but please bear in mind that we specialize in 19th-century Italian opera, and take a moment to read the section “what we’re looking for” below. 

Late applications:

Anyone wishing to apply after September 1 will not be able to fill out the audition form, but instead should write to us at the address below to inquire about the possibility. We will evaluate such requests on a case-by-case basis. 

Audition Requirements:

If granted an audition, you should bring repertory that shows the following (whether in separate pieces or together in a single piece): 

• Slow, sustained legato lines with long notes 

• Coloratura agility 

• Recitative in Italian 

Some things to note about choice of repertory:

• Baroque, Classical, and Romantic repertory are all welcome

• We don’t mind if you sing some pieces on-book

• Oratorio, song, and opera are all welcome 

Audition location and dates: 

• We will hold three audition sequences in New York City (Sept. 13, 14; Sept. 26, 27; Oct. 3, 4, 5) for which we will provide a pianist (see below). Each applicant should select a first-choice audition date, and if more than one date is possible, please indicate second and third choices as well. Some contract offers may be made before the end of the audition period, so it is an advantage to choose an early date if possible.

• Applicants who cannot make any of these dates should select “Off-cycle audition” on the Application Form. We will attempt to accommodate any date in between Sept. 13 and Oct. 5 that you are able to be in New York. If that is a date outside the scheduled auditions listed above, you will need to bring your own pianist. If your only availability in New York is after Oct. 5, you may still apply and select “off-cycle audition,” and we will consider on a case-by-case basis whether we can grant a later audition. 

• Applicants who cannot travel to New York at all should select “Remote audition” on the Application Form. In some cases we may schedule a virtual audition via Zoom, or in others we may arrange for a TN representative to hear you in person in another location. 

• Callbacks:  On our New York audition dates, we hold callbacks for selected singers on the evening of the final day of each audition block. If you are auditioning in New York, please make every attempt to hold those evenings open for a possible callback. 

Audition pianist:

Applicants auditioning within our three scheduled audition blocks may bring their own pianists, or may use the pianist provided by Teatro Nuovo for a fee of $30 payable to the pianist directly at the time of audition. As noted above, singers auditioning outside those scheduled blocks must provide their own pianist. 

Season Information:

Our 2026 festival celebrates the 200th anniversary of Italian Opera’s arrival in America with Manuel García’s touring company. The repertory will be two Rossini operas chosen from those presented in their New York season: Tancredi, Otello, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, and Il Turco in Italia. We will also present a concert of arias and ensembles known to have reached the U.S. in the years between American Independence in 1776 and the arrival of full productions half a century later, and another concert of music composed by members of the García family.  

Program location:

New York, NY and Montclair, NJ, USA

Program dates:

June 1 - July 16, 2026 [see explanation below]

Program information:

Please note: The program dates may shift when we receive scheduling confirmation from our theater and campus partners, but not by more than one week. 

Who we are:

Teatro Nuovo is an opera company presenting performances in and near New York City, accompanied by an innovative training program designed to provide opportunities and information not generally available elsewhere. The training program supports the overall mission of Teatro Nuovo: cutting-edge interpretation of classic Italian repertory. We see a need for a program that does not try to focus on the “everything” of opera, but instead works with the greatest possible depth and intensity on a narrow group of topics directly related to the performance of the score. For more about our curriculum, see “What we offer” below and https://www.teatronuovo.org/vocal-program. For information on our past seasons and the reviews our artists receive in the national and international press, see https://www.teatronuovo.org/press.  

What we offer:

Our Resident Artists cover principal roles, sing and cover secondary roles, appear as soloists in concert, and form the choral ensemble in our productions, which we take care to make a “soloist-friendly” experience. Its unusual features include the collaboration of a period-instrument orchestra drawn from around the world; in-depth seminars and lessons in historical performance practice and ornamentation; an intensive Italian-language program, augmented by pre-season libretto study via Zoom; and concentrated work with our cover casts (including two complete “cover runs” of each opera led by their music directors). For more details about our goals and faculty, please visit TeatroNuovo.org. 

What we're looking for:

Among the many qualities that can make a successful opera singer, we are looking for certain ones that fit Teatro Nuovo's style and mission. Please read through the following; if this describes you—or the singer you think you can become—then you and TN may be right for each other.

• We want you to be a strong musician. The singers who get the most out of our program are generally ace sight-readers or super-fast ear learners, who can grasp Bel Canto passages easily and execute them accurately without prolonged study. We need singers who can "get the notes right" quickly as we try out different ornaments and cadenzas. 

• We want you to be an independent thinker. We are looking for singers who do not need a coach to teach them the music or spoon-feed its interpretation. We will challenge you with specialized historical information, and we also want you to bring your own expertise and opinions to the table. 

• We want you to be technically ambitious. A fundamental part of TN's mission is to uphold demanding standards of vocal function: perfect legato; consistency and power throughout the range; mastery of registration; fine control of dynamics without compromise of vocal timbre; easily intelligible vowels and consonants; crystal-clear agility. We want singers who are eager to remedy any shortfall in these areas, and eager to take the strengths they already have to the highest possible level. 

• We want you to love Italian. High-level interpretation of Italian opera requires understanding its poetry. We need you to be committed to learning (and/or learning more about) the mother tongue of Bel Canto.

• We want you to be open-minded and imaginative. Teatro Nuovo presents interpretations that are in some ways "non-standard" for the mainstream opera world. We are not very interested in "the way it's usually done." We are very interested in "the way(s) it was done at the time," because performance styles of the distant past open up such a wide field for creativity and expression.

A few other notes about our selection process:

• We are inclusive. Teatro Nuovo welcomes singers of all backgrounds, origins, and orientations, and has done so from its inception in 2018. We are interested in your voice, your chops, your expressiveness, your musicianship, and your capacity for hard work. We are not so interested in your school, your look, your clothes, who you know, or what programs you have done before. 

• Queremos mucho a los hispanohablantes. Su herencia lingüística y cultural aporta un ingrediente precioso a la mezcla del Bel Canto. Si logramos inscribir a un grupo suficiente, ofreceremos clases de "italiano basado en español." Además nos interesa el repertorio poco conocido de canciones y romanzas del siglo XIX con letra castellana en estilo operístico, incluidas las obras de Manuel García que figurarán en el concierto de 2026 mencionado anteriormente. 

• If we are right for each other, don't let money or timing stand in the way. Although live auditions are always preferable, we recognize that not every qualified singer has a travel budget, and we also understand that other responsibilities may prevent you from being in New York during our audition period. If either of those is your situation, please take advantage of the option to request an off-cycle or remote audition. 

Compensation:

All Resident Artists are hired as employees of Teatro Nuovo for the entire period, working up to six hours per day in a six-day work week. Except for one or possibly two Sunday performances, Sundays are free; when they are performance days, another free day will be scheduled. The salary range is from a base of $3,750 to approximately $5,500, based on assignments that will be specified at the time offers are made. Those assignments include covering principal roles and singing or covering smaller roles. 

Housing:

Teatro Nuovo makes a contribution to the housing and/or commuting expenses of its Resident Artists, but does not cover the entire cost. Montclair State University offers housing at a rate of $55 per night. Teatro Nuovo will contribute $25 per day above and beyond your salary for participants choosing this option. On-campus housing at Montclair State University consists of an individual air-conditioned bedroom in a shared apartment, with a full kitchen, shared living room, and two full bathrooms. 

Alternatively, participants who have access to housing within commuting distance of Montclair may choose instead to live off campus and receive up to $25 per day for reimbursement of documented travel and/or housing expenditures. 

Inexpensive parking is available to both commuters and residents near the residence buildings and the rehearsal area. Commuting via public transportation is also possible from anywhere in the New York area. 

Meals:

Reasonably priced dining is available on-campus Monday through Thursday. On Fridays Teatro Nuovo provides lunch for the entire company. Teatro Nuovo also provides full kitchen equipment for each on-campus apartment so that meals can be prepared “at home” when necessary or desired. Grocery delivery services are available to facilitate in-apartment cooking. 

Contact information:

auditions@teatronuovo.org