Academy Of Vocal Arts
Giving voice to opera's future
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Opera is a highly demanding art form that requires singers who can sustain performances up to 4 hours in an evening, singing (unamplified) over a full orchestra of 100 pieces. Furthermore, their artistry must convey the composer's and librettist's intentions forward through artful singing as well as convincing stage characterization. This requires highly skilled singers with a rigorous work ethic and extraordinary technique.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Scholarship/fellowship program
The Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) provides tuition-free vocal and opera training to approximately 27 resident artists per year, who have the potential for international stature, in an intensive four-year program which includes voice lessons, vocal coaching, acting, stage combat, repertoire, languages, movement, opera history and other related subjects necessary for an operatic career. Although the Academy does not offer housing, it has established a fellowship or stipend program to help resident artists pay for their living expenses while studying at AVA.
Opera productions
The Academy of Vocal Arts will produce four fully staged operas in 2018-2019. Operas will be performed in the original languages and directed by prominent guest stage directors, as follows: Puccini's Suor Angelica and Le Villi (in Italian), Dworak's Rusalka (in Czech), Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (in Italian), and Gounod's Romeo et Juliette.
Additional production performances include Jubilate, a concert of oratorio and sacred music performed with full orchestra in three area churches, and the Bel Canto Competition, performed at the Kimmel Center.
Opera Outreach
The Academy's acclaimed Opera Outreach program of educational enrichment offers up close and personal experience with opera and its component art forms to over 1,000 middle and high school students. Workshops are conducted in the classroom with live singing of excerpts, and then classes are bused to fully staged (but somewhat abridged) performances of the operas that are studied in advance.
Where we work
Accreditations
National Association of Schools of Music - Accreditation 2004
External reviews

Photos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
AVA's primary goal continues to be the training of the next generation of great opera singers.
A secondary goal is bringing excellent opera productions and vocal concerts to the Greater Philadelphia community at affordable prices.
Thirdly, AVA seeks to inculcate a love of opera and classical arts in the next generation of performing arts enthusiasts, through outreach programs in area middle and high schools.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
AVA's program of full immersion opera is unique among training organizations. Each AVA resident artist will receive highly individualized training in voice, vocal repertoire, opera history, stage movement, acting, stage combat and dance, French, Italian, German language and Russian diction. Each resident artist will be cast in at least one major role in an opera during the AVA Opera Theatre season. Performances are intended to reinforce the training received in the studio and provide a solid repertoire within the standard repertory of today's opera.
Operas are chosen first to provide the training needed by the resident artists. But AVA also seeks to present a variety of operas that will appeal to its loyal audiences and presents its operas in several locations and at ticket prices less than half that o regional opera houses. AVA audiences have come to expect highly professional productions featuring dynamic younger singers, many of whom will shortly appear with opera houses the world over.
AVA's Opera Outreach program will offer study guides and workshops for a broad mix of middle and high schools, culminating in field trips to the theater to attend an AVA opera. Participating classes will have the opportunity to interact with AVA's resident artists and ask questions about opera, the artists' background, and the way they approach learning a role. This process demystifies the experience of opera and offers first time opera goers the opportunity to identify with the performers, who are themselves only a few years removed from high school. In this way AVA seeks to build audiences for the future of opera--audiences who will appreciate and support the artists trained at the Academy.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Academy has assembled a superb faculty of professional performers, who produce consummate thinking artists--not "cookie cutter" singers. AVA wants to bring out the individual persona in each artist and help them develop their own artistic voice. Led by Maestro Christofer Macatsoris, who himself trained with some of the great conductors of the 20th century (Serafin, Sawallisch, Rudolph), AVA's faculty invests itself in hours of pain-staking coaching to bring out the best in each AVA singing artist.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
AVA has achieved unprecedented success, especially in recent years, in graduating artists who achieve almost instantaneous success as major opera stars. Angela Meade, Stephen Costello, and Ailyn Perez, in particular, enjoyed immediate success and acclaim within months of graduating from AVA. Others have achieved similar success over the course of just a few years: Latonia Moore, Bryan Hymel, Michael Fabiano, Corinne Winters.
Financially, AVA continues to work to grow its endowment to the point where it has reserves to weather recessions like the 2008 great recession. To this point AVA has completed a three-year capital and endowment campaign which has added $6 million to its current $35+ million endowment.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Academy Of Vocal Arts
Board of directorsas of 04/29/2019
Mr. Harold Pitcairn
Pitcairn
Term: 2015 - 2018
Harold F. (Rick) Pitcairn
Pitcairn Financial Group
P. Jeffrey Warden
The Rose Group
Martha Hurt
Archer and Greiner
Randolph Apgar
Health Services
Kay Bossone
Drexel University, Nesbitt School of Design
Kristin Davidson
Center City Residents Association
Charlotte Watts
No Affiliation
Barbara Donnelly Bentivoglio
Donnelly Marketing
Nancy Fabiola Herrera
Metropolitan Opera
Martin Janowiecki
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Susan Kane
Ret. Merrill Lynch
Lucinda Landreth
Delaware Fund
Joseph McGuire
Attorney at Law
Corey Smith
RBC Dain Rauscher
Ann Stephenson
Bucks County Opera Association
Sandy Leopold
no affiliation
Scott Richard
Wharton School
Walter Strine
Walter M. Strine Foundation
Romeo Abella
No Affiliation
Stephen Costello
Metropolitan Opera
John Nyheim
Wellington Fund/Vanguard, Ret.
Thomas O'Rourke
Philadelphia National Bank/CoreStates, Ret.
Richard Troxell
Paris Opera
Leon Levy
Leon L. Levy Associates
Peter Gould
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Kenneth Ahl
Archer and Greiner
Gail Howard
Liberty Business Strategies, Ltd.
Board leadership practices
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes