Mannes Opera

The Mannes Opera — led by Managing Artistic Director Emma Griffin and operating in the College of Performing Arts at The New School — is a training program for operatic artists of the 21st century. In conjunction with the Mannes Voice program, we offer undergraduate, master’s, and postgraduate degrees. Our program offers young artists flexible and strong vocal technique and extensive performance practice. We foster a well-defined sense of self with a curiosity for the new and a devotion to making.

We believe that opera is an art of the vivid present. We are making contemporary art, deeply engaged with our present moment. We engage with the rich tradition of classical repertoire as a lens with which to better understand our world today.

Preparation, practice, performance. As opera makers we prepare, we rehearse, and then we perform. Everything we do at Mannes Opera — every class, every workshop, every lesson and coaching — is engaged in examining this process. Through rigorous technique, we embrace the concrete to discover the ephemeral.

We draw on the best opera and theater makers that NYC has to offer. We put our students in direct contact with leading professionals in the performing arts. Collaboration challenges our students to work with greater rigor and commitment, knowing that they are part of the fabric of the New York performing arts world.

We nurture whole artists. We believe singers are makers, musicians, and storytellers. We train students to be professional artists. We believe that singers must have agency and control over what they do and how they do it. The better our students know who they are, what they want, and where they excel. The better prepared they will be to create the artistic work of the 21st century.

We are musicians and storytellers who use the medium of opera to innovate, improvise, and create.

For questions about the Mannes Opera, please email us at mannesopera@newschool.edu. To learn more about applying to Mannes, visit our admissions page or email performingarts@newschool.edu.