Ready to Bring Your Story to Life?
Co-Create the Future of Opera!
Professional Mentorship │ Cultural Impact │ Global Premiere & Visibility │ Career Development & CV Upgrade │ Collaborative Creation & Leadership Growth │ International Networking
Application Deadline
Aug 25th 2025
Opera Camp™ Composition & Libretto Program
By ©Performing Arts Laboratory
Artistically Designed, Scientifically Proven & International Awarded
A Program of
Program Mission:
Develop a sustainable opera field that empowers communities to feel represented and actively engaged in the artistic experience, opening the doors of the operatic world—long reserved for a privileged few—to bold and diverse composers and librettists poised to shape the future of the Performing Arts.
Program Highlights:
🎼 Co-create and premiere an original opera with professional production, mentorship, and global visibility.
🗝️ Access a space traditionally closed off, where your voice, culture, and creativity are truly the driving force in the opera’s creation.
🌍 Join a global network of creators and leaders transforming the Opera experience into a more inclusive, collaborative, and relevant art form.
What, Where & When...?
Professional Level
1 Composer + 1 Librettist selected annually
✅ Commission of 1 full One-act Opera
✅ Premiere of full Opera by the Bloomington Opera Camp™
✅ Professional Video-Audio Recording and Photos Portfolio materials
✅ International performances of overtures with partner orchestras (During the following 2 seasons)
✅ Direct personal mentorship from maestro Barbosa-Vásquez and PAL Productions Creative team
+
✅ Selected Creators will receive Full Creators Fellowship (Full Tuition Remission):
$15K for Composers* (Sep - June)
$7.5K for Librettists* (Sep-Nov / April-June)
*Includes the tuition for participation in person at the Bloomington Opera Camp™ if desired.
Selected participants may officially register at the Bloomington Opera Camp™.
Globally
Opera Premiere at:
Bloomington, IN, USA
Sep 2025 - June 2026
Opera Premiere
June 6th 2026
By-Weekly Online
Fellowship Program
Opera Premiere
3:00 pm
Pre-Professional & Training Level
3 Composers + 3 Librettists selected annually.
✅ Opera Arias and Scenes Composition workshops (2 months)
✅ Arias/scenes workshops by BOC professional fellows during the Bloomington Opera Camp™.
✅ Premiere of 1 Aria/Scene at the Bloomington Opera Camp™ (Non-Costumes or Stage Version)
✅ Professional Video-Audio Recording and Photos Portfolio materials
✅ Direct mentorship in small cohort from maestro Barbosa-Vásquez and PAL Productions Creative team
+
✅ 2 Full Emerging Creator Fellowships Available: Full Tuition Remission.
Program Tuition: $3.5K per selected participant*
Installment payment options available.
*Includes tuition for in-person participation at the Bloomington Opera Camp™.
Selected participants may officially register at the Bloomington Opera Camp™.
Globally
Workshop at:
Bloomington, IN, USA
April - June 2026
Arias-Scenes Workshop at BOC
May 26th - 30th 2026
By-Weekly Online
Fellowship Program
Arias-Scenes Premiere
May 26th 3:30 pm
Who We’re Looking For
Composers
✅ Open to all nationalities.
✅ Experience writing for full orchestra: Ability and previous experience writing effectively for standard symphonic forces.
✅ Experience writing for the voice: Prior work composing vocal music (opera scenes, songs, choral works, musical theater, oratorio, or cantata movements).
✅ Proficiency with notation software: Skilled in using standard notation software (Dorico, Sibelius, or Finale) to produce full score and part materials to a professional standard.
✅ Cultural aesthetics integration: A musical style that authentically reflects the composer’s cultural identity — whether traditional, contemporary, or a creative fusion of both.
✅ Language proficiency: Strong proficiency in two languages. English (required as either native or second language) and their own country’s primary language, or another language that authentically reflects their cultural identity and artistic aesthetics.
✅ Collaborative openness: Willingness and ability to compose within a shared creative vision, adapting their work in dialogue with the librettist, other co-creators, production team, and/or multi-local communities needs and desires.
Librettists
✅ Open to all nationalities.
✅ Understanding of dramatic structure: Ability to create compelling narratives, character arcs, and scene progression.
✅ Cultural storytelling proficiency: Experience or demonstrated ability to integrate cultural identity, traditions, or social themes authentically into dramatic work.
✅ Prior stage experience not required: We provide mentorship to help you craft text that works dramatically and musically!
✅ Collaborative spirit in musical settings: Prior experience (or clear openness) collaborating with composers, directors, and other creative teams to adjust text for musical, stage, and full production needs.
✅ Language proficiency: Strong proficiency in two languages. English (required as either native or second language) and their own country’s primary language, or another language that authentically reflects their cultural identity and artistic aesthetics.
✅ Comfort with adaptation: Willingness and ability to revise and reshape text to fit musical forms, production characteristics, and/or multi-local communities needs and desires.
The Bloomingtonian
February 6, 2025
"Originally launched in Los Angeles in 2018, the Opera Camp™ has been praised for its transformative impact on participants of all ages and skill levels."
Opera Wire
Afton Markay
May 11th, 2025
"Bloomington Opera Camp™ is a Performing Arts Laboratory production. The organization is leading a radical transformation in the governance of the performing arts that gives the power of real decision-making directly to the stakeholders, including community members, students, and professionals. This call to action is setting the stage for a more sustainable, and inclusive future for the performing arts through “shared governance.”
Indiana Daily Student
February 11, 2025
"Pioneering the Future: Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez Presents Opera Camp™ to Bloomington Communities as a Model for Sustainable Performing Arts!"
Opera Camp™
An inclusive and multidisciplinary program that unites participants of all ages and skill levels to collaboratively Produce and Perform Opera ALL TOGETHER, offering sustainable artistic experiences for communities...
The Opera Camp™ is a groundbreaking multidisciplinary program of the Performing Arts Laboratory - Production Branch that unites students, professionals, and amateurs of all ages and skill levels to Produce and Perform Opera ALL TOGETHER. Created by Maestro Diego Barbosa-Vásquez as a result of his Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research in Performing Arts Sustainability, this unique initiative breaks down the traditional barriers of Opera and Performing Arts productions, fostering collaboration across various artistic disciplines and allowing the full society to be active part of it. Participants not only gain the opportunity to sing, but also to engage as instrumentalists, artists, arts administrators, directors, and more, making this program an inclusive platform for a diverse array of talents. By embracing everyone from budding artists to seasoned professionals, the Opera Camp™ cultivates a rich learning and growing environment where all participants can contribute to and experience the magic and real meaning of Opera: All Arts Collaborating Together!
Learn, Improve, Perfect!
No matter your level
A MultiLevel
Experience
The Opera Camp™ offers revolutionary advance Artistic training for ALL LEVELS. From beginners, students, or advance professionals, this multiple times awarded program allows every participant to be challenged and motivated based on their own goals and performing levels. The program gives each participant the right experience they need, from being a soloist, get ensemble experience, receive private coaching, or get leadership opportunities. In addition, with a carefully crafted experience, the participants are able to collaborate efficiently with all the levels allowing them to always improve and perfect their art and their collaboration skills.
Build Bridges
Across Generations: Ages 7 to 70+
A MultiGenerational
Experience
The Opera Camp™ fosters a unique environment where participants of all ages—from young beginners to seasoned enthusiasts—come together to share and learn from one another. This enriching multigenerational interaction creates a vibrant social fabric, promoting mutual respect and understanding across generations. By collaborating in this diverse community, participants experience the profound joy of learning about each other's perspectives, stories, and artistry while working toward a shared artistic goal.
Discover the World
Through Art
A MultiLingual & MultiCultural
Experience
The Opera Camp™ is a MultiLingual and MultiCultural production that invites participants to immerse themselves in a rich tapestry of languages, embracing the beauty of diverse cultures and expanding their communication skills.
Whether you're fluent or entirely new to these languages, this unique experience will deepen your appreciation of the global heritage of different languages, the cultural richness it provides, and empower you to tell a universal story through the lens of multiple traditions, cultures, and values.
The Opera Camp™ on Photos
The Opera Camp™ Documentary - Teaser
Discover the ideas, research, and values behind this multiple times internationally awarded experience.
The Opera Camp™
GroundBreaking
Multidisciplinary Development*
Artistically Designed,
Scientifically Proven,
& International Awarded.
*Based in Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Research of more than 150+ International Performing Arts Institutions and Programs at all levels.
Thomas Wilkins
Principal Conductor | The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor | The Virginia Symphony
Artistic Partner for Education & External Engagement | Boston Symphony Orchestra
Professor of Orchestral Conducting | Jacobs School of Music (IU)
Music Director Laureate | Omaha Symphony Orchestra
Golden Baton 2022 | League of American Orchestras
"[Diego] is a fabulous musician, and artistically very thoughtful. In addition, he is also extremely bright and always eager to learn. I am also happy to report that above all he is a wonderful and warm human being, who continues to nurture his curiosity and love of learning. He is quite frankly a sponge!"
Los Angeles Times
General Editor
June 2022
"[The Opera Camp™] is something totally unique. [...] The core of the program is to allow communities to have a voice in experiencing high-level artistic experiences usually reserved for professionals."
Yanella Bia
Composer / Oboist at the National Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay (SODRE) / Oboist at Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra
"...Have worked with Maestro Barbosa-Vasquez was an enormous pleasure for me. Transforming the cold score into music for the first time is not a simple task. Maestro Barbosa-Vasquez captured perfectly the spirit of the composition. His commitment, technical solvency and musicality, concluded in an excellent result of the work..."
The Opera Camp™ in Action
Opera BY and FOR
The Community
An Opera Camp™ production Chronicle
of the Collaborative Arts Summer Camp in Los Angeles, CA, USA
**Pilot Opera Camp™ program**
In Summers
Bloomington, IN, USA
Opera Camp™
Creator & Music and Artistic Director:
Diego Barbosa-Vásquez
Maestro Diego Barbosa-Vásquez is an international Opera, Orchestra, and Ballet Conductor & Scholar whose visionary leadership transforms the Performing Arts. Combining his Colombian roots, world-class training, and global expertise, he creates immersive, community-driven artistic experiences. As General Director of the Performing Arts Laboratory, Music Director of The Americas Chamber Orchestra, and a sustained international career of more than 15 years, he has earned global recognition for his dynamic conducting and groundbreaking research in Performing Arts Sustainability.
His collaborations as Conductor & Scholar span esteemed organizations like the St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati Symphony, and Magna Grecia Orchestras; Santa Fe, Atlanta, Houston, and Royal de Wallonie Operas; IU Opera and Ballet Theater, League of American Orchestras, Opera America, World Federation of Amateur Orchestras, and Ostrom Workshop. In addition, he is a strong collaborator with different creators, coaching, premiering, and recorded more than 30 new works (from symphonies, Operas, and ensemble other formats and multi arts works).
With a Doctorate in Conducting from Indiana University, PostDoctoral research in LatinAmerican Music, as well as pioneering PostDoctoral research in Performing Arts Sustainability (Dimensions: Artistic, Financial, Social and Ecological) with emphasis on International Business, International Political-Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy development; Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez brings unmatched expertise to the Opera Camp™ Composition and Libretto Program, promising an extraordinary journey for all co-creators.
El Tiempo
Colombia
"[Diego] has become a role model for the children and young people of our country”
You-Xin Li
Violinist: The Kansas City Symphony, Fellow at New World Symphony
“[Diego] is a natural, sensitive, energetic, and supportive conductor with a lot of imagination and thoughts. [...] He respects and supports all the musicians, no matter how our identity was, treating every musician respectfully and professionally. [...] He brings out the good sides from the musicians and encourages us to become even better artists.
Arthur Fagen
Music Director Emeritus | Atlanta Opera
Co-Chair | Orchestra Conducting Department - Jacobs School of Music - IU
Regular Guest Conductor at the most prestigious
Opera Houses, Concert Halls, and Music Festivals globally.
"[Diego] is a strong conductor with a very good baton technique, temperament, musicality, and a great knowledge of the scores he conducts. I might add that he knows all of his scores by memory. [...]I have seen his strong commitment to reach high artistic quality every time he conducts and to making music and art accessible to all communities."
Opera Camp™ Composition & Libretto Program
By ©Performing Arts Laboratory
Artistically Designed, Scientifically Proven & International Awarded