Young Soloist Programme (YSP)

Every great opera company needs a future. For Opera Siam, that future sings every Thursday evening.

The Bangkok Opera Foundation founded the Young Soloist Programme (YSP) in 2015 with one clear purpose: to give young Thai singers the training, the stage experience and the international connections they need to build real careers in opera. For a long time, talented Thai singers who dreamed of opera had to leave the country to find serious training, and many never got the chance. The YSP brings that training home.

Members meet every week for evening sessions led by Opera Siam’s Artistic Director Somtow Sucharitkul and conductor Trisdee na Patalung. The work covers everything a professional singer needs: vocal technique, languages and diction, musical style, acting, and the discipline of preparing a role from the first page of the score to opening night.

The Foundation then brings the world to them. Visiting artists and coaches from the leading opera houses and conservatories of Europe, America and Asia regularly work with the Young Soloists. They include Richard Harrell of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, soprano Stacey Tappan of the Metropolitan Opera, Hans Nieuwenhuis of the Netherlands Opera Studio, Damian Whiteley of Zurich Opera, Covent Garden baritone Phillip Joll, countertenor Michael Chance, soprano Nancy Yuen and tenor Israel Lozano. Masterclasses are often open to the public, so audiences can watch young voices grow in real time. In January 2026 the Young Soloists worked with soprano Dr Cassandra Black in a public masterclass at King’s Bangkok.

What makes the YSP different is that the training never stays in the studio. Young Soloists perform in Opera Siam’s productions, beginning in supporting roles beside visiting international stars and learning the craft from the inside. As they grow, so do their roles. In February 2026 they headlined The Love Concert at Banyan Tree Bangkok. In June, all three principal roles in the Thailand premiere of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice were sung by Young Soloists: Kridhima Siriwattanakamol as Orfeo, Chanya Maneewan as Euridice and Punnika Mahuemuang as Amore. The rest of the programme’s members sang beside them in the ensemble.

YSP graduates have gone on to study and perform across Europe and the United States, and a new generation of Thai singers now takes leading roles on Opera Siam’s own stage. Together with the Siam Sinfonietta, the programme lets the Foundation take a young Thai musician from a first audition, through years of training, to a principal role in front of a full house, all within one artistic family.

The Young Soloist Programme is a non-profit initiative of the Bangkok Opera Foundation and is made possible by sponsors, partners and friends who believe Thailand’s voices belong on the world’s stages.

To support the YSP, write to us at contact@operasiam.com.

Season 25/26 Members