L.A. Opera will receive $4.3 million for young-artists program

Los Angeles Opera is receiving $4.3 million in new gifts for its young-artists program. The money is coming from the Colburn Foundation and Eugene and Marilyn Stein, the company announced Thursday.

The young-artists program began in 2006 and is known as the Domingo-Thornton program. It was named after philanthropist Flora Thornton, who was a board member of L.A. Opera and who donated $2 million to help start the program. (Thornton died in 2010.)

The program is a paid residency for young opera singers at the beginning of their professional careers. Participants often perform in L.A. Opera productions, concerts and recitals. They also received training from music director James Conlon and many have gone to work in major opera companies around the world.

L.A. Opera said the program will be renamed the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at the end of the current season. Eugene Stein is on the opera company’s board. “Mindy and I are inspired by the idea of enabling young people to achieve their highest potential,” he said in a statement.

Placido Domingo, the company’s general director, helped to found the program and continues to oversee it.

L.A. Opera said the $4.3 million in gifts will enable the program to flourish for many seasons to come.

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