Check out the Fletcher Opera Institute's website at www.fletcheropera.com.

Named for businessman and arts advocate Alfred Johnston Fletcher (1887-1979), the A.J. Fletcher Foundation has supported the growth of opera in America for over 50 years, first through the creation of the Grassroots Opera Company in 1948 and subsequently through the productions and educational outreach of the National Opera Company. 

To strengthen and perpetuate Mr. Fletcher's vision for opera, the Foundation took the unprecedented step of committing a major grant to establish an opera institute at the North Carolina School of the Arts.  In 2001, the Foundation merged its National Opera Company with the NCSA School of Music graduate opera program, in collaboration with NCSA School of Design and Production, to create the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute. A vehicle for advancing the career potential of exceptional young singers, the Fletcher Institute offers performance-based training at graduate and post-graduate levels to several Institute Fellows each year.

Institute Fellows perform in fully-staged productions of new and established operatic works and participate in touring and outreach programs. Extensive performance experience is enriched by advanced studies in voice, language, diction, operatic and vocal literature, acting, makeup, movement, ballroom dancing, Alexander Technique, stage combat, and career enhancement strategies. Instruction is provided by a resident artist faculty and visiting artists of national and international renown.

A founding member of Voce Carolina – The NC Opera Consortium, the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute provides training and performances of such substance and high caliber as to place it among the leading organizations of its kind in the U.S.

Staff of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute includes:

• Artistic Director – James Allbritten
• Managing Director – Steve LaCosse
• Vocal & Diction Coach – Angela Vanstory Ward
• Administrative Assistant – Jennifer Rimes

A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute National Advisory Board Executive Committee:

• Barbara Goodmon  – President and Executive Director, A. J. Fletcher Foundation
• James F. Goodmon – Chairman of the Board, A.J. Fletcher Foundation
           President and CEO, Capitol Broadcasting Company
• John Mauceri – Executive Director
• Michael Rothkopf -- Interim Dean of the School of Music at the UNC
           School of the Arts