Burnaby Lyric Opera holds general auditions once each year and casts its operas and concerts from these general auditions. Its mandate is to offer opportunity to the young operatic talent in British Columbia and the singers that audition come from anywhere in B.C. Some examples are; The Vancouver Opera Chorus, UBC Opera Programme, The Vancouver Academy of Music, University of Victoria. It is not a prerequisite or necessary to come from a music institution. BLO is interested in nurturing B.C. talent and offering the opportunity to young opera singers to sing leading and secondary roles in opera. We also offer the opportunity to young students who have never been on an operatic stage before, to sing in the BLO chorus and therefore gain the experience of the operatic stage.

Over the many years we have been offering opportunities to the young singers in B.C., BLO has seen many of the young artists go on to careers working with the larger opera companies. Some have gone on to sing in the Vancouver Opera’s School Touring Programme and within the past two years, two singers in particular who have been featured in leading roles with Burnaby Lyric Opera, were accepted into the Vancouver Opera Young Artist Programme where they are now singing roles on VO mainstage. Other singers have worked their way through the BLO chorus to sing leading roles for BLO and are now in Europe performing.