Louisville native Theo Harrah has been selected as one of the 28 artists from a pool of more than 1,500 international applicants to participate in the Merola Opera Program’s 2026 cohort. This year’s cohort of participants comes from Australia, China, South Korea, Türkiye, and the United Kin gdom, as well as across North America, including the United States, Mexico, and Canada, according to the Merola Opera Program.  San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program is one of the most prestigious opera training programs in the world for aspiring singers, pianists, and stage directors, where participants attend master classes and private coaching. There are also parts of the program that teach the participants about PR, financial planning, and skills beyond honing their craft that will benefit them throughout their careers.  “Up-and-coming Opera stars” All participants will be involved in or performing at the Meola Summer Festival this upcoming summer. The festival showcases the “up-and-coming Opera stars” of this year’s cohort. The dates for the festival have not been announced.  “I find that it’s because I’m then positioned around a bunch of new people who are really performing at a very high level,” Harrah said. “Merola is a strictly young artist program, so being around a lot of young artists who are really successful, really working hard, and really wanting other paths is very inspiring for me. It’s been inspiring me to work harder. But additionally, you get constant access to coaches.”  Harrah is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, under the expert guidance of Professor Jane Dutton.  “Fortunately, all the Jacobs and grand removal gave me just like performing opportunities, which I don’t think would. I think without those, I wouldn’t have been able to do something like this,” Harrah said.  Harrah attended the Kentucky School of Performing Arts in Louisville before attending Indiana University.  “I’m always here between the response of being a music kid, but I was always here between being, call myself a music kid and a theater kid,” Harrah said. “But I really do think I’m a theater kid. All it’s been done like I still love musical theater. I still love musical theatre plays as well, just as much as I love classical music.” What makes opera special to Theo Harrah To Harrah, what makes opera special is how it combines all of the things he enjoys about other forms of art, like the costumes and dance, to create the performance.  “I really think that opera is special in the way that it is a combination of almost all the art forms in my brain,” Harrah said. “There are the visual arts of the sets and the costumes. There is a theatrical art of acting itself, of course, on stage and telling a story. There’s a musical aspect where you get such a wide berth of music with so many different rich colors and such a rich history of music within it, as well as, you know, even dance and movement as being a large part of the music being a large part of the performance.”  In comparison to musical theatre, opera careers typically take off later due to voice maturation. While Harrah can practice his singing now and learn the skills necessary, it will take years for his voice to fully mature and be able to start a career.  “Being an opera singer is really difficult because it’s a very much a waiting game,” Harrah said. “There’s an adage that, like the voice ages 10 years behind the body, so where, like a musical theater performer might be able to go out at 21, 22 years old, and start a career. For an opera singer is a lot harder, and the lower and louder, than wait the longer it takes for that, for that maturity period to occur. So I know for me, it’s a long time before I could really get started on a career.”  “I really think that opera is special in the way that it is a combination of almost all the art forms in my brain.” Harrah’s supportive parents and access to art in Louisville have led him to his numerous performance opportunities and now one of the most notable training programs.  “I’m always very appreciative of all the people in my life that made you this moment, you know, my parents, and also all the artistic traditions I’ve had from a very young age,” Harrah said. “I’ve just been super fortunate to be in a situation where I’ve always been able to pursue my art and theater, always been in a super important situation, to live in a place like Louisville and we have access to like the Governor’s School for the Arts, or the Youth Performing Arts School, where I always had a support system of people really believed in me and were really able to give me resources and guidance that I needed to get ready to go.”  Why support for local arts is imperative for the arts nationwide Harrah encourages anyone interested in learning about opera or who is trying to introduce themselves to the art to go see a live show. Additionally, he encourages people to go support local art because that is what makes national art like Broadway possible.  “Supporting musical and local playhouses is what makes Broadway so possible,” Harrah said. “I really encourage people to go and see live art, live theater, live dance, and go to an art gallery. Those kinds of things are really important for our culture and the world at large. When it happens at a local level, it’s going to succeed at a natural level, I think that, because of all the art that surrounded me growing up, which is what let me be able to do what I do now.”  By viewing local plays or other types of art, people are often able to see subjects or pieces that can’t be replicated in other places or on a large scale.  “People travel to New York, or they’ll travel wherever those people always play, but they don’t realize that they’re happening just outside of their back door,” Harrah said. “There are so many things out there. On a small scale, so many pieces of art can be created that can’t necessarily be done in big places.” The post Louisville Native Accepted To International Opera Program appeared first on LEO Weekly | Louisville Eccentric Observer. ...read more read less