The Award
For the 10th anniversary of Independent Opera, a competition was launched to find an emerging director. Marking our 100th award, the Director Fellowship was unique in the UK at the time, offering the recipient the opportunity to stage a chamber opera selected by IO at the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells in 2015 and benefit from exceptional mentoring from internationally renowned directors and opera companies.
Application Process
Candidates were invited to apply, with nominations sought from over 30 leading opera companies and directors in the UK and Europe.
The selection process consisted of two rounds. Round 1 required the submission of a CV and concept proposal for the chosen chamber opera, Biedermann and the Arsonists. This included scene by scene descriptions, design ideas and suggestions for a creative team. The candidates also participated in a panel interview with directors Stephen Medcalf and Nicholas Payne (Opera Europa), and conductors Timothy Redmond and Dominic Wheeler.
Round 2 consisted of workshop auditions (with singers, conductor and pianist provided) for a maximum of eight finalists, overseen by a panel of three influential opera directors, David Pountney, Martin Duncan and Annilese Miskimmon and Independent Opera’s Chief Executive, Anna Gustafson. A question-and-answer session with the panellists also followed.
Director Fellowship Recipients
Max Hoehn, Director Fellow 2015; Polly Graham, Director Fellow 2016.
Following our selection process, two emerging directors were awarded fellowships. The first was to Max Hoehn, who went on to direct the UK première of Šimon Voseček’s Biedermann and the Arsonists at the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells, in November 2015. Hoehn was nominated by Graham Vick (Artistic Director, Birmingham Opera Company), Frederic Wake-Walker (Artistic Director, Mahogany Opera Group) and director Jonathan Kent. As part of the Director Fellowship, he also received mentoring from David Pountney, Artistic Director of Welsh National Opera, and worked as Assistant Director on WNO productions.
“Independent Opera has given me wonderful encouragement from the start of the Fellowship; in supporting the production of Hartmann’s superb but little known opera, Simplicius Simplicissimus, they are allowing me to step into new territory and make work that I really believe in.” Polly Graham
Polly Graham was selected as the second recipient. Graham directed the UK première of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissmus, in November 2016 at the Lilian Baylis Studio. Graham’s nominators were Michael McCarthy (Artistic Director, Music Theatre Wales) and Isabel Murphy (Director of Artistic Administration, Welsh National Opera). The Fellowship included mentoring from Stephen Medcalf and David Pountney, along with working at Welsh National Opera, where she had the opportunity to direct Iain Bell’s A Christmas Carol in December 2015.
Director Fellowship Finalists
Richard Gerard Jones
Sophie Motley
Pedro Ribeiro
Karolina Sofulak
Caroline Steinbeis
Rafael R. Villalobos
Max Webster
Max Hoehn:
Polly Graham: