• The Italian government is looking for foreign students to sponsor in a cultural exchange.
• 10 scholarships are available for a two-year course at the La Scala Opera Academy.
• The South African government is encouraging South Africans to participate.

Here at Hypertext we pride ourselves on shining a spotlight on scholarship opportunities made available to South Africans, but most are rather straightforward and may differ in small details only. Today, however, we have something more left field with an opportunity to train in opera singing in Italy.

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has posted a new scholarship opportunity on its International Scholarships platform, encouraging South Africans to participate in this offered cultural exchange with the Italian government.

The exchange sees ten scholarships offered by the Italians to foreign students to partake in a two year “advanced training course” at the La Scala Opera Academy in Milan, between October 2023 and September 2025.

Successful applicants do need to meet some criteria, such as being born after 1st January 1993, and being in possession of an “academic diploma in singing from a music conservatory or officially recognized institute of music”.

The full details from the DHET can be found here, but take note that money is involved in the application process. The DHET states that applicants need to register on the YAP Tracker platform, which is free, but the application itself costs €85. That’s quite steep given the exchange rate, placing the application fee at the time of writing at R1 669.

On top of this, applicants need to provide quite a few attachments with their applications:

• Scanned copy of identity document (national ID or passport);
• Scanned copy of music and voice study certificates;
• Two links to video recordings of the candidate performing two opera arias (at least one must be in Italian; pieces from operettas, zarzuelas, or oratorios are not accepted) by different composers;
• The videos must be of amateur quality and unedited; professionally produced videos will not be accepted;
• Detailed CV, signed and dated;
• Two recent digital photographs: one head and shoulders, the other full figure;
• Scanned copy of document certifying placement in the top three positions in national or international solo voice competitions (optional);
• Letters of reference from qualified music experts (optional).

In exchange, those who are chosen will be enrolled in the course and will also be granted a €900 monthly allowance. While that is a lot of money, especially when converted into Rands at around R17 670, we’re not sure it will be enough to cover all the expenses in Milan, a city infamous for high living costs.

It’s a lot to consider and quite the life change that needs to be decided on before applications close on 19th May 2023, which is just over a month away right now.

We recommend reading the DHET post in full here and also reading the accompanying links in said post.