The Cardiff International Academy of Voice was established by its founder Welsh tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 Dennis O'Neill

Dennis O'Neill

Dennis O'Neill CBE is a Welsh operatic tenor and recording artist.-Early career:Born of Welsh and Irish parents, he studied privately with Professor Frederic Cox in Manchester and then in London...

 CBE

CBE

CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

 to provide advanced voice, music and drama coaching to young professional opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singers from all over the world in the early stages of their careers. When it originally opened in 2007 it was funded by Cardiff University

Cardiff University

Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...

  . However following Cardiff University's withdrawal of funding in 2010, Trinity Dewi Sant took over the partnership in June 2011 under the new name of the 'Wales International Academy of Voice.'

History

The Academy opened in January 2007 with its first intake of students on year-long courses which began in the Autumn of each year from 2008 to 2009. The courses involved 30 weeks of instruction via individual coaching and master class

Master class

A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....

es as well as student participation in the Opera Barga and Wexford

Wexford Festival Opera

The Wexford Festival Opera is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in South-Eastern Ireland during the months of October and November.-Festival origins under Tom Walsh, 1951 to 1966:...

 festivals. All vocal recital

Recital

A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....

s by the Academy's students and many of its master classes have been open to the public. The Academy's many notable visiting instructors have included Carlo Rizzi

Carlo Rizzi (conductor)

Carlo Rizzi is an Italian conductor.Rizzi studied music at the Milan Conservatory. He later was a conducting student of Vladimir Delman, in Bologna, and with Franco Ferrara in Siena. His opera conducting debut was in 1982, with Donizetti's L'ajo nell'imbarazzo...

, Antonio Pappano

Antonio Pappano

Antonio Pappano is a British conductor and pianist of Italian parentage.Pappano's family relocated to England from Castelfranco in Miscano near Benevento, Italy in 1958 and at the time of his birth his parents worked in the restaurant business, but Pasquale Pappano, his father, was by vocation a...

, Richard Bonynge

Richard Bonynge

Richard Alan Bonynge, AO, CBE is an Australian conductor and pianist.Bonynge was born in Sydney and educated at Sydney Boys High School before studying piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for...

, Della Jones

Della Jones

Della Jones , is a Welsh mezzo-soprano, particularly well-known for her interpretations of works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, and Britten.-Life and career:Della Jones was born in Tonna, near Neath, Wales...

, Rebecca Evans

Rebecca Evans

Rebecca Evans is a Welsh operatic soprano.-Personal life:Born in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Neath, the same village as Hollywood actor Richard Burton....

, Ileana Cotrubas

Ileana Cotrubas

Ileana Cotrubaş is a Romanian opera soprano whose career spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s. She was much admired for her acting skills and facility for singing opera in many different languages.-Biography:...

, Dame Anne Evans and Sir Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE is a British theatre and opera director, author, physician, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and...

.

In May 2010 Cardiff University announced that the Academy would close because of a lack of funds.

In May 2011 Trinity Dewi Sant announced that the Academy would be re-launched in June 2011 under the name of Wales International Academy of Voice.