The OAcademy Music Conservatory is Globalizing Access to Top-Tier Music Training

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There has long been an unstated inequity in classical music education. To access the caliber of training required to build a world-class career, a rising talent needs to study at one of the major conservatories of the world. The challenge is that the “brand-name” conservatories offering this caliber of preparation are all concentrated in a small pool of urban hubs like New York, London, and Berlin. These locations are often inaccessible to global talents due to economic costs, lack of international networks, and family commitments. All factors make these flagship conservatories out of reach despite having the talent and drive needed to get there.

This equation results in many exceptionally gifted talents remaining “diamonds in the rough,” unable to fulfill their entire career and impact potential. Although talent is evenly distributed across the world’s nations, this has led to a professional music field defined by musicians from certain regions who are more likely to access the training needed to succeed.

Enter OAcademy Music Conservatory

Launched in 2020, OAcademy Music Conservatory has created the world’s first global platform dedicated to helping top talents overcome the barrier of world-class conservatory training, regardless of location or circumstances. OAcademy trains a rigorously selected cohort of global musicians across four divisions comprising orchestra, piano, conducting, and composing. Students access OAcademy’s top-tier training through its unique combination of interactive digital one-on-one and group classes and intensive in-person residencies in different parts of the world.

An initiative of The Orchestra of the Americas Group, OAcademy connects the world’s brightest rising talent to many of the music sector’s top figures as mentors. Faculty leaders range from icons like cellist Yo-Yo Ma, French horn star Sarah Willis, and violinist Augustin Hadelich to renowned conductors Rafael Payare, Marin Alsop, and many others — alongside principals from many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, and Berlin Philharmonic, to name only a few. In the words of Carlos Miguel Prieto, the conservatory’s Music Director, “OAcademy is an example of what great talent, love, and technology can combine to achieve.”

An Artist Diploma for the World

OAcademy offers six-to-twelve-month Artist Diploma programs annually to a combined Cohort of 110+ musicians from more than forty nations across four divisions: orchestra, piano, conducting, and composing. A host of iconic conductors, including Carlos Miguel Prieto leads OAcademy’s conducting fellowship; Grammy-winning pianist Gabriela Montero helms OAcademy’s Piano Lab; Gabriela Ortiz (LA Philharmonic resident composer) chairs OAcademy’s composing studio; and a faculty of more than 50 top instrumentalists combines to guide the training provided within OAcademy’s Orchestra Institute to rising instrumentalists across all disciplines of the orchestra. Putting international peers together in a global classroom fosters holistic learning with the possibility of enriching collaborations.

From Yo-Yo Ma to Gabriela Ortiz: Experts in the Field

As an enhancement to its unique global classroom, OAcademy offers fellows access to in-person training as part of their learning journey. Each of its four Artist Diploma programs includes a range of immersive in-person residency opportunities with faculty in locations ranging from Switzerland to Mexico to Michigan. During these one-week intensives, OAcademy fellows train with mentors, work on projects, and collaborate/perform together in ways that deepen their digital learning experience and supercharge peer networks created through their years in the program. “Taking part in OAcademy allowed me to learn from my musical heroes and taught me essential skills my previous musical education had not touched upon,” remarks OAcademy Conducting Fellow Thibault Back de Surany of France.

The most recent OAcademy in-person residency occurred in March 2024, during which composer Gabriela Ortiz mentored Composing Studio fellows throughout a weeklong retreat on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. “Being a mentor in OAcademy allows me to work with a talented group of young composers from different countries, exchanging ideas and reflecting on issues related to what music creation means today,” reflects Gabriela Ortiz.

Similar to Ortiz’s role in the Composing Studio, virtuoso Gabriela Montero chairs OAcademy’s piano division where she works with a carefully selected cohort of nine international pianists. Over the course of a year they interact through a combination of weekly digital classes and in-person residencies in range of settings across Europe and North America. The intensive year-long piano training process reflects Montero, “allows me to identify each individual’s technical, musical and personal needs as they strive to become more accomplished artists.” OAcademy selects piano fellows through a highly competitive process, with its annual Cohort including exceptionally talented rising stars like Dmytro Choni of Ukraine, a recent Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, who now also serves as a jury member for the competition.

Meanwhile, the Orchestra and Conducting Fellows are getting ready to join Carlos Miguel Prieto for a weeklong residency at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, culminating this year’s academic program with a live performance by the Orchestra of the Americas alongside Yo-Yo Ma. The residency is designed around the premiere of a double concerto by Kayhan Kalhor, an internationally acclaimed kamancheh (Persian spiked fiddle) virtuoso. Kalhor first began collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma as founding members of the Silk Road Project. According to Kalhor, the concerto for cello, kamancheh, and orchestra is an “ode to peace and a celebration of a 25-year friendship with Ma. The piece was written to instill a sense of calm during complicated times and to reflect on the beauty that lies hidden in the balance of what it means to be human.”

Connecting Worlds to Transform Lives

Since the foundation of OAcademy, a faculty of visionary artist mentors come on board to share their wisdom beyond the musical craft. Fellows are exposed to many interactive workshops to inspire new ways of approaching the musicianship including its social aspects. Yo-Yo Ma, a frequent guest in the Orchestra Institute classroom, recently shared with fellows: “Friendship and listening to one another is fundamental to creativity in music. OAcademy helps you listen to and absorb everything around you.”

As OAcademy continues to bring together global expertise to build innovative paths for musicians, new significant milestones are setting the course. Having consolidated a suite of Artist Diploma fellowships, OAcademy is now preparing to launch an internationally recognized Masters of Music in Performance Leadership, to open in 2025. This is true to OAcademy’s unwavering commitment to make quality music training achievable from any corner of the world, reaching remote home studios where talent awaits to be discovered.

“OAcademy allowed me to go beyond my comfort zone, engaging out-of-the-ordinary learning experiences, experiencing new countries and cultures, and challenging me to take positive steps not only in my professional life but also on a personal level.” (Novilė Maceinaitė | Lithuania, Violin, Orchestra Institute Fellow, 2023)