Tenor Jeremy Boulton, 18, has just finished his HSC and will join other aspiring singers from Tasmania, the ACT and regional NSW in a week-long intensive program with the nation’s principal opera company in January.

“The opportunities this will bring are introducing me to the world of opera, … really looking at what’s expected of me in the industry and what I can do to improve myself, and I can get a foothold in productions Opera Australia do in the future,” Mr Boulton said.

Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini said they had more than 100 people apply, with 50 finalists chosen to audition during the company’s 2016 regional tour of The Marriage of Figaro.

“He’s very well developed for a young man of his age; he’s got very good instincts musically, and it seems to me theatrically as well; he’s certainly got a good voice and he’s absolutely on the right path,” Mr Terracini said of the Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts graduate.

“[The scholarship] is very competitive, we’re certainly looking at all the best young singers that are still at school.”

All four will receive professional training from artistic, music, language and drama coaches, as well as spending time backstage at the Sydney Opera House, gaining insights into a professional operatic career.

It’s just one of the projects to keep Mr Boulton busy this summer before potentially embarking on musical studies at the Sydney Conservatorium in 2017.

He’s also a voice mentor to performers in So Popera’s January production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; currently writing a musical with some friends and will be creating the musical score for the Phoenix Theatre company’s 2017 adaption of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Despite Mr Boulton’s versatility as a performer, composer and mentor, his ultimate goal is to tour Australia and the world as an opera singer, and know it’ll be a hard slog to get there.

“If I follow a good path, I work very hard and throw myself out there to every opportunity I think I could get there,” he said. 

“Its very competitive and i’ll have to do a lot of things on the way to support myself.”

The Regional Student Scholarship was launched in 2014 as part of an ongoing committment  to find ways for students and families from remote and regional areas to connect with opera, both as participants and as audiences.