United States ‘Joyce DiDonato Master Classes’: Joyce DiDonato with Ronnie Enoch (soprano), Natalie Corrigan (mezzo-soprano), Fangzhen Wang (mezzo-soprano), June Young ‘Will’ Kim (baritone), Joel Harder and Bin Yu Sanford (piano). Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing, New York, 19-21.4.2026. (RP)
The dates of Joyce DiDonato’s annual Carnegie Hall masterclasses are a moving target, and the results are equally unpredictable. DiDonato describes it as three days of surprises, revelations and watershed breakthroughs, and she is not wrong. Her overarching mission is to invite singers to find greater joy, freedom and expression in their art. The four singers this year were younger than the norm, a fact DiDonato pointed out repeatedly, more in amazement than to adjust the auditors’ expectations.
Before each session, DiDonato cautions the audience and those watching via livestream that the masterclasses are a safe place where all thoughts of a polished performance are suspended. Her focus is on process, not on the finished product. The singers are requested to bring in pieces that they are currently working on so that interpretation and technique are not already baked into them.
Unlike many artists who conduct masterclasses, DiDonato ventures into technical issues, although she treads lightly. The search for more vocal color is a constant. Proper breath support is pivotal, so it is never off the table. It is not only an issue for singers, as a young saxophonist observed in the lead-up to his question. Another young man who rose to ask a question was an artist but not of the musical sort. A star of DiDonato’s magnitude attracts an audience that extends beyond the usual suspects, and much of what she has to say has universal relevance.
DiDonato steers clear of letting the masterclasses devolve into a diva reliving the past. However, she did talk briefly about the challenges she faced as a student and the early stages of her career. The message was clear – you have to take control of your career, because no one is going to hand it to you on a silver platter – it is solely yours to own and define. The prospects of a young singer eventually performing at the Metropolitan Opera are daunting. Perhaps that is why each singer is required to write a brief essay on ‘Why I sing?’, which is reprinted in the program.
For soprano Ronnie Enoch, the answer is ‘I sing because I simply can’t not sing’. Originally from Israel, the 23-year-old singer is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Royal Welsh College of Music. There are other reasons she sings, including the ability to touch someone’s soul, and she does. In ‘Da tempeste il legno infranto’ from Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Cleopatra exalts upon learning that Caesar lives, after believing her lover had died in battle. In what was one of DiDonato’s mantras, she told Enoch to focus on thinking horizontally rather than vertically. She also advised Enoch to practice the aria at a slower tempo to build the confidence that would bring her to the power of Cleopatra who was always a queen. This was DiDonato at her most physical, acknowledging that it was hard to sing pop-out high notes and coloratura when being assaulted.
Natalie Corrigan was born with a cleft palate and was told at an early age she was not built for opera. She ignored that advice because, unlike speech, singing felt natural, and she did not have to apologize for how she sounded. Her perseverance paid off: she is currently completing her master’s degree at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and was a 2025 resident artist at the Glimmerglass Festival. Composer Jake Heggie praised DiDonato as the definitive Sister Helen in Dead Man Walking. In ‘This Journey’, Sister Helen sings the aria on her way to the prison where she will meet a death-row convict for the first time. DiDonato advised that the emotion to be conveyed was not suffering but questioning how one will get through this. In what amounted to a benediction, DiDonato told Corrigan that her performance was gorgeous in her voice, and also in her heart.
As a child in China, Fangzhen Wang heard an opera aria and was hooked for life. An undergraduate at The Juilliard School, the 21-year-old mezzo-soprano is a Gluck Community Fellow and Leader who has performed more than 20 concerts in community centers and hospitals in New York. She sings ‘to communicate, to share humanity, and to let language and music speak in one shared voice’. Wang worked with DiDonato on ‘Voi che sapete’ from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in two sessions. She placed Cherubino at 14, which DiDonato stressed must be conveyed through posture and delivery. DiDonato coaxed Wang into singing the musical phrases as one gesture with varying degrees of success. The breakthrough moment came when DiDonato asked Wang to sing a Chinese folk song and, instantly, all that DiDonato had sought was naturally present in Wang’s singing. The connection only had to be made.
This was not the first masterclass merry-go-round at Carnegie Hall for baritone June Young ‘Will’ Kim – he participated in SongStudio in January 2026. Kim was a singer-songwriter in high school and has three degrees in composition. Singing, however, is in the ascent at present, which for him is like composing in real time. He brought two bravura arias to the masterclass, ‘Sibillar gli angui d’Aletto’ from Handel’s Rinaldo and ‘Cruda funesta smania’ from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. DiDonato declared that the former was the original alpha-male aria, urging Kim to be ‘obscenely arrogant’ in expressing Argante’s defiance. In the Donizetti aria, DiDonato urged restraint to project Enrico’s rage, advising it’s exhausting for an audience to endure nonstop shouting from a singer. Kim quickly adopted the suggestions, creating characters who were as vocally rich as they were dramatically compelling.
DiDonato says that young singers the world over tell her that they want to participate in one of her masterclasses. There is no financial barrier, as all expenses are covered for the singers. All they have to do is apply. The Carnegie Hall website (here) is the portal for aspiring opera singers to go down the rabbit hole of a Joyce DiDonato masterclass.
Rick Perdian
The 2026 Joyce DiDonato Master Classes are available for free replay for one year on YouTube (here) and medici.tv (here).
Featured Image: June Young ‘Will’ Kim (baritone) with Joyce DiDonato © Chris Lee