About Young Artist Community

I remember being a freshman in Boston, thinking: how do you even find all the young artist programs? Someone should make a site for that. Then I found out someone already had. The existing tools helped, but they left gaps. Program details scattered across dozens of websites, buried in PDFs, or locked behind paywalls. And the most valuable information of all, what the experience was actually like for the people who went, lived almost entirely in private Facebook groups and word of mouth.

It wasn't until years later, after conservatory, after a career change, after learning to build software, that the thought came back differently. Maybe I could make something that does what the others don't.

Why This Exists

Young Artist Community is a free, community-built directory of Young Artist Programs in classical music and opera. It exists because I believe this community deserves a single place to browse programs, compare details, and read honest reviews from people who've been through them. No ads, no paid placements, no paywalls.

The classical music world is small. The people navigating it, young singers and instrumentalists trying to figure out where to spend their summers, their money, and their energy, are making decisions that genuinely shape their careers. They should be able to make those decisions with good information.

What You Can Do Here

Browse and filter programsby instrument, category, location, tuition, and scholarship availability. Every listing includes the details that actually matter when you're deciding where to apply: what it costs, where it is, when the deadlines are, and what the audition process looks like.

Read and write reviews. If you've attended a program, your experience is valuable. A five-star rating is useful. A paragraph about what the coaching was like, whether the housing was livable, or how the program treated its participants is worth more than any brochure.

Submit and edit program information. The site is built like a wiki. Anyone can add a program. Anyone can update a listing. If you notice something outdated or inaccurate, fix it. Every edit is versioned, so nothing is lost and bad information can be corrected quickly.

Report problems. If something looks wrong or inappropriate, flag it. The community keeps this directory honest.

Built by the Community, for the Community

This is not a platform run by a company trying to sell access to young musicians. It's a resource maintained by the people who use it. The model is simple: trust the community first, moderate when needed. Classical musicians, voice teachers, program administrators. These are thoughtful people who care about accuracy. The edit history and reporting system are there as safety nets, but the foundation is trust.

The directory started with a handful of verified programs, each one researched and fact-checked against official sources. It will grow because people contribute to it. That's the idea.

Where This Is Going

Young Artist Community starts with Young Artist Programs, but that's not where it has to end. Graduate programs in classical music and opera face the same information problem. The same scattered websites, the same reliance on word of mouth. Opening the directory to cover those programs is a natural next step.

Verified reviews with aggregate scores would also make a real difference. Right now, anyone can post a review any amount of times and all of them are weighed equally. It would be easy to review bomb in favor of or against any program. Please, do not do this, but the eventual plan would be to give reviews from people confirmed to have attended a program a verified tag and compute their score separately. Aggregate scoring across verified alumni would give prospective applicants something much more reliable to work with.

All of this depends on community interest and involvement. The platform is built to grow with its users. If people show up, contribute, and find it useful, the scope grows with them.

Who Built This

My name is John Moorman. I'm a software engineer based in Berlin. Before I wrote code for a living, I spent ten years training as an opera singer. I know this community because I am part of it, even if my career has taken a different route.

I built this because I wanted it to exist when I was a student, and because the people going through that process right now deserve better tools than what's available. The site is free to use and will stay that way.

If you have questions, suggestions, or want to get involved, reach out at john@johnmoorman.com.