Jerwood Foundation renewed its support of London-based Scherzo Ensemble, a collective of 60 early career performers, for their 2022 season.
In 2022 Jerwood Foundation gave a grant of £20,500 to Scherzo Ensemble to fund the principal and chorus fees which had a direct impact on the careers of young performers. Four principals gained new role credits, and two were successful in gaining interest from agencies. Two of the chorus grained new cover credits, and 90% reported a creative and networking boost after the production.
"Scherzo is such a young organisation, we have no reserves to fall back on, so setting out to mount a season of performances can be very intimidating. Having Jerwood's backing early on gave us the confidence we needed to advertise our season publicly, take applications from far and wide, hear auditions, and appoint some excellent singers who we thought would benefit from the course. This is really the whole point of the enterprise, and wouldn't have been nearly as successful without Jerwood's backing." - Matthew O'Keeffe, Artistic Director
Scherzo Ensemble is a professional development platform for young singers who have recently completed their training. Scherzo offers a programme of performance and training projects as well as classes in business to a cohort of singers selected annually at audition. Scherzo also manages Longhope Opera, a fledgling country house opera festival in East Hampshire. Each July they produce a comic bel canto opera with a company of emerging talent. All cast, creatives, crew, management & orchestra are under 30 years old. This summer’s performance was L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti, conducted by Matthew O’Keeffe and directed by Rory Fazan.
