Cambridge Youth Opera

Caroline founded CYO in 2011 and has led staging and writing activities from the outset. From small beginings CYO has grown to be a highly respected organisation in the youth arts eco-system in the East of England, working with individual young people and schools from across the region.

CYO covers all the activities that go to create an opera, onstage and backstage. All our core activities are free to participants and partners.

Until 2020, CYO offered primarily production based activities. The COVID lockdowns forced us to look for new ways of achieving our aims and we moved to creative activiites, firstly with our Digital Opera Making Workshops, which achieved national recognition in 2020, and then to create an opera from scratch with young people. T he Little Black Cat was written in 2021/22 and performed in Norwich and Cambridge in 2023.

The success of these projects has led us to move to a model built around creating and performing our own work with young people and schools, supplementing this with workshops and visits to build an awareness of opera.

Mission Statement

Cambridge Youth Opera broadens the creative horizons of young people through opera. We build a foundation of inspiration, exploration and self-expression, enabling each young person to find and own their individual artistic voice.

We welcome a diverse range of children and young people and work with partners and practitioners from across our community. We empower young people to develop their artistic skills by providing unique opportunities to engage in all aspects of opera, both onstage and backstage.

We do not charge for participation in our core activities, nor do we place any barriers to access. Everyone is welcome to take part and what young people find out about the arts and themselves is often surprising and inspiring.