Once a rite of passage, is performing in Europe necessary for singers today?

Bass-baritone William Socolof and tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole are good friends. For years, they fol­lowed the same career beats. They attended The Juilliard School together, staying on for graduate studies and finish­ing in 2022 and 2020, respectively. They made their Boston Symphony debuts in the same concert. After graduating, they both moved to take full-time, sala­ried fest, or “fixed,” singing positions in Germany — Socolof at Oper Köln, and Jonas-O’Toole at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Across the Atlantic, however, their paths diverged. In summer 2025, Socolof decided not to renew his fest contract in Cologne in order to freelance full-time in Europe and the U.S. He’s now based in Berlin, which he describes as “com­paratively, one of the few places you can comfortably afford as a freelance artist” due to the city’s musical vibrancy and the generous terms of German artist visas. A year on, he looks the part of a hip young Berliner, sporting a beard, a sleek black cap, and a thick chain necklace.

Jonas-O’Toole, on the other hand, struggled with constant burnout due to Deutsche Oper Berlin’s long hours. He estimates he sang about 12 to 15 Deutsche Oper productions per year — more than double the load of most major American companies’ entire seasons. It wasn’t uncommon, he says, to go 10 days at a time without a day off. In 2025, he relo­cated back to San Francisco, where he had previously spent two summers singing in the prestigious Merola Opera Program.

Throughout their careers, but par­ticularly early on, singers will often hear the same refrain: Go to Europe, if you can. Previously, Americans tended to spend “two to five years singing in Europe, then return with European cred­its,” says Markus Beam, who sang on fest contracts in Switzerland and Germany before becoming general manager of the San Francisco Opera Center, which oversees the early-career Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera. After the instability of the pandemic, he’s noticed more of those singers staying abroad. “There’s a little less movement, meaning people are holding on to jobs a little more now,” he says.

Pros and Cons

There are certainly advantages to life overseas. The average cost of living is generally lower in Europe, often significantly, according to multiple real estate platforms. The sheer quantity of work abroad is also higher than in America, with more companies per capita. These companies have denser seasons than their American counterparts, in part due to a safety net of public funding. This remains true, despite notable cutbacks in Germany and the U.K.

Nevertheless, the move isn’t for every­one. “Europe is not ‘easy,’” cautions Kristin Cowdin, president and founder of the boutique management company Sempre Artists. “Some young singers incorrectly assume that if they are not getting work or the first steps in a career [in the U.S.], they will in Europe. That’s not accurate,” she says. Competition for fest positions is fierce. Burnout is a real concern. Many singers don’t have fam­ily networks or support overseas. And it takes significant money to fly to Europe to audition in the first place.

“In the U.S., you can get a comfy wage if you’re doing enough productions,” says Florida-based soprano Chelsea Lehnea. “But having that extra three, four grand to spend on a two- or three-week trip is very hard for many of us at the moment.”

Chasing Your Fach

The pull to Europe is stronger in some corners of the industry than others, with many Americans ultimately per­forming on both sides of the Atlantic as their careers progress. Those who specialize in particular kinds of contemporary or historical performance often find lucrative work overseas. For example, Socolof notes that, with one exception, his collaborations with Baroque ensembles next year are entirely in Europe. And Chicago-based baritone and musicologist Ty Bouque, who collaborates closely with living composers, particularly on works for unaccompanied voice, says the vast majority of his bookings are in Europe, mostly Germany and Austria.

European houses, especially regional ones, also cast more strictly by Fach — a German method of classifying singers by vocal range, weight, and color to match them to roles — rather than perceived star power, says Cowdin, whose clients work in European houses. She adds that “singers of dramatic repertoire,” espe­cially those early on in their careers, “may find more opportunities” in Europe due to budget limitations at home. “Small to medium-sized companies in Germany perform Wagner and Verdi at a rate that their American counterparts unfortunately often cannot,” she says.

Lehnea can co-sign that. A dramatic coloratura soprano, she made her role debut as Violetta at the Opéra de Rouen Normandie last year. This fall, she makes her German house debut as the title role in Staatsoper Stuttgart’s Lucia di Lammermoor, stepping in for the previously scheduled soprano. “They’re more open to hiring younger talent,” she says.

That contrasts with larger American houses, which often use young artists to fill out comprimario roles. “In Europe, they’re way more willing to put a young singer in a larger role that is in your actual repertoire, because they have the government funding to do that and to let it be a learning experience for that per­son,” says Socolof.

The Competitive Edge

Compared to his experience in Germany, Jonas-O’Toole says he feels “way more supported by American opera houses, as a worker” — including at San Francisco Opera, where he is singing or covering in six mainstage productions between 2026 and 2027. For him, that’s a more man­ageable amount of singing each season than the constant churn of a fest con­tract. Still, he acknowledges his Deutsche Oper resume line probably opened doors at the legacy American house, a point echoed by other singers and artist man­agers. “I think that they saw that on my resume and thought, ‘Oh, he can handle doing all of this. He’s proven; he’s tried,’” Jonas-O’Toole says.

When it came to the converse — gaining a foothold in Europe — Arkansas-based mezzo-soprano Veena Akama-Makia says she was given a significant leg up by her experience abroad in young artist programs, or YAPs. From 2023 to 2025, she was the only American in her cohort at the Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera in London. Since the end of her term, Akama-Makia has been cast in character roles with the company twice, with a third engagement com­ing this fall.

Despite all the noise about decamp­ing for Europe, application data shared by a few European YAPs is, so far, inconclusive. Both Jette Parker and the Accademia Teatro alla Scala reported an uptick in American applicants in the past decade — but the growth is nonlinear and complicated by COVID interruptions. “I do think that the European draw is real and it’s there, but I don’t see people doing that in droves,” says Kevin Murphy, a pianist and coach at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Steans Institute at Ravinia, and a frequent guest coach at various young artist programs. “I think people are still try­ing to make it work here.”

Further complicating any prognosti­cations is the elephant in the room: U.S. immigration policy and its downstream impacts. Colombian baritone Laureano Quant fits the precise profile of a singer who would be — and is — slated for a major American career. He earned a mas­ter’s from the Yale School of Music and is an alumnus of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he established himself as one of his class’s most ear-catching sing­ers. He has frequent credits at major and mid-sized houses, including forthcoming principal roles at Utah Opera, Nashville Opera, and North Carolina Opera.

But even before the Trump adminis­tration’s crackdown compelled him to start carrying his passport, Quant felt hamstrung by the U.S.’ O-1B visa require­ments for artists — which, in addition to costing him “$5,000 to $8,000” in legal fees to renew, do not permit visa holders to earn income outside of their artistic field. Though his U.S. gigs pay well, the residence visas he’s eyeing in Germany, Spain, and France are more compati­ble overall with the realities of freelance life, requiring applicants to prove only that they have work ahead and money in the bank. “It’s nice for work, but that’s it,” Quant says of the U.S.

It will take years to quantify the down­stream effects of the U.S.’ immigration policy on singers like Quant. But Beam, at the San Francisco Opera Center, has observed “a move to Europe globally that’s picked up over the last few years” by singers from all over the world, not just those from the U.S.

In other words, while there’s more work in Europe, there’s also more competition. “There are plenty of young, already working singers from America who are there,” Cowdin warns. “A move to Europe isn’t a magic bullet.” ■