From 2015 to 2018 Maria Riccarda Wesseling was the artistic director of the Dutch National Opera Academy DNOA in Amsterdam. A program which is shaped to launch sustainable careers in opera.

Distinct from conventional vocal programmes or opera studios, this Opera Academy places highly motivated singers at an advanced stage of their development in a performance-intensive training environment that reflects the realities of the opera profession. Through fully staged productions and collaborative rehearsal processes, students develop vocal, dramatic, and artistic skills as an integrated practice, preparing them for the demands of contemporary operatic life.

In addition to the reorganisation of the training of the carefully selected young talents and the rewriting of the curriculum, Maria was responsable for the programming and casting of full scale opera productions. For these productions she sought the regular collaboration with professional orchestras such as the Residentie Orkest and the NJO.

Under her guidance the DNOA performed:

Mozart: Don Giovanni

Hanna Kulenty: The mother of blackwinged dreams

Massenet: Cendrillon

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel

Britten: The rape of Lucretia

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte

as well as chamber versions of La Rondine, La Bohème and Carmen 

Maria Riccarda Wesseling also works as a mentor, career coach and voice teacher for professional singers, both in masterclasses and private lessons. 

She is regularly invited to give international vocal masterclasses and is specialized equally in Lied and opera.

She has a voice studio in Graubünden, Switzerland