Mauro Peter was a fourth-year music student in Munich when he received a call inviting him to audition for the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project — a two-month training program held in Mozart’s birthplace every summer. The answer was yes, and Mr. Peter was one of 16 trainees in 2012.

The Swiss tenor’s career has taken off since then. Having made his Royal Opera debut as Tamino in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” in 2017, he sang the role at last year’s Salzburg Festival. This year, he has a solo recital on one of the main Salzburg concert stages on Aug. 20.

The Young Singers Project is “a crash course in being a professional,” Mr. Peter said. He described the program as two “crazy months” of learning, rehearsing and performing, “so intense that you maybe only realized half a year later what you achieved.”

“It was the first time I experienced this kind of pace and pressure.”

If, as a singer, you survive the high-octane course, he added, “then you know that there is something there which you can work with.”