Some singers regret their decision to attend music school. As their debts for student loans accumulate, they complain that during their studies they were ignored, that they had no performance opportunities, or that they hated the backstabbing and the competitive environment they encountered.
Singers who attend the University of Maryland’s graduate program in opera performance, known as the Maryland Opera Studio (MOS), have a different story to tell. Most receive assistantships that cover all of their enrollment expenses. All receive exceptional preparation for professional opera careers, as evidenced by the success of many alumni who are performing at the world’s top opera companies and by rave reviews from music critics. According to Joan Reinthaler of the Washington Post, for example, this “estimable professional training ground” specializes in “savvy and well-turned-out singers.”
Furthermore, this training, by all accounts, takes place within a nurturing, collaborative environment. What exactly is going on behind the scenes in College Park, Maryland, to make this possible? I spoke with several faculty members, current students, and former students to find out.
Small Size
One of the most obvious factors underlying the program’s efficacy is its size. Delores Ziegler, renowned mezzo and chair of the voice department, explains that the University of Maryland selects only 8-12 singers per year for the opera studio, in contrast to the 40-100 singers selected in many other prestigious programs. Furthermore, she notes that the university “builds the two years—including scenes, piano operas, and full operas—around those singers.” In other words, if you’re chosen, you are guaranteed performance opportunities.
To ensure these opportunities, the administration selects a mix of singers with contrasting voice types from the applicant pool. “We can’t have too much redundancy,” says noted baritone and voice teacher Dominic Cossa. “If we find one good coloratura soprano, then we’ll look for a lyric and a spinto.”
For alumna soprano Jennifer Forni (MM 2009), the small size was a key factor in her decision to attend the school. “I didn’t want to get lost in a sea of singers,” she recalls. Her colleague, baritone Aaron Agulay (MM 2009), had similar feelings. “I didn’t want to have the pressure to compete within the school,” he says. By attending MOS, he “could relax and focus on being an opera singer.”
Practical Training
Agulay’s comment notwithstanding, there is very little that is relaxing about the MOS program, which is rigorous, intense, and carefully designed to prepare students for the real world of professional opera performance. Accordingly, one objective of the program is to make students more comfortable on stage. To this end, the program’s courses extend far beyond Acting 101. They include Shakespearean acting, improvisation, movement, dance, masks, fencing, and stage combat, to name just a few.
Tenor Charles Reid (MM 1998)—who has performed at the Met, Bayreuth, Salzburg, and many other prestigious opera companies and festivals—recognizes the practical benefits of the training he received. “The minutes in the day are limited,” he says, “and UMD decided to focus those minutes on the craft needed in an operatic career. This allowed us to delve deeper in our understanding of acting, movement, combat, languages, and singing. Most singers from other schools spend a majority of minutes focusing on music theory and history. Admittedly these are valuable subjects; however, they are less critical to the real application of performing opera.”
Baritone David Blalock, a second-year student, has a similar viewpoint. “So many times graduate schools focus on singing technique and artistry, which are good things, but they forget about things such as having an objective on stage, overcoming obstacles and, basically, just performance in general,” he points out. “Rather than just throwing us on stage and giving us a role, this program gives us the tools we need to become successful artists.”
One of these tools is flexibility. “There are directors who give you each hand movement for every word you sing, and there are directors who give you a general idea of the scene and let you loose. At UMD, we learn to work with both,” says Blalock. Ultimately, as second-year student Monica Soto-Gil explains, students in the program are trained to become “director-proof.”
They may become repertoire-proof, too, given the school’s emphasis on new works. Students perform not only standard repertoire but also operas by living composers—the studio presents at least one per year. Such experience can be very useful. As Laura Lee Everett, managing director of MOS, notes, “Some singers make their living doing new works.”
Flexibility also applies to schedules, which are packed with classes, lessons, coachings, rehearsals, and performances, not to mention practicing and assistantship-related activities. Mezzo Abigail Wright (MM 2007), a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s extra chorus, says that one of the most significant things she learned during the program was the “importance of letting go to the point of having my schedule decided for me on a weekly or sometimes daily basis. This happens in many companies, and we as artists have to learn how to be good and flexible colleagues without acting like divas.”
For Soto-Gil, the program’s scheduling demands gave her “an insight into the busy life of an opera singer and the necessity to balance a busy schedule with ample time for practicing and attention to vocal health.” For her colleague, soprano Bridgette Gan, they fully prepared her for her summer as an apprentice artist with Central City Opera, an experience that she says can be “overwhelming” for some.
Even assistantship-related work is designed to provide practical training related to music administration and production. Greg Carpenter, a former DMA student who is now the general director of Opera Colorado, gained useful experience providing administrative support to the chair of the voice department at the time which, he says, “led to future opportunities to become an undergraduate advisor, to develop a formal office of admissions for the School of Music” and, eventually, to “manage some of the wonderful music festivals and world-class competitions that the UMD presents.”
Lee Anne Myslewski (MM 2004), the administrative director of Wolf Trap Opera Company, was able to explore a number of different career paths during her time in the program. “In addition to the coursework, there were opportunities to work backstage” and “test out some dramaturgical and directing leanings that I had been suppressing,” she recalls, noting that the faculty “really helped me to craft an experience that would help me learn about other opera-related fields.”
Taking Risks
A recurring theme in my interviews with students, alumni, and faculty was the concept of taking risks. “I really learned to have intention when I’m on stage, to make choices and take risks and believe in them,” says Forni. “Sometimes singers are so scared to make a decision, so they end up instead being vanilla. I’d rather be chocolate-covered cherries and have somebody not like it than to be vanilla and have nobody notice the performance.”
This kind of approach is exactly what Leon Major, MOS director of opera, seeks to instill in students. “When an actor creates a role, he has to ask questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want? Singers don’t usually ask these questions,” he says. Students in the program ask and answer such questions, and then make choices based on their answers. “Until you explore an idea, you don’t know whether it will work or not. The studio is the place to experiment,” he continues. “There is no right or wrong, and no one is going to laugh at you.” Essentially, Major concludes, “we offer the singers the right to fail.”
Faculty
According to Everett, Major’s approach is rare in the field. “He’s one of the most brilliant teachers, mentors, and directors I’ve ever encountered,” she says. Major, in turn, praises the rest of the faculty: “The standard of voice training is really high at Maryland,” he comments. “We have exceptionally good teachers.”
Students also appreciate the performing experience of their teachers. “All of the faculty have had careers, so they really know what the business is like,” says Forni. “They can give you tips on how to talk like a performer and be a performer.”
“I’m not saying that in order to be a good voice teacher you have to have an amazing opera career,” Blalock states. “However, it is such a privilege to have the pool of experience to draw from with singers such as Dominic Cossa, François Loup, Delores Ziegler, and Linda Mabbs as part of the faculty.”
The industry connections of the teachers can pave the way for student and graduate opportunities, too. Cossa, for example, has been known to make calls to some of his contacts on behalf of students, who are subsequently granted auditions thanks to his track record. “My batting average is pretty high,” he quips.
Collegial Environment
One of the most surprising things about the MOS is the supportive, collegial environment it cultivates. The friendly atmosphere is “quite remarkable,” in the words of Major. “We don’t have petty arguments,” Cossa adds. Ziegler agrees. “In trying to put our students’ good as a top priority, we seem to keep our own egos at a healthy simmer,” she says. “We respect one another and appreciate each other’s special strengths.
With this respect, we feel free to seek advice from one another when there is a need.”
Students find that the collaborative environment motivates them. “I was treated with such respect and kindness, and it made me want to work harder, to do more, to excel,” says Myslewski. “It really feels like a family,” says Gan.
Facilities
Does it all sound a bit Utopian? There’s more. To begin with, the school’s facilities are world class, thanks to the construction of the 318,000-square-foot Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, which was completed in 2000. Prospective students on tours are amazed. “When they walk into our building, they go gaga,” says Cossa. “When I saw the completed Center for the first time, I wanted to kiss the floor,” says Everett, who frequently reminds students that they will not always have the luxury of performing in facilities of this standard.
Location
The school’s location is another advantage of the program. College Park is situated between the cultural centers of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, and is close enough to New York City to make quick audition trips easy. Local opportunities outside of the school are plentiful. Students perform at Washington National Opera, Washington Concert Opera, Baltimore Concert Opera, Annapolis Opera, Opera Vivente, Chesapeake Concert Opera, and Wolf Trap, among many other venues. Charles Reid, for one, got his start in the area. As he explains, the location “proved instrumental in establishing my career as a concert singer. My concert performance repertoire included over 20 major works by the time I left UMD.”
Ziegler notes, “We are constantly aware of performances happening around our area, we are often asked for recommendations of singers who would be appropriate, and we encourage our singers to audition.”
Getting In
Here’s the bad news. As you might expect from a program that prides itself on selectivity, it’s not easy to get in. The faculty takes the selection process very seriously. “We might have upwards of 10-12 people at the auditions,” Cossa says, noting that coaches, the university choral director, and administrators frequently attend along with the voice instructors and Major. They judge the prospective students not only by the quality of their singing but also by their personality and acting ability—a spoken monologue is part of the audition.
Major finds the monologue very revealing. “I look for native theatricality and the instinctive use of the text,” he says. Ziegler looks for graduate students with voices that have a “compelling, interesting timbre, one that is technically sound—i.e., good pitch, even vibrato, good control of breath, easy transition through the passaggio.” She adds, “I also like to hear the range of a voice, dynamic variations, possibility of coloratura/lyricism. Above and beyond these necessary aspects is the ability to communicate. At this stage, a singer should be able to reach an audience and engage them with the poetry/prose as well as the vocalism.”
Personality is also important. Potential troublemakers are weeded out quickly. “The students work closely with each other,” Cossa points out. “One or two people who are not team players can spoil the whole pot.”
Next Steps
Are you interested in learning more about what’s going on behind the scenes in College Park? A good place to start your research is the Web by visiting www.music.umd.edu/ensembles/opera. If you’re in the area, stop by the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, talk to students and, ideally, see a performance there. Finally, if you decide to apply to the program, take a detour to the main campus library, in front of which you’ll find a statue of a terrapin, the school mascot. Rub its nose. According to university lore, this will bring you good luck.
