Her credentials include more than a decade on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera; almost a decade as a private voice instructor in Albany, Manhattan, and Boston; five years on the voice faculty of New England Conservatory; and a one-year visiting professorship at the University of Kentucky to temporarily fill the position held by her Met mentor, the late Gail Robinson.
But mezzo-soprano Heidi Skok still wants to do more. This past summer, she expanded her list of accomplishments by founding the RESONANZ Albany Singer Intensive Festival, a training program that stimulates not only singers’ voices but also their minds. She inaugurated the festival with invaluable assistance from executive director Diana Hernandez and sopranos Katherine McDaniel, Jessica Utset, and Erin Carr.
This three-week “Festival for Singers” takes its name from the German word for “resonance” to reflect Skok’s experience with the German repertoire (she appeared at the Met in Ariadne auf Naxos, Elektra, Moses und Aron, Parsifal, and Tannhäuser, among other operas) and her belief that resonance is a crucial aspect of a singer’s vocal success. RESONANZ, of which she is artistic director, offers intensive training for men and women ages 18 through mid-30s and takes place in the new state-of-the-art Massry Center for the Arts at the College of Saint Rose in Albany (www.strose.edu).
“I am not on this earth for myself, but rather to help others. I was given much, and it is my responsibility to give back. I feel somewhat responsible to help the next generation of singers, and through RESONANZ I have this vehicle,” Skok says.
Skok switched from lyric soprano to mezzo about four years ago, and she is now singing repertoire that she always wanted to perform. In addition to the positive impact the transition has had on her career, the switch also influences her work with RESONANZ.
“Voices change all the time. Because of all these experiences in my own singing, when I work with singers, I do my very best to really discern where they should be singing and not just how they should be singing. Just because you have high notes doesn’t mean one should necessarily sing there all the time. I am hiring others who do the same thing—people who can really bring some insight, candor, and knowledge of how things operate,” she says.
Seventeen singers from around the United States participated in the inaugural season—some of whom had previously studied with Skok and wanted to work with her again, and others who value her reputation as a professional with high ambitions and clear goals. They benefited from numerous performance opportunities, including four presentations of two semi-staged one-act American operas (Curtis Tucker’s The Stranger’s Tale and Seymour Barab’s A Game of Chance) and six 90-minute song recitals. These recital programs featured the singers in art songs and selections from operetta, light opera, and musical theatre. There was also an evening devoted to Mozart, and the final program showcased the singers in their strongest repertoire.
Throughout the festival, the singers studied with some of the country’s top professionals who specialize in opera and song recitals. In fact, a number of the singers were amazed—and thrilled—that they had the chance to work in private coaching sessions and voice lessons with such prominent names. The faculty included teachers from leading opera companies, such as vocal coach Roger Malouf, an assistant conductor at the Met, and Jeremy Frank, an assistant conductor at Los Angeles Opera and a member of the music staff at the Wolf Trap Opera Company.
“In no other circumstance I know of would we have had the opportunity to work with such experienced, high-level musicians in a supportive and low-pressure environment such as RESONANZ provided,” says mezzo-soprano Augusta Caso.
That high level of individual attention also impressed soprano Vedrana Kalas. “We all know how hard it is to get to all the teachers, coaches, opera directors, and composers that we would want to work with. RESONANZ was the place where we did not have to call, beg, pull strings, and compete in order to gain attention. We had it served to us,” she says.
Frank served as the pianist for four of the 90-minute recitals during the final five days of the festival. “It was a fairly ambitious week, pulling off six hours of music with six to eight hours of coaching each day. I was pleased that Heidi programmed a rather ambitious summer, rather than too under-ambitious, so we could push ourselves and the singers to accomplish a lot of good performing,” he says. In addition, he taught one of the 15 masterclasses and was a member of a panel masterclass, in which the faculty members offered advice about choosing graduate schools and Young Artist Programs.
Malouf is greatly interested in languages and always strives to help singers combine the sounds of each language, which are inherently musical themselves, with the music notated on paper by the composer. “In the masterclass which I gave, the singers and I looked at how Mozart recitative can be sung to enliven the dialogue between soloist and orchestra. We explored the stylistic differences between Puccini and Richard Strauss in terms of expression, phrasing, and subtext,” he says.
Aside from coaching sessions, masterclasses, and performances, RESONANZ focuses on a holistic approach to singing. “This program is truly unique because [it deals] with the mind and the body. You are what you think, so there is nothing more important than what you have going on in your thoughts,” Skok says. The schedule includes a 45-minute group meditation class on weekday mornings, prior to other activities, plus Feldenkrais (the use of movement to increase awareness) and yoga.
Soprano Madeline Schaefer found that her singing benefited tremendously by developing her voice and entire body at the same time. In fact, before she auditioned for RESONANZ, Schaefer had been considering a meditation retreat, but she was elated to find a vocal program that truly combines both elements.
“Heidi is a genius for putting this program together. There is no other program that I have been able to find that focuses both on vocal development and the development of a person, physically and mentally,” she says, and she continues to incorporate meditation and yoga into her daily life as much as possible.
Lance Brunner, associate professor of musicology at the University of Kentucky and a certified meditation instructor, led the meditation sessions. He also conducted individual interviews with students in the afternoons to discuss their meditation practice, clarify any misunderstandings, help them overcome obstacles, and discuss how their meditation can relate to their singing and, in general, their life.
“Musicians need to continually refine their attention to how they are producing their sound and [to] the sound itself, which involves a keen degree of body awareness as well as a capacity to listen,” Brunner says. “But the untrained mind can easily subvert our best intentions to stay focused on what we are doing. Since performance involves public scrutiny, fear or distraction can easily cause us to lose attention at the cost of the music.”
He points out that “mindfulness meditation” also increases singers’ attention to breathing and posture, helps them examine habits, and helps them relax. Singers also discover that they have a choice between being present in the moment or being lost in a fantasy world of distraction and desire. Interestingly, he noticed that the singers who seemed resistant to meditation at first became its most ardent supporters by the end of the festival.
Malouf, among others, also witnessed the positive influence of meditation on the singers. “When I arrived at RESONANZ, I found a group of singers who had bonded in quite a beautiful way. I attribute this not only to the sense of community formed by living in dormitories, but also to the fact that they had been starting each day together with meditation, yoga, or Feldenkrais,” he says.
The singers also bonded in what they each describe as a very supportive atmosphere despite the competitive and intensive nature of the festival, which demonstrates the collaborative aspects of RESONANZ. “I found every person and teacher to be genuine, supportive, and encouraging—which is so hard to come by in this career,” Schaefer says.
Perhaps the strongest evidence of the degree to which the festival enjoyed a successful first summer is the number of positive outcomes that the singers experienced. For example, Sophie Delphis, a lyric mezzo-soprano who was quite pleased with the teachers and coaches, highlights the valuable stage practice she received by performing several times each week in front of an audience. She also discovered how to use limited preparation time to her advantage. “I got some good practice in getting myself performance ready in a record amount of time,” she says.
Caso, who had completed an intensive in Germany in the summer of 2008, was looking for a similar program outside of school that would offer many masterclasses, coaching sessions, and performance opportunities—not to mention personal attention—so that she could study voice the way she wanted and needed to study it. RESONANZ provided the solution. It was also vitally important to her to find a solid training program because she had recently switched from soprano to mezzo-soprano. RESONANZ enabled her to explore that change in much greater detail.
“I got a lot of positive and, I think, very accurate feedback on my new repertoire, and I also began exploring my voice much more fully,” she says. Although she had been a little bit concerned about working with so many people at once, because of the possibly overwhelming amount of information, Caso tailored their feedback to suit her needs.
Soprano Sara Smigen, who describes herself as acting like a “sponge” during the festival by observing the performances of more advanced singers, relates another success story. “When I arrived at RESONANZ and was singing ‘Summertime’ in the original key, my Cs were not in the right place. I did not consistently have the correct placement in my upper-middle voice. RESONANZ helped me find the right placement and enforced it, so now I can consistently sing ‘Summertime’ properly and have the correct placement in other pieces as well,” she says.
When she later sang “Summertime” for her first studio class at Gettysburg College at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year, Smigen’s improvement was so significant that her classmates immediately noticed the progress she had made during the summer.
For Kalas, there has been a chronic struggle: days that are filled with enthusiasm and hope for a singing career alternating with days that are filled with doubt because of the amount of competition and the idea that there is no room to make mistakes. RESONANZ demonstrated that loving to perform is an important first step.
“RESONANZ gave me a fresh perspective on becoming a successful performer,” she says. “I can talk about RESONANZ being a ‘pot of gold’ in that it gave me the skills and the quality experience but, most importantly for me, it gave me the strength to let myself out [from under] the anchor that has been weighing me down. RESONANZ has brought out the best of me and has encouraged me to strive toward being the best.”
Looking to the future, all of the singers believe that RESONANZ is a smart choice for other singers who are searching for a dynamic summer program.
“I highly recommend taking part in the program, especially if [you have] an interesting voice or even a peculiar set of problems,” Delphis says. “I think part of the reason that all of us were able to be so supportive of each other was that we were all quite different from each other [in terms of] age, experience, and voice type. Everybody respected each other, both as musicians and simply as people.”
Caso, like Delphis, emphasizes that RESONANZ requires a singer to commit to a demanding work schedule. “If you are ready to really work, if you want to support and experience the successes of yourself and your peers, and if you want to work one-on-one with some of the most knowledgeable and talented individuals out there, then dive in,” she says.
In the summer of 2010, Skok plans to add a drama coach to the faculty, and the festival will partner with the Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum in Bolton Landing, New York, to host Evelyn Lear for a weekend. The singers will participate in two three-hour masterclasses with Lear and perform a concert for her. “This is very exciting for us, as I absolutely love what Evelyn Lear does for the business and her support of larger-voiced singers. I am a great supporter of these voices as well,” Skok says.
The cost to attend RESONANZ is $3,700 and includes housing and meals. For those who do not need housing, the tuition is $2,900; for those who do not need housing and can supply their own meals, the tuition is $2,350. The audition tour for the 2010 summer festival includes San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, and New York City. For more information, visit www.resonanz-rasif.com and www.heidiskok.com.
