If there’s one thing Boston is known for besides rabid baseball fans, it’s higher education. The home of Harvard and MIT isn’t just for budding engineers and lawyers, though—the city also boasts a number of music schools, conservatories, and world-class opera programs. Here we take a look at graduate voice and opera programs at three music schools: Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Boston Conservatory.
Longy School of Music of Bard College
I have to admit, I was surprised when I started researching this article to see that Longy’s full name has expanded since I was last a Boston music student. When I took a summer course at Longy back in the early aughts, or popped in to see my opera buddies in an occasional scenes program or recital, it was just Longy School of Music. Turns out it was only last year that Longy merged with Bard College and its Conservatory of Music, so don’t feel bad if you didn’t know either.
Located “over the river” in Cambridge—in the vicinity of Harvard Square—Longy is petite. Longy offers a master of music degree in opera or vocal performance, as well as a graduate performance diploma in either. Its tiny enrollment (235 students last year, 183 of which were grads) translates to an intimate learning and performing environment and all the individual attention you could ask for.
Donna Roll, director and chair of the opera department, explains the draw: “Many students prefer a small environment with more performance opportunities. Every student in the opera department is utilized and gets tremendous stage time—and receives one-on-one training every day with coaching, opera studio, aria monologue class, dramatic coaching, and voice.
“Longy does not have a major theater with lighting and costuming,” Roll continues. “However, what we do have is individual training, nurturing, one-on-one every day, every class based in performance, four performances a year (one fully staged with orchestra), with additional performances outside of the school.”
Longy student Jonah Spool became interested in Longy after working with one of their coaches at a summer program in Austria. “I love that it’s a small school, because we get to intermingle and work with people from other departments very frequently,” Spool says.
“The thing that makes the opera department at Longy great, aside from being its own department separate from the voice department, is how much we get to sing and perform,” Spool continues. “We sing in class over 10 hours a week, on top of a voice lesson, musical coaching, and out-of-class rehearsal and practice—and not including any other engagements we might have outside of school. When you’re singing this much under close (and very experienced) supervision, your technique and musicality can grow so much in a relatively short time.”
Spool’s advice for prospectives? “When I first visited Longy, I sat in on a class that we have called Aria/Monologue, which is essentially a twice-a-week masterclass in which students can bring a piece, perform it in front of the class, and have it critiqued and worked on. If anyone was interested in opera at Longy, this is the class I would recommend that they go and see. You really get a sense of how Donna thinks and feels about music, and she accepts nothing less than the best you can give her at the time. As soon as I saw her teach the class, I just knew that I wanted to learn from her. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made, and my technique and musicality have grown tremendously!”
New England Conservatory
Even located in the shadow of Boston’s Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory refuses to be outdone, countering with Jordan Hall, “one of the world’s most acoustically perfect performance spaces” (necmusic.edu). NEC has 750 students in its graduate and undergraduate programs, plus many more preparatory and continuing education students.
NEC offers a master of music in vocal performance and vocal pedagogy and a graduate diploma in vocal pedagogy. Both graduate and undergraduate students have the opportunity to audition for the Opera Studies program.
Chair of Vocal Arts Luretta Bybee recommends the Opera Studies program at NEC for “those students who are looking for serious dramatic training and top-notch mentoring and guidance as they attempt to embark on a professional career. A student who is ready to learn exactly what it takes, what will be expected of him or her, to succeed, and have those expectations used as a standard during their time at NEC—and a student who is ready to be a supportive colleague and who can expect to be supported by his or her peers.”
Joshua Major, the new opera studies chair, agrees. “Highly motivated, professionally ambitious students would be very happy at NEC. Those singers that are self-motivated and eager to advance will find the school exciting and satisfying.
“I started at NEC last fall and am simply overwhelmed with the talent level of student and faculty,” Major continues. “It is a highly motivational and inspirational environment. Everyone is simply trying to push themselves to be the best they can be in an environment that is personal, supportive, and demanding. I can’t say enough positive things about NEC and am looking forward to the exciting years ahead.”
When asked the highlight of the academic year, Bybee is undecided and offers tantalizing examples. “I honestly couldn’t choose the highlight of the year. The main stage productions are phenomenal, but the aria evening in December featured each grad student and was solely Handel and it was stunning. I also saw the outreach production last fall at the Boston Children’s Museum and will never forget the way the students reached the kids.” She also mentions that two annual fully staged operas are performed with NEC’s full orchestra, “which is known to be one of the best, if not the best, in the country.”
NEC offers a well-rounded education, according to Bybee. “I would also like to mention how fabulous our liberal arts division is, and also would like to say that the opportunities at NEC to explore and grow as an artist are unsurpassed. Students get the opportunity in any given week to do their own performing, hear cutting-edge jazz, experience the finest chamber music, and be exposed to all the out-of-the-box creativity that our Contemporary Improvisations department shares. Things are always happening at NEC, and we are all on the same team. We lift one another up—encourage one another—and all the while expect the very best by setting standards high.”
Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory, affectionately referred to as “BoCo” (and—full disclosure—this reporter’s alma mater) lives just a few blocks away from NEC and is about the same size. But assuming not much has changed since I graduated in *ahem,* the two schools share a nice sisterly relationship, and visits from one school to the other to observe mainstage performances and masterclasses were frequent in my day.
The Boston Conservatory offers a master of music in vocal performance or opera performance, a graduate performance diploma in vocal performance or opera performance, and a professional studies certificate in voice, as well as degrees in musical theatre and collaborative piano.
“Something that makes Boston Conservatory stand out amongst conservatories is our multidisciplinary training,” says Patty Thom, chair of voice and opera. “Having very strong music theatre and dance degree programs in the Conservatory makes for a bubbling artistic dynamic in the school. Singers are learning from dancers, dancers are learning from actors, actors are learning from composers and instrumentalists, and around it goes. These students are sitting in classes together, watching one another’s rehearsals, living together in the dorms, and talking about the intersections of each art form, their likenesses and differences. Most importantly, they are learning from one another about how to think about art, how to manifest art, how to express themselves in the most acute manner possible. This makes for a learning and artistic environment like no other.”
“I think our program is unique because it has a great balance between excellent training and performance experience,” adds Johnathon Pape, director of opera studies. “The curriculum for the MM and GPD (graduate performance diploma) in opera performance focuses on exactly what young singers need to enter this business. Everything in the degree program is designed with that in mind.”
Pape’s description of the curriculum is intriguing. “Obviously, students take voice—and BoCo’s voice faculty is really excellent, with teachers that are good technicians and really help students sing in a way that is leading them to the industry standard. . . . Students in the degree program take Opera Studio—the top opera performing ensemble at the school—each semester. They have a full year of Acting and a full year of Movement. There are courses in Recitative and in Aria—not the theoretical or harmonic analysis of these forms, but how to perform them! The history component of the degrees is opera history, related specifically to their area of interest. There is an Audition Techniques class to hone auditioning skills and a class in characterization, where students learn a template for how to research and prepare a role.
“And, finally, we teach a class called The Business of the Opera Business, which covers the practical matters that young singers need as they venture into the industry. Topics in this class include understanding your brand, how to create a business plan, tax tips for singers, financial planning and creating a realistic/workable budget, working with agents/managers, life on the road (surviving living in a hotel or host housing, being away from friends and family, etc.), surviving NYC (how to make the best of what it has to offer and not get overwhelmed by the rest, how to have your day job not eat your life, etc.), looking at career choices (when is it time to look at other options and how to go about that), [and] getting your materials in order (résumés, bio, pictures, audio/video clips, website).”
“There is a class called The Drama of the Score,” Thom adds, “which is about how to read and interpret all of the information that the composer gives you in the score, through musical instruction, instrumentation choices or motivic depiction about your character, her motivations, and her inner life.”
Salvatore Atti returned to the Boston Conservatory to pursue a professional studies certificate after completing his master’s of music in opera there. “What draws me to the Conservatory is the sense of camaraderie,” he explains. “Students support each other, as well as the faculty and staff. The Conservatory offers great opportunity for collaborating with pianists, other instrumentalists, faculty, and composers. It is a safe environment for trying new things—in fact, exploration and creativity are highly encouraged.”
If you decide to study in Boston, the possibilities are endless. There are 52 colleges in Boston; these are just three. But if you’re beginning your graduate school search, the trifecta of Longy, New England Conservatory, and Boston Conservatory is a great place to start.
