Nearly every opera singer and opera lover knows the names Joyce DiDonato, James Morris, Ruth Ann Swenson and, more recently, Stephen Costello, Michael Fabiano, Angela Meade, Ailyn Pérez, and James Valenti. However, what nearly every opera singer and opera lover may not know is that these singers have something other than singing in common: they attended the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia and represent AVA’s decades-long tradition of vocal excellence.
Founded in 1934 by philanthropist Helen Corning Warden and a group of her friends—all of whom knew that many aspiring opera singers, in general, could not afford voice lessons or coaching—AVA is a tuition-free institution devoted to intensive operatic training. In fact, compared with other Young Artist Programs in the United States, AVA is the only opera training program that gives its resident artists the opportunity to learn and perform leading roles in fully staged performances with a professional orchestra.
Regardless of the level of experience that singers have attained when they enter AVA—some arrive directly from an undergraduate program, while others have earned a master’s degree or even changed careers—they receive individualized vocal and language training, as well as guidance on repertoire, stage techniques, and other topics. During the course of AVA’s four-year program, music director Christofer Macatsoris (who has been with AVA for over 30 years), voice instructors, master vocal coaches, and guest stage directors all work together to prepare the resident artists for a career in singing.
“AVA has a consistent record of producing important young singers because we are so attuned to the fact that singers have unique backgrounds and perspectives that we can hone in on a singer’s strengths,” Macatsoris says. “We encourage individualization.” He believes that AVA is successful largely due to the high caliber of students who are admitted, the staff, and AVA’s specialty in operatic training.
Above all else, the faculty’s expectations and high standards contribute the most to AVA’s reputation for developing successful singers. Macatsoris expects the students not only to work hard and take care of their bodies, but also to be energetic and curious. “This is a place to take risks, and I love when singers are ferocious and go beyond what they think they can do,” he says.
Tenor Taylor Stayton, who is beginning his fourth year, has never worked in such a demanding atmosphere, including professional opera houses. Prior to AVA, he had completed his undergraduate degree at Ohio State University and wanted to gain additional stage experience. During his second summer in the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s Prelude to Performance program, one of his coaches introduced him to Bill Schuman, an AVA voice instructor.
“When I first sang for Bill Schuman, he addressed some of the problems I was having, such as passaggio. He explained everything, gave me some exercises, and told me how my voice should feel. Within about four days, my voice felt and sounded like a new instrument,” Stayton recalls. “I wanted to experience the high level for which AVA’s coaches strive.”
Stayton has sung a number of roles at AVA, including Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Fenton in Falstaff, Percy in Anna Bolena and Ernesto in Don Pasquale. For each opera, he was able to devote two to three months to in-depth preparation. “Maestro Macatsoris guides us through the operas, literally spending two hours on one page of music or an hour on two measures. You really know your stuff when it’s all said and done. After that [kind of preparation], you know an opera. Before coming to AVA, I had no idea what it took to really learn an opera,” he says.
Even before graduating next spring, Stayton has already secured management, performed in Falstaff with Rome Opera (a production directed by Franco Zeffirelli), and won first prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation’s 2009 International Vocal Competition.
Also entering his final year, bass-baritone Ryan Kuster has discovered that singers are held to a higher standard at AVA than at other schools, partially because the academy’s dedication to opera allows the faculty to focus in greater detail on each singer’s strengths and developmental needs. Having earned his undergraduate degree in voice performance at Westminster Choir College and his master’s degree in voice performance at Boston University, Kuster was eager for the rigors of AVA. As he explains, AVA has made a world of difference.
“I finally understand how to prepare a role, and I understand the level of work that it takes to be really prepared,” Kuster says, having performed in Anna Bolena, Don Pasquale and other operas. “I have to do a lot of work and give each role a lot of thought prior to a coaching session, and that includes being brave enough to make decisions about interpretation. The level of preparation for which I am now able to strive, compared with before, is amazing. At AVA, there is no such thing as ‘good enough’—you can always improve. Maestro Macatsoris instills the drama and passion, and then it’s a matter of careful repetition.”
In addition to the high standards that AVA expects, a crucial element motivates singers: confidence. “The staff has confidence in its resident artists, and through that confidence I found the courage not only to sing these roles, but also perform them past my own expectations. From the moment I began my tenure in the fall of 2007, I was constantly being challenged and pushed beyond my limits,” says soprano Jan Cornelius, who came to AVA with a bachelor’s degree in music from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree in music from the University of Houston. She has also been featured as a resident young artist at Virginia Opera.
A change in Fach brought Cornelius back to AVA. “I applied as a mezzo-soprano after my time in Houston and was politely declined. After I switched to soprano a few years back, I needed a place to hone my new skills, and I thought a resident artist program like the one at AVA sounded like a perfect fit,” she says. On the AVA stage, Cornelius has appeared as Violetta and Anna Bolena, among other roles. She won first prize in the Giulio Gari Foundation’s 2010 International Vocal Competition, has twice been a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, and has placed first or second in numerous other competitions.
Singers like Stayton, Kuster, and Cornelius are able to receive comprehensive and personal instruction because, during a highly selective admission process, they demonstrate to Macatsoris and the other members of AVA’s faculty that they have the talent for and are serious about pursuing an operatic career. The academy maintains such intensive instruction by minimizing the number of resident artists to about 25. Each year, 200 singers audition for about 10 openings.
“We look for individuality and a great voice, plus the ability to communicate. Most of the people who audition are hungry for the chance to attend AVA. I love that, and I wish we could accept 40 people, but we don’t have the physical space or the personnel to handle that many,” Macatsoris says.
Those who are admitted are given the opportunity to work with master vocal coaches, including Richard Raub, who is beginning his 27th year at AVA. He attributes the academy’s success to Macatsoris’ formidable knowledge, to the aforementioned high standards, and to the fact that the members of the music staff think alike, even though individual approaches and ideas may vary.
What does Raub expect? “Realistically, I expect singers to meet me at least halfway. I am eager to give them all I know and have—but, once I feel that I’m doing more work than they are, I remind them that their beautiful voices are God given. It’s what they do with them that counts,” he says. Given that singing is not comparable to other activities in which you can watch your body adjust to specific demands, such as playing the piano, Raub relies heavily on mental imagery to help singers find a better or an easier way of singing a note or phrase.
The fourth reason that Raub believes AVA is successful is that students are offered numerous performance opportunities. Each season’s calendar features several operas, plus concerts and recitals, and they are presented in both AVA’s Helen Corning Warden Theater and area venues like Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. In addition to three performances of The Scarlet Letter, the 2010-11 season includes three performances of Suor Angelica and Il tabarro (as operas-in-concert), five performances of Arabella, and seven performances of Don Giovanni.
Operas are usually double-cast and selected based on the abilities of current singers and recommendations by voice teachers, as well as on audience appeal and each opera’s potential to help the singers develop. If there are more than two artists who could sing a role, the singers audition. “There’s value for anyone, even with three or four singers. If it’s a role they can sing, we encourage them to learn it. We encourage them to come to rehearsals, and we provide coaching even if they’re not going to perform the role in that production,” Macatsoris says.
How is all of this preparation perceived by professional opera companies? To quote Boston Lyric Opera general and artistic director Esther Nelson, “AVA is a jewel among the training institutions for singers. BLO has participated in their rigorous audition process, and we keep a close eye—or ear—on their students. We trust their exemplary training, especially under their voice instructors Ruth Golden and Bill Schuman and their roster of excellent coaches.”
Arizona Opera artistic director and principal conductor Joel Revzen praises AVA’s teaching and coaching as “first rate.” “Many of the singers should be able to launch international careers after they graduate from AVA,” he says.
A number of other companies have also sent representatives to AVA specifically to listen to auditions, including Dresden Opera, the English National Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Annapolis Opera, Utah Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera.
“AVA gets the best of the best because the students don’t have to pay [tuition],” says Fort Worth Opera general director Darren Woods, who hired four AVA alumni for the 2009-10 season. “The students are consistently good, know how to sing, and sound completely natural. In December 2009, we listened to every student at AVA over a period of three hours, and they were all stunning. In fact, we are considering several of those students for roles over the next three or four years.”
Within the past three years, four AVA alumni have made their Metropolitan Opera debuts: tenor Stephen Costello in Lucia di Lammermoor (September 2007), soprano Angela Meade in Ernani (March 2008, during her fourth year at AVA), tenor Michael Fabiano in Stiffelio (January 2010), and tenor James Valenti in La traviata (March 2010). Valenti, who also made headlines as the winner of the 2010 Richard Tucker Award, feels fortunate to have attended AVA.
“You learn what is expected from you in the ‘real’ world and you learn how to research an opera,” he says. “You gain genuine, pragmatic performing experience in a safe, nurturing environment because AVA is close enough to New York that managers and agents can come see performances but, day to day, you can make mistakes, learn, and not feel pressured.”
The staples of Valenti’s repertoire are the same leading roles that he first performed at AVA. “I know them so well because I had the luxury of preparing them at AVA. Through my experiences and years at AVA, I acquired the tools to not only attain a top-level career, but also maintain and stay at that level for years,” he says. Those “tools” include the ability to analyze a score, analyze why the composer and librettist chose to set the text with certain music and with a certain word order, to learn the nuances of a language, and to sing an opera like a native speaker.
Alumna soprano Ailyn Pérez highlights the input that she received from each of the master vocal coaches. “The music faculty knows that there are no shortcuts to producing great opera singers. Danielle Orlando, David Lofton, and Richard Raub have the ears and instinct,” she says. “Danielle has this ability to hear a singer’s innate strength and bring it out. David has helped me to learn to sing clearly on the vowels in every language that I have coached with him. Richard has shown me the unsung thoughts and words that inform the music and how they are woven through the score, which demonstrates that I need to have a clear plan of who the character is and what is going on when I am not singing.”
As AVA continues to craft the next generation of singers, Cornelius emphasizes that applicants should be prepared to face a high level of scrutiny. “If you are ready to work and willing to take constructive criticism, you will benefit,” she says. “I have, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. The academy and, more specifically, my work with Maestro Macatsoris have made me a more complete, sincere, and honest artist, and I am forever grateful for that.”
Singers who are interested in auditioning for AVA can find application information at www.avaopera.org.
