I enjoyed many masterclasses and presentations at this year’s Convention. Ellen Rievman was very dynamic and energizing, very insightful and helpful in her suggestions and coaching comments. She worked very well with each singer and was positive and encouraging. I learned a great deal from her about the character of Tosca and about bringing the elements of Tosca’s persona to the aria with convincing and immediate results.
I was also pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Cynthia Munzer’s “Winning Warm-Ups” session early in the morning. Starting at 9:30 each morning, the sessions were open to anyone and everyone attending the convention who wanted to warm-up together. The sessions were well attended, and Munzer was a dynamic and engaging speaker with great energy.
The morning health classes were hard to get up for, but it was nice to wake my body up. I especially enjoyed the Alexander class with Brooke Lieb.
Dorothy Byrne’s class on understanding the current market and where you fit in the market was dynamic and informative. Her honesty and congeniality encouraged audience participation, which helped make this session interesting and successful.
Andrea Huber’s “Auditioning in Europe” class should have been called “Auditioning in Germany.” I was interested in hearing more about doing an audition tour in Italy or in Europe in general. The session seemed to be more focused on the audition experience in Germany and on Fest houses, but I found Huber to be forthcoming and encouraging with her information.
The Manager and Director discussion panels were both fantastic. The only thing I could have wished was more time allotted to both sessions.
The spotlight recital idea was very interesting. I looked at it in two ways. On the one hand, I thought it was too noisy an atmosphere for the singers, positioned in the restaurant as a kind of “background” music amidst the clanging dishes. On the other hand, it was a wonderful opportunity for the singers. I sat and listened to the spotlights during a dinner hour on Sunday and almost every presenter from the manager and general director panels, as well as Sherrill Milnes and Joan Dornemann, were eating dinner at that very restaurant. Talk about an opportunity to be heard!
I’m convinced that singers get out of the convention whatever they put into it. Use the opportunity to network with other singers, ask questions, participate in the classes. Prepare for the classes beforehand by writing down questions you have about the topic, and if your questions aren’t answered during the session, have your wits about you to ask them at the end during the question/answer period. Attend the classes with pen and pad in hand to take notes and keep track of questions you may have as the class progresses. You get from it what you put in.
