It is 8:15 a.m. and 40 singers gather for movement and physical warm-up in the humid air of the North Carolina rain forest. Ducks wander in and out of the space at will, taking a break from their paddling around the pond just a few feet away from the open-air rehearsal space. It’s Monday morning, and another week at Brevard Music Center’s Janiec Opera Company has begun. For the next six days, the singers will work harder than perhaps they ever have before, coaching and rehearsing for one of the six productions that will be staged this summer, all in the space of only eight weeks. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Janiec staff and 2010 participants to find out how intense opera and the beauties of nature have come together for the past 75 years.
Brevard entered a new era with the 2007 appointment of Keith Lockhart as artistic director, only the fourth person to hold this title in Brevard’s 75 years. Like Lockhart, who maintains a high-profile career as conductor of the Boston Pops when not at Brevard, the Janiec faculty are also well-established professionals currently working in the operatic art form. Highly acclaimed North American director David Gately is heading into his fourth season as director of the Janiec Opera Company, while conductor Patrick Hansen, director of operatic studies at McGill University, serves as associate director. Other faculty members include assistant director Dean Anthony, stage director and character tenor, and coach Elizabeth Koch. There are also staff coaches and apprentice coaches to help with the needs of the opera company.
Singers who are accepted to join the Janiec Opera Company encounter a high level of preprofessional training, equivalent to an operatic “boot camp.” Gately is passionate about his work with developing artists and intends to offer the singers an experience that emulates the professional world as much as possible. Singers are consistently challenged to meet “a professional level of expectations” in preparation and decorum. Yet Gately balances these demands by providing a “safe place” where singers can test their boundaries and experiment with new ideas and concepts in a supportive and positive atmosphere.
When baritone John Nelson and tenor Justin Berkowitz speak of their summer at Brevard, it seems that Gately is meeting his goals. Nelson, who sang Count Almaviva in the 2010 Brevard production of The Marriage of Figaro, felt that his confidence grew immensely as he realized that he could work in a high-pressure performance environment. Brevard offered him the chance “to learn about myself as a performer—how to work on [my] own.” Both Anthony and Gately proved to be wonderful mentors, Nelson said, adding that Gately “helped me with challenges and gave me tools to use in finding [things] out on my own.” Berkowitz, who performed the roles of Frosch in Die Fledermaus and Don Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro in 2010, believes that he is a “more confident singer” due to his time in the program and was comforted by the knowledge that there are indeed “people in the industry that will really look out for young singers.”
The Janiec Opera Company operates within the larger organization but remains somewhat separate from the main student body, due mostly to the rigors of the operatic schedule. With six productions on each summer’s slate, opera participants are some of the busiest musicians on the Brevard Music Center campus. Typically, each student is offered at least one role for the summer, and then may participate in the chorus of other shows. If a student does not have a role, she is accommodated in a scenes program. The schedule is so tight that singers must come with their roles completely prepared, relying on coaching only for those last enhancements. Priority is naturally given to the production currently in staging rehearsals. At the same time, singers are polishing their roles for subsequent productions as well as working on their own aria repertoire. Several participants have reported to Gately that after returning to their home universities or colleges, the pace of those schools feels very slow after their Brevard experience!
Brevard has a coach-to-student ratio of about one for every 10 singers, and with the potential addition of a fifth coach next summer, coaching opportunities will be even more plentiful. Unlike some programs, voice lessons are not offered in a formal sense, though vocal coach Elizabeth Koch offers technical assistance according to students’ needs. Berkowitz warned potential applicants that due to the demanding schedule, Brevard was not a place to go if you are “still figuring out technique.” Berkowitz did find time to coach his new audition aria package.
Singers also participate in movement classes and audition techniques workshops. Gately uses these 9 a.m. classes as safe places that “allow the singers to take risks” and explore a “new space” in a careful manner. Daily schedules are created by a scheduling staff and are distributed the evening prior, no sooner than 6 p.m. and sometimes as late as midnight during technical rehearsal periods.
With such an intense pace, not much time remains in the schedule for personal practice, with the added challenge that available practice space can be hard to come by. Instrumental students have a much more regular schedule and often monopolize the rooms. Opera students learn to be creative in finding warm-up space and soon learn that they can indeed achieve a day’s work without having lengthy vocal preparation time.
An exciting development for 2011 is the relocation of opera performances to a new venue, the Porter Center at Brevard College. In past summers, productions have occurred in the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, described on the website as “an open-sided structure with 1800 seats,” and sound enhancement has always been required. The Porter Center venues—a 600-seat Scott Concert Hall for main stage productions and the Morrison Playhouse, a black box theatre that accommodates 150-200 patrons—will afford the opportunity for completely acoustical performances. Students will be better prepared for the reality of opera performance, and audiences will experience a more intimate and “pure” product. The move promises to bring challenges as well, as the Scott concert hall does not currently have a pit or proscenium. Rehearsals will still take place on the main Brevard campus, moving to the Porter Center for “tech week.” Productions slated for the larger theatre include L’elisir d’amore, La traviata, La tragédie de Carmen, and Hänsel und Gretel, while the black box will host the musical review “Red, Hot, and Cole” and a staging of Handel’s Alcina.
Gately is pleased with the current direction of the Brevard program but is thinking ahead as well. Future goals include keeping early music as an important part of the opera’s programming. He believes this style of music to be suited to young singers, as it can be challenging but is not vocally “heavy.” He is particularly excited to give starring opportunities to young countertenors that in the past have been featured only in opera scenes. Gately says he will also always make a place for musical comedy to suit “talented younger singers who aren’t ready for opera.” Due to budgetary constraints, there will not be any guest teachers or clinicians next summer, but Gately hopes to restore that as soon as possible.
The intensity of the schedule and the shared experience of producing so much opera in such a short time foster a wonderful camaraderie among the opera participants, according to bothNelson and Berkowitz. Nelson values the wonderful colleagues he met at Brevard and how much he appreciated the support of his fellow singers. The living situation fosters this sense of unity, with singers being housed in dormitories designed like “Boy Scout camp” cabins, where bunks and communal bathrooms are the rule. Two of the biggest improvements to camp life have been the installation of air conditioning in the cabins (essential with an average July temperature in the 80s and high humidity) and wireless Internet hotspots at various campus locations.
While the singers work hard, they do find time to enjoy the natural beauty of the setting of the Brevard campus. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the area offers glorious hiking, wonderful vistas, and interesting local towns to visit. Asheville is a favorite road trip of the participants, offering a mix of quirky shopping and excellent dining in the downtown area, as well as the usual box stores and chain restaurants. Transylvania County is known as the “land of waterfalls,” and Nelson said he managed to check out quite a few of those. Opera staff is committed to a weekly free day, if only to give the students a chance to catch up on rest and laundry.
The Brevard application process is quite streamlined, using the website (www.brevardmusic.org) as the application portal. All applicants’ materials and information are submitted electronically. The opera faculty prefers that singers audition in person, but DVD submissions are also accepted. Berkowitz said he knew from the moment of his audition that Brevard would be a unique place, based on the “warm, friendly atmosphere” of the audition room. All applicants must have completed one year of university or conservatory work, and the opera program has an upper age limit of 30 (this past summer the age range was 18-29). Because of the number of productions planned for next summer, many principal roles are available, and it is likely that each participant will enjoy a “star turn” of some kind.
As is the case with most pay-to-sing programs, cost can be a factor for young singers embarking on this preprofessional track. Tuition for 2011 remains $5,100 for the eight-week program, which includes full room and board (three cafeteria-style meals daily). Only one singer each summer is awarded a full scholarship, but many other participants pay half the full amount or less. Grants are available, as well as work-study positions, based on financial need. Workstudy jobs may include scene building and costume work, and one student even swept the rehearsal space floors each morning to prepare for the day’s activities.
Brevard’s intense program with highlevel performance opportunities in a supportive and challenging environment provides a perfect pre-Young Artist Program environment. Gately describes the program as filling a need, where singers who are not yet ready for the more highprofile apprentice programs such as Merola or Santa Fe may have a place to learn what professional opera work may entail, while challenging their own limits as artists. If this describes you, Brevard just might be the place for you.
