Salzburg, Austria, is best known in the United States as the location where The Sound of Music was filmed and the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Picturesquely located just north of the Alps, it is internationally renowned for its beautifully preserved baroque architecture. It is also home to the Salzburger Festspiele and the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, a world-class university for musical and dramatic arts.
Each summer the university is host to a unique and diverse summer program called the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg. Until last spring, I was not familiar with this program. As the 2011 winner of the Austrian-American Society of Wilmington, Delaware Music Scholarship Competition, I enjoyed an all-expenses paid, six-week experience at the Summer Academy. The format of this program sets it apart from anything I have seen offered in the States. I was also surprised to see very few American singers participating. For this reason, I am thrilled to share my experience for those interested in a high-quality program that provides world-class instruction and opportunities to expand a singing career.
Audition Process
There is no initial audition process required to attend this program. Anyone can pay the tuition and sign up to study with the instructor of their choice. Students can choose to be active or passive participants. If you intend to be active, you will need to audition on the first day of the masterclass. At that point, the instructor will decide if you are to remain an active participant. If you are not an advanced student, there is a chance that you will not pass the audition and will need to audit the course for a smaller fee. From my experience, the advanced students had no problem making the audition. One notable exception to this was Barbara Bonney’s class, which was extremely competitive. Over 40 auditioned and only eight were chosen. If a student does not pass an audition, he can attempt to achieve active status in another masterclass offered at the same time.
Courses Offered
The academy has an extensive list of course offerings available to all musicians. It consists of three two-week-long sessions from mid-July to the end of August. For singers, there are several masterclasses available in each session. Supplemental courses are offered as well that include German Language, Lied and Oratorio, Opera Arias, and Recitative Interpretation. Students are allowed to register for as many classes as desired in any given session. I found it unnecessary to enroll with more than one voice teacher at a time. Once enrolled, each student is granted a pass that allows her to observe any class she chooses. I had the opportunity to observe classes taught by Barbara Bonney, Janet Perry, and Norman Shetler. As a teacher, I found this especially valuable.
Cost
There is an application fee of €150. The main masterclasses are €590 for active status and €340 for passive status. Supplemental classes are between €100 and €240. Financial aid is available to especially gifted students.
Housing
University housing is available once you are registered for classes. The cost is between €23-€29 per night.
My Masterclass Experience
During my first two-week session, I studied with Rudolf Piernay, a world-class teacher of voice who currently teaches at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim. Students from his studio have been prize winners at numerous national and international competitions and many of them enjoy international careers, namely Bryn Terfel and Kate Royal. He has an extremely aggressive approach to teaching and gets impressive results in a relatively short period of time. He did a tremendous amount for my technique. In fact, he was able to diagnose my technical issues so quickly that I soon found myself in a completely different Fach! I have been very happy and comfortable in the new repertoire ever since.
For the second session, I studied with Anna Tomowa-Sintow. She has appeared in all the major opera houses in the world and, at the age of 70, she still has a youthful and impressive technique. Her approach was very basic. She used the Mozart repertoire as a technical tool focusing on position and line throughout the registers. She was also highly energetic and demanded perfection. She took my technique to yet another level of refinement.
I spent the third and final session working with Kurt Widmer. Since 1967, Widmer has enjoyed an international reputation as a concert and oratorio soloist. From my observation, he is on the threshold of revolutionizing the way singing is taught. I’ve never worked with anyone like him before. Not only was he one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, he had his unique approach down to a science. With the use of various props and activities, he seemed to perform miracles as he drew singers out of the analytical brain and into a free, more organic state of being. His goal is to transcend the pursuit of perfection to a more exciting and real form of communication between singer and audience. I saw the most dramatic results in my technique with Widmer. He helped me to rediscover the joy that can be found in making beautiful music and sharing it with others.
Supplemental Courses
During my first session, I also took Alexander Technique from Sibylle Havemann. She is one of the leading Alexander Technique teachers in Europe today. Learning this technique helped me to become more aware of my body, and I was able to identify unnecessary tension and learn how to release it.
I also studied yoga with Guja Sandholt. She is from Iceland and trained at the TriYoga Studio in London with Jane Kersel, Kate Ellis, and Carlos Pomeda. A classical singer herself, Sandholt found yoga a great way to enhance her music practice. Dividing her time mostly between music and yoga, she is passionate about introducing this powerful tradition to her fellow musicians. I was fortunate to study from her for the entire six weeks I was in Salzburg. I absolutely fell in love with yoga; it has been a tremendous asset to both my singing and daily life.
Finally, I took the Italian language course from Professor Giovanni Ceto, a professional singer and coach of Italian language for singers. He has been a lecturer at the academy since 1998. My first meeting with him was after my class audition with Tomowa-Sintow where he basically said he loved my voice but my Italian was horrible. No one in the States had ever told me how bad my Italian diction was, so this came as a bit of a shock. He was extremely kind and generous with his time. He completely transformed my Italian pronunciation and my idea of how the language and music interact. I found Ceto’s course to be more valuable than any Italian diction course I took during my university studies.
Performance Opportunities
During each two-week session several academy concerts showcase the students in the various masterclasses. The teachers hand pick students for the concerts. If you want to sing in these concerts, you need to ask the teacher for a recommendation. If you do not get chosen to sing in an academy concert, you will sing in the class concert at the end of the two weeks.
This past summer, the first concert of each session was a competition with tuition reimbursement as the prize. The stipends were awarded by the Salzburg Vokalakademie and were given to students who were considered “finished,” meaning they were ready to be hired by a medium-sized opera house. At the end of the six weeks, there was a prize concert that gave awards to the most talented musicians that came through the Sommerakademie Mozarteum. This prize concert was part of the famous Salzburger Festspiele.
When performing in the academy concerts, you have the option to choose your own pianist if you are not happy with who is provided. I was lucky to find an excellent pianist by the name of Thomas Aydintan. He is an excellent coach and accompanist and a great resource if you are heading to Europe to audition for agents or houses. He will be returning to the academy in 2012. You can contact him on his website at www.aydintan.de.
Career Development
Throughout each session there were opportunities to make contacts with singers actively performing in Europe. If you are interested in Fest work, you can quickly get an idea of what it is like just by talking to fellow singers. Many of the singers in my classes were on current Fest contracts in Germany or Austria. If you plan on making the audition round in search of Fest work, it doesn’t hurt to have some contacts within the various houses.
Although July and August are not audition season in Europe, it may be worth your while to use the weekends to travel to nearby cities to audition for agents and coaches that may be available. If you are especially talented and are chosen to sing in the final prize concert, you will have opportunities to make professional contacts through that venue. The professors also have practical career advice for their students. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions and take notes!
Diverse Cultural Experience
The cultural diversity you experience through this program is phenomenal. Although German and English were the prominent languages spoken, I had the opportunity to be exposed to many different languages all under the same roof. And most of the professors could speak multiple languages.
Imagine this: a Bulgarian professor (who doesn’t speak English) speaking German to a student from Venezuela who is acting as a translator. The Venezuelan student then translates to English for a student from Taiwan!
Conclusion
My experience this summer was incredibly beneficial in taking me to the next level of professionalism and providing opportunities to further my singing career. The city of Salzburg is a magical and beautiful place. I will always remember my time there with great fondness. I hope that more American singers will take advantage of this summer program.
