SUMMER PAY-TO-SINGS CAN BE A WONDERFUL BRIDGE TO A PROFESSIONAL CAREER. A young singer can sing a first lead role, learn new skills and make important contacts. Summer programs can also provide a means whereby singers in their later years may have an opportunity to sing that lead role which has always eluded them, or to correct skill deficits that have held them back.
Summer programs are very different from a college experience in that singers are actually living with the faculty—in some programs such as AIMS, right in the same dorms. This allows for unparalleled interaction and growth, personal counseling and mentoring. Even singers living in New York don’t have the advantage of accessing the world-class professionals assembled at some of these programs—nor the privilege of working with them every day.
CS asked hundreds of singers about the 100 pay-to-sing programs currently in operation. We loved the comment from one singer: “Students of voice don’t need another thing to take their money.”
CS agrees, and that’s exactly why we have spent months putting this issue together for you. The good summer programs can be great career boosters, but there are a few that might not be a good fit for your career level and/or personality, and a few more that are just plain worthless. So you need a better source of information than a college bulletin board, a teacher who got a beautiful brochure in the mail, or a recommendation from a friend who heard from someone somewhere.
How is a singer to make an intelligent choice? Hopefully, singers and teachers will tell others about this issue and will pass it around. In addition, we hope you will point others to the CS website, www.classicalsinger.com, where we will continue to provide hundreds of singer responses regarding summer programs. While most of the programs are very helpful, there are a few programs that Classical Singer will not recommend. This issue should help you find exactly what you are looking for and help you be prepared for the experience.
How to Succeed at a Summer Program: Choose your program well! If you are a soprano, and this is your very first summer program, it’s a good idea to choose a program that will focus on skills. If you’ve had no stage experience, or your voice is still in the training stage, don’t try a program where they will be staging a complete opera. You’ll likely be pushed into a corner in favor of more experienced singers—especially if you are a soprano. As a less experienced singer, you want a nurturing program that focuses on YOU, where skills are taught and opera scenes or art songs are performed.
If you are an older female singer, ask a lot of questions before you go. Judging from readers’ responses to our questions, a few programs and teachers are discriminatory towards older singers, feeling that there’s no point to their training, or “it’s too late for them to have a career.” Yes, that might make you see red, but better find out now than feel like you wasted your money later.
If you are a man, all bets are off. The programs need men, and it seems they will bend over backwards to help you.
If you have some stage experience, there are a lot of programs for you. Consider a program like College Light Opera (no fee!) for a lot of experience but not a lot of contacts or stellar faculty. Take a look at the singer responses and find programs that offer the performances you want.
If you are further along in your career and already have stage experience, you’ll want to choose one of the programs which are akin to Young Artist programs. Entrance may be competitive. Make sure that you are promised stage roles if you are building a career. Some of the programs are expensive; some cost little or nothing. You want stellar faculty, good contacts who can help build your career, and lead roles. IVAI, IIVI, Steans, Seagle and Banff fit into this category as well as several others.Bel Canto also fits into this category (with Jane Klaviter, not Carlos Della Mora), although you don’t perform a complete opera.
A word of caution about foreign programs: make sure you know the directors, and that a lot of people you know are familiar with the directors. Once you leave your own soil, you have little legal recourse should things go wrong and promises made in brochures are not kept or worse [See page 26-27].
Take allergy shots or pills if you need them! Many allergy-prone singers were miserable at programs held in the mountains or in cabins. Prepare for mold, dust, pollen—you name it.
If you can, get to know the directors or a conductor or teacher before arriving. It really helps to have someone who knows you on the staff. Many of the program participants who wrote to us mentioned that they got scholarships, didn’t have to audition, or got other special perks because they knew someone on staff. Some singers who didn’t know someone mentioned that singers who were connected got special treatment and the best roles. You may cry “foul play,” but like it or not, this is the way the world works. People hire those they know in opera and in business, and it works the same way in summer programs. I’m sure the programs try to be fair and not let relationships creep into their decisions, but it is human nature. If you don’t know people, make a lot of contacts, hone your singing skills this year, and you’ll be ready for the lead next year.
Food: Some of the programs, including Neil Semer, Bel Canto Institute and Centre Lyrique in Pourrieres, France, had excellent food. Other programs, including Seagle and Brevard, had problems with food quality. “It was also quite difficult for the opera singers to get breakfast because the hours didn’t work with our schedule. Eventually, they stayed open an extra 15 minutes so that we could eat after dance class (but it was apparently difficult to get them to do that),” wrote one singer.
Costs: None of the programs included airfare in the price, but some included a few meals and lodging. Check all the costs before you go. At some programs, including the Balk Institute, you eat ALL meals out, which raises the cost of the program considerably.
Staff:With the exception of Sessione Senese per la Musica e L’Arte (SSMA) and the Bel Canto Institute run by Carlos Della Mora (see accompanying articles) the singers really liked almost all the staff. As an example, a singer wrote about American Singer Opera Project: “Truthfully, just about everyone who ran the program was so supportive and caring, I felt I really got something from each of them. Nancy Milnes is a little “out there,” but her sense of the needs of a young singer is really very astute. Thomas Wolfe was excellent and very accessible as our art song expert and proved to be a terrific coach for our recital.”
Living with staff is one of the benefits of the summer programs. AIMS makes sure that the participants and staff actually live in the same dorms. Wayne Woodson wrote, “This is great, because it allowed to you interact with teachers outside of the studio and classroom.”
Several of the programs had full orchestra. Shaker Mountain singers got to perform with the Albany Symphony, even doing a Wagner opera!
Application/Audition Procedures: Application fees vary among programs, but a few are quite high. For example, the Academie Int’l. D’ete de Nice has a one-time registration fee (for the school) of over $100 Euros (the weekly fee for classes, however, is only a little over $300). All the other registration fees seemed very reasonable.
Then there was this report: “I sent [an application fee] to Opera in the Ozarks, who not only didn’t even reply to let me know they had received the application and audition CD (which I sent from overseas), but the application fee was $100, and I had to hunt them down to get it sent back to me. They never did reply to my audition. I just figured that after three months of not hearing anything that I was obviously not accepted. I really can’t understand why a pay-to-sing program would require that you pay-to-audition also!”
Many programs (and professional auditions) don’t refund application and audition fees at all. Opera in the Ozarks explained that they do have a policy of refunding application fees to singers who are not accepted, but only after all singers are finished auditioning and they have made their decisions. That can take months. Singers who are accepted don’t receive a refund, because the audition fee is applied to the overall program fee.
Party Programs? Opera Festival di Roma administrators must have had a frustrating summer as a few participants mentioned that “…many young singers were there for a very expensive Roman holiday” and had come un-memorized and unprepared for a working experience. Another participant who loved the program mentioned the same singers: “Some of the younger ones did not attend the diction classes and didn’t practice their assigned scenes or recital pieces. Some of the same also complained about the program(!)” They shouldn’t have had much to complain about at any rate. Participants had the privilege of performing their operas with, “…a union[ized], professional grade orchestra that had CDs out.” Another singer wrote, “I think our production of Figaro won the National Opera Association award for best opera production, 2002. Opera Festival di Roma’s production of The Barber of Seville won for the year before. They’re putting out good product.”
Musical Theater vs. Opera: Many of the programs are doing opera and crossover, because opera houses are doing crossover, audiences want crossover, and singers who want to be marketable are learning to be versatile. Check out Seagle, Opera Festival di Roma, VOICExperience and others.
Balance of Singers: As in many programs, count on the fact that there will be a preponderance of sopranos. One program participant thought there were “…perhaps 70 participants with two or three basses and two or three baritones” at his program!
Practice Facilities: you might want to ask about this before you go. AAMA had a real problem: “Singers had to fight over a total of three pianos (and two of them were flat).” Other programs had plenty of space and had worked out sign-up sheets. Still others provided only a tiny electronic piano and a practice space.
Staff Substitution: We only heard of one instance where a singer was upset about a staff member being substituted, and this was from two years ago when Symphonic Workshops apparently advertised that the opera staging would be with an “…eminent opera director (Covent Garden, etc.).” The famous staff member sent her son. The singer felt that the son was not a competent director and wanted his money back but was denied.
Staff substitutions are usually written into the agreements singers make with programs, and “no refund” is part of the deal as well. Program directors don’t have a lot of say in whether a particular director will show up or not. The thing to look at is the track record of the program, and Symphonic Workshops has a good track record.
Singer Levels: Most programs accept singers at a variety of levels. As a rule, you can expect a higher skill level in women than in men. One participant wrote that the quality of the participating singers “ranged from a Santa Fe regular to a particularly bad tenor who sounded like a brain-damaged macaw in a wine press.” The programs are always in need of male singers. At Opera in the Ozarks: “The quality varied from not so great to absolutely excellent. There were some young singers who got only chorus and scenes or very small roles. I sang five roles.”
Brochure Promises Vs. Reality: At Spazio, “The organizer, who provided no vocal preparation to anyone except private students who showed up in to pay the full hourly private rate (contrary to the verbal and written sales pitch), ended up not using any of the six ‘Santuzzas,’ instead bringing in one of her long-time private students to do all three shows.” See accompanying articles on SSMA and Bel Canto Institute (with Carlos Della Mora, not Jane Klaviter) for other examples.
Housing: Brevard was a great experience for singers, but like many places, it had its downside. One singer wrote of wall-to-wall bunks and stated that “The place was terribly infested with ants, insomuch that there were times I pulled ants out of my hair while washing it.” Singers in the East West International Academy were housed in a nunnery, as were singers in other programs, and they loved it. Other housing arrangements we heard about were less than satisfactory: “The organizers of the program have some corrupt kick-back relationship with local apartment owners, which resulted in my leaving the small, dirty apartment they found me at an exorbitant price and throwing away even more money on an apartment I found through an agent.” [We heard this from participants at two different programs, and are not naming the programs because we can’t confirm the claim, but be careful!]
Costumes: At Brevard, “The costumes were great. For Into the Woods we had the costumes from the touring production. Some of them were the actual costumes worn by Broadway stars such as Joanna Gleason and Bernadette Peters.” Opera Festival di Roma, Opera in the Ozarks and Seagle participants were also very happy with costumes. Participants from many other programs complained about “ugly” costumes.
Camaraderie: One of the wonderful perks of summer programs is the chance to network with mentors and other singers. Hopefully, you will make friendships you will keep and use for your life, both personal and professional. It is critical that administrators set up the program to ensure that relationships are fostered, not festered!
Programs can do much to foster camaraderie. Consider two approaches: At one program “…the administration waited until 24 hours before opening night to announce the cast for opening night. The opera they were doing was triple cast, and they didn’t even tell the singers who was doing opening night until late the night before.” Another singer wrote, “There was good camaraderie among the singers…until the night they picked who was going to sing opening night!”
By way of contrast, camaraderie was fostered at Brevard by a different policy: “When you are not singing your role, you perform in the chorus of the other shows. Because everyone has at least one role, there did not seem to be any resentment about singing in the chorus. Everyone supports the leads because they know that their turn to be the lead will be coming.”
Singers will put up with a lot of bad conditions if they get a chance to sing a lead role. But then, some programs seem intent on teaching singers about the big bad world of reality and would rather not foster camaraderie. Consider one singer’s take on the International Institute of Vocal Arts (IIVA): “IIVA is a true intensive. Multiple singers are asked to prepare scenes and roles. Often only one singer will actually get to perform. The people who run it say that it is a good opportunity for less experienced singers to prepare something and then observe it getting put together.” But this same singer wasn’t too upset, because she then wrote: “There were many excellent Italian and American teachers, coaches, directors, and conductors. Also some ‘name’ people. Chiari is a wonderful town. Home housing was great. It is worth the money.”
The Seagle Colony fosters camaraderie a different way. Diva attitude wouldn’t survive very long in a culture where, as Pilar Cragen writes, “The students do everything from performing and being the star to washing the theater toilets for opening night! Everyone has their own moment to shine, and Darren Keith Woods will make sure of that.”
A participant at Spoleto writes that good relationships are intentionally fostered verbally as well as by the program’s design: “Everyone was really fabulous, and from the start the Everetts talk about being good colleagues and supporting each other. It makes for a really great atmosphere, and I’ve made friends for life through this program.”
Suzanne Levine writes: “At AAMA, many students were from the same university, and so they tended to stay within their own group. The singers who came by themselves from individual schools tended to hang out together. I had four close friendships while I was there, and the five of us did almost everything together. In fact, there is one person I have kept in touch with on a weekly basis by phone and e-mail. I was never lonely, and these people were wonderful and caring friends.
At the Neil Semer Institute: “It was a VERY supportive atmosphere. I met a lot of really excellent singers singing professionally in opera houses all over Europe.”
Language Study: Many of the European programs offered plenty of practice and even language lessons. Many singers felt that they should have come with a better knowledge of the language to begin with, as this Spoleto participant wrote: “The Italian [vocal] coaches spoke little English, which made it difficult for those who didn’t speak a lot of Italian. Program needs to require a better level of Italian.”
If you would like to learn foreign language skills at an American program, consider Middlebury College’s summer program. But be prepared for a true intensive; you are expelled if caught speaking English! “By the end of the course, I could understand most conversations, and I could carry on an intelligent conversation.” Or consider NYU’s Deutsches Haus.
Teachers at Summer Programs Vs. Your Own Teacher: Some of the programs worked very hard to keep lessons within the bounds of a singer’s technique with a home teacher. At Opera Festival di Roma, “The voice teacher made a point of asking me how I had been taught to approach breathing, onset, etc. just so she would not clash with my normal voice teacher.” That can be difficult to do, because once in a while singers may come with real technical problems. Some teachers started with a singer as if they were the primary teacher. “I loved these lessons [With Neil Semer]. I think this got to the root of some problems…but I think he tried to throw all the technique that I had previously learned in college out the window.” From the flood of comments made by loyal participants, it sounds like Mr. Semer’s techniques must make singers quite happy.
Faculty: Big names draw high-level singers. High-level singers draw other high-level singers. It’s a Catch-22 for the programs. They really need the big name faculty. There seems to be a clique among the summer programs, and everyone wants the same names. Anyone who has “Metropolitan Opera” after his or her name is a big draw. All the big name teachers from New York bring the singers in.
At Tanglewood, the voice faculty working with students on a daily basis wasn’t what one would hope for considering the program price of $4,000: “We took lessons from graduate student-level teachers and had studio classes with Phyllis Hoffman, but I was very pleased with my teacher, and I think she helped me a lot.”
What Was Your Favorite Activity or Lesson? We liked this answer, which came from the Wesley Balk Institute’s Sarah Jane Jensvold: “My absolute favorite class was the ‘Oops and Bloops’ class, in which we learned the proper way to react in scary accompaniment situations. Barb Brooks does a superb job of doing anything she can to make getting through your performance as difficult as possible: playing the music upside down or backwards, dropping loose sheets of paper and then bumping into you while searching for the right ones on the floor, all sorts of wrong notes and off-the-wall tempos. The class wasn’t only informational, it was a LOT of fun.”
Memorize Your Music Before Arriving When Possible! Many programs only audition participants after arrival and so singers were left to cram their music at the last minute. Other singers weren’t told to memorize, but when they arrived, they found other singers were memorized, and those singers were given special favors such as the opening night performance, etc. An IVAI participant wrote, “I didn’t have my music memorized the first year. Didn’t make that mistake again! If music is assigned, MEMORIZE IT BEFOREHAND! Colleagues are angry when you aren’t memorized; not a good way to start the summer.” Still, you do what you have to: a singer at Lake Placid wrote, “Learning the music in nine days was a challenge I wasn’t sure I was up to, but I was in the end.”
Sometimes the programs don’t play fair. “I was the only one (of three people assigned the same part) who had my role(s) memorized upon arriving. The person most prepared was to get opening night cast…I was most prepared and I did not get opening.”
Help in Learning to Connect to an Audience: Performing a lead role or singing in a chorus isn’t always what you need. You may be getting feedback that you seem awkward on stage, you aren’t connecting to the audience, or your face doesn’t show the meaning of what you are singing. Many of the programs will help you, but I can’t recommend highly enough the Wesley Balk Institute and similar courses such as OperaWorks [See accompanying article]. The audition procedure for WBI is that they simply take the first 30 or so applicants—all ages, all levels. Met singers intermingle with rank beginners, because all are working individually at their own level. We’ve never had a report from a disappointed singer for either program! If you are “stuck” where you are in your singing/acting, this is the type of program you need to help you move to the next level.
Making Contacts: Another favorite program of several singers was Spoleto. “I was treated so well at the Spoleto audition; they were so professional, and everything about the program was organized. I would recommend this program to every singer who wants to be in a beautiful place in Italy, learn lots, and be around great, kind, supportive people. I got to sing in masterclasses every other day, have coaching and private lessons on a rotating basis, and take a daily Italian class. The performances were always packed houses. All the teachers, coaches, and administrators were totally wonderful. The other singers all came prepared, were helpful to others, and shared repertoire, and the tone of the entire time was really positive. It’s not expensive for all that you get. The other big bonus is that there are other programs going on in writing, cooking, and vocal jazz, so if you get sick of other singers, you can go and talk to a writer (who might be a music critic back in the US), watch the cooks make some delicious dish drowned in black truffles, or watch Michelle Hendricks teach how to sing jazz.”
One of the top programs for singers on their way to the top has always been Israel Vocal Arts Institute. The reason is that you make real world contacts which can build your career in a big way. How? It is run by people from the Met and staffed by people who work all over the world. Joan Dornemann, an assistant conductor at the Met, is one of the most firm but supportive teachers there is, and she assembles a stellar staff such as Bob Cowart and other “names.” One singer wrote he wouldn’t consider another program because “Very few programs offer appropriate opportunities for professional singers.” He had a chance to sing three complete lead roles in two years. His comment was, “The program is very good—the facilities were not stellar but adequate—I would have liked for the operas all to be with orchestra, as some were and some were not, but that would be in an ideal situation.” Another singer wrote of having an issue with a stage director and how Joan took care of it immediately.
The Bel Canto Institute (please keep this separate from Mr. Della Mora’s program in the accompanying article) is also run by a coach at the Metropolitan Opera, Jane Klaviter. This institute focuses on the individual singer. One singer wrote, “You are immersed in Italian and around amazingly talented people who speak Italian as well. Dinner is served five days a week at a WONDERFUL Italian restaurant. The program is pricey, but I feel it is worth it because you receive loads of individual attention. The coaches were very experienced, and I am sure they will be wonderful contacts in the future. You have your own room. I learned almost a full bel canto role.” This however, is not a place where you will get a full performance of an opera. “BCI is about learning something very specific: bel canto style & tradition.”
Teacher Abuse: One of the most serious cases of abuse happened last year at a top-rated summer program. A singer was hit so hard during her lesson that welts were left; emotional abuse from the same teacher was a constant. Staff and singers at the program were aware of what was going on, yet nothing was said except murmuring behind the teacher’s back (I can’t name names because the singer who reported the specific abuse didn’t give permission).
Is it possible that some teachers think this is the way to get results? This report came in from a course in Italy: “I went for the masterclasses with Gabriela Ravazzi. I think she was a good voice teacher…but she was pretty harsh with the other students in the class. She made almost every single one of them cry, or gag, because she stuck a spoon down many singers’ throats in order to get them to ‘open up.’”
I have a picture here of the administrator watching this, feeling uncomfortable at what is occurring—but here is his star teacher. He can’t exactly reprimand her, or he risks losing his main draw (The singer above says even says that working with Ravazzi is why she came to the program). But a break could have been called and the teacher and administrator could have had a friendly talk. Public humiliation shouldn’t be allowed. Private beatings must be stopped.
This summer, and beyond, please be aware of what is happening to yourself and your colleagues. Classical Singer covered this problem in depth in our special issue on abuse [Sept 2002]. Be a part of the solution. Please speak up loudly and clearly. Bullies only stop bullying when someone stands up to them.
How Old Are You? Does it Matter? That depends on the program. At the Crittendon opera workshop, “There was a teenage group, from about 15 to 17 years of age, and then an ‘advanced’ group of people from college age to up to 45 or 50 years.” Some of the programs worked very well with older participants [see article on OperaWorks]. The “skills” programs have no problems assimilating older singers. But the programs with one foot in the Young Artist category are just not suited to older singers, and they do a disservice to singers if they do not let them know that up front.
Consider one singer’s sad experience. She even tried to leave early, it was so bad: “Since I am a voice teacher and opera workshop director, I find I can learn a lot by being on the other side of the fence. I learned: God forgive me if I have ever made anyone feel invisible, because now, for the first time, I know what that feels like. I’m too old for a summer program. If they were going to discriminate against me because of age, they should not have accepted me into the program. I was 49, 15 years older than the next oldest participant, and twice the average age. My age was not apparent in the tape I sent. They only requested your age after acceptance, on the registration form. I was double cast with an apprentice in the Met program, gorgeous and half my age. Ouch!”
Lake Placid also seemed to have a problem with older singers: “It had no age limits, but younger singers were clearly favored over older.”
The Balance of Voices: If you are a soprano and you want to do an opera role, you already know that the news won’t be good! Most of the responses we got back commented that it seemed the program seemed to have accepted mostly sopranos, a few mezzos and hardly any men. The men, of course, generally get scholarships. If you plan on doing a program which doesn’t cast an opera, this won’t matter at all, however. If you plan on being cast, you’d better plan on being the most prepared, the most memorized, the most ready dramatically and already know the conductor and director! In other words, it’s tough! If you are a man, plan on being exhausted running from role to role and on having little time to do activities or lessons or workshops; you will be needed elsewhere.
New Programs: Intermezzo, run by Mitchell Piper and Connie Barnett, started this year to good reviews. “The staff was truly the highlight…delightfully meticulous, well-versed in the literature, and good cross-pollination between studios/ideas” (next year Connie Barnett leaves the program to focus on her own work in New York). International Vocal Institute in Hvar, Croatia started last summer run by Cynthia Munzer and Gary Glaze: “I would recommend this program to everyone. It truly is a once in a lifetime experience.” La Musica Lirica started this year as well with one report coming in which was very positive but not verbose enough to quote!
New programs starting next summer include Paul Kram’s International Opera Productions program in Bulgaria, where singers will be recording arias with orchestra, and Schlern International Music Festival in Italy.
Why Do Summer Programs Cost so Much? Well, they don’t! Darren Keith Woods, Director of Seagle Music Colony explains: “If I had to charge singers what it really costs to run Seagle Colony, they’d be paying $16,000 or so for the summer. Instead, they only pay $3,000—and most are on some sort of scholarship as well, although the scholarships rarely if ever cover the total tuition. Consider that it costs about $220,000 to put on the operas we do for the summer, to pay the staff, run the facility, put on the meals, etc. We have 30 singers. Ticket sales, at $15 a ticket, only account for $50,000 of that amount. We are very lucky that our staff, people like Ashley Putnam, Stephen Lussman, Therese Stadelmeier, Pat Seyller (Broadway and opera designers) and Steven Bryant (opera and Broadway wig and make-up designer) love to come here to ‘play’ for the summer for very little money in salary. We must raise the balance of the money from donations. Most of our donations come in the form of $10 or $25! We have only one foundation and a few $1,000 donors, but the rest comes from audience members who believe in what we are doing. When I came here, we had a budget of $48,000. But I believe in the philosophy that you ‘do a great product first and the money follows.’ We keep costs as low as we can by having singers pitch in.”
Coming Up With the Tuition: Spoleto had a great way to deal with coming up with the $2500 for their program: “They gave us great case studies on how to raise money for ourselves and suggestions on sponsorship. I thought that this was part of their learning process, because now I’ve used this fundraising technique for other aspects of my vocal life.”
Many needy singers receive scholarships from their programs. That’s easier to do if you are 1) a bass, 2) a male, or 3) a singer on the verge of a major career. For the rest of the world, it’s a lot harder to get money.
One singer wrote: “I had a private scholarship through my university. This next summer, however they will be offering limited scholarships through the program” [La Musica Lirica].
Lake Placid keeps the scholarship money moving by keeping patrons in involved with the singers they are helping: “We were all invited to have meals with the patrons of our program in some of the most beautiful and fascinating homes I’ve seen.”
One program, Centre Lyrique, had an idea for keeping costs down: don’t give scholarships to anyone, which kept costs down for everyone. Liora Michelle wrote, “No scholarships were given as the costs were kept to the minimum to maintain general affordability and the high teacher/student ratio.”
A few singers were able to work through their programs at Israel Vocal Arts, Brevard, AIMS, Opera in the Ozarks and BASOTI. It’s likely that other programs have similar help—how are you at washing dishes?
What’s a Summer Program Like? Nineteen-year-old Laura Barker had a great experience at Seagle, one of the most consistently high rated programs year after year. Darren Keith Woods, who runs Seagle, is a singer and runs a “singer-friendly” program.
Laura loved her experience this summer: “As a company, we put on a musical revue, a children’s opera, two full operas, and a musical. I had roles in both operas and was in the chorus of The Music Man. There was so much talent without competitive attitudes and egos. I thought they did an excellent job of organizing and producing a high-quality and fun program…a very safe, supportive environment.”
CS really grills singers who had great experiences to find out the little problems in the programs. This is what Laura came up with: “Days were pretty scheduled at Seagle. We had yoga/acting class in the mornings followed by a period of lessons and coaching, lunch, rehearsal for the show (musical rehearsals or staging), dinner, and more rehearsal. One constant problem over the summer was that we put up the shows in such record time (usually one to two weeks per show) that there was always the issue of not having enough rehearsal time. This inevitably caused anxiety and frustration on the parts of the directors and the singers. Sometimes extra rehearsals were called, which added more scheduling to the day, but it usually worked out for the benefit of the show and the audience who came to see it. I think it’s also fair to add that by the end of the summer many of the participants were a little worn out, and with good reason. We were almost always busy with rehearsals, chores (kitchen duty, maintenance, etc), or lessons/coaching, and after two months it was a little hard to keep functioning on such a tight schedule. There were close quarters and not much room to get away and have time to yourself. However, we did get several days completely off, during which many people went up to Montreal (only two hours north) for a little break from the smallness of the Colony. I think these breaks were fairly given, well-deserved, and well-used by the singers. Most people came back refreshed and ready to work on the next show.”
A singer wrote with praise for Opera Aegean, but it won’t be functioning until 2004. “It did become the changing point financially for me. After completing the program, my paying gigs really came in, and I credit that experience.”
Sherill Milnes and Maria Zouves started a new venture, VOICExperience, where performances are actually at Disney World, believe it or not. Singers appear to be very loyal to this venture, as we had more replies to our e-mails about this program than any other—all very positive. Kelli Morgan was thrilled to have the chance to study with Sherrill Milnes, Maria Spacagna, Dan Gettinger, and Kathy Olsen in one place and is “still listening to the recordings I have from my coachings during those two weeks and absorbing all the information I received from these wonderful people.” “One other thing I found to be extremely helpful was the variety of music we worked on during VOICExperience. Opera was our main focus, but our show at Disney World included musical theater as well. However, we were taught a technique of singing musical theater music in a legit style that sounded appropriate for the genre but did not affect our voices in a negative way. The end result was new way of making yourself more marketable as a singer in the world of music.” Mr. Milnes proved to be an excellent voice teacher, as Neil Eddinger, a member of the New York City Opera chorus for 20 years, wrote: “In my own case he pointed out two consistent flaws in my singing which I could start listening for and working to correct. He demonstrates an uncanny empathy for the beginning student and actually remembers what it was like to struggle with basic vocal problems.”
Why Go to a Summer Program? The best answer to this question came from a singer who went to a summer program a few years ago and is now able to see the result of her experience. Karie L. Kerner, who attended the East West International Festival, said, “It was time for me to start going to festivals. I was pursuing a Leider career and needed bigger contacts. Festivals are the greatest contact building venue for your life besides your school. The great thing about those festivals is that you are still coddled. You aren’t quite out there in the world. I’ve had contact with Herr Rapf for years afterwards. He’s been a huge mentor. I’ve gone back to Vienna many times and worked on Leider repertoire with him, and Arturo Sergi [program director] set me up with tons of auditions in Munich and Hamburg with top notch agents like Raab in Vein and Stoll in Munich. Private auditions, not cattle calls! I was able to use those contacts again when I went back and auditioned again. The auditions were fruitful. I now have a wonderful career in the Leider world.”
Loretta Montgomery loved her experience at the University of Miami School of Music at Salzburg this year. She was able to use the contacts as a springboard to her audition trip in Germany: “I have auditioned for [several] agents so far. I had about eight auditions in October. They have gone well for the most part, and I already have three agencies working for me.”
A soprano wrote the following about her reasons for attending a summer program: “Sometimes we come out of college and no one has believed in us. These programs did!”
A singer from Tanglewood wrote, “I wanted to meet other singers my age outside of my school, and see how I stood against them.”
Joey Collin wrote about Shaker Mountain, “I learned more in three weeks than most people do in two semesters in college. In addition, Joe Turi was an older singer who really took me under his wing and explained the professional world to me.”
A soprano wrote, “I became a professional singer by attending summer programs.” She had a great experience singing the title role of Manon at Music Academy of the West with Martial Singher. She said she was bored at Academie Int’l. D’ete de Nice in Nice, France (where another singer wrote of having an enlightening experience!). She then had a fabulous experience at the summer program at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She wrote, “It was well organized, and I was able to learn an entire Debussy song cycle in three weeks as well as being introduced to a lot of other material. We were given things to learn before arriving, as in the Music Academy in Santa Barbara, and it was rewarding.”
Elizabeth Sinton went to the Austrian American Mozart Academy because “…they did La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart, not only a more obscure opera not frequently done, but also one of my favorites which I had been studying for a few years.” Some people want to go to a foreign country. Elizabeth turned the tables and wrote, “I live overseas, and I wanted an excuse to be back in the US for the summer (AAMA was in Austin, Texas for one summer for security reasons).”
Neil Eddinger summed it up in his comments about VOICExperience: “It rekindled my enthusiasm and reminded me how fortunate we all are to be part of the world of classical singing.”
