Opera academy attracts top voices, coaches

The Don Wright Faculty of Music is opening its doors to Canadian university students and emerging operatic professionals to study with renowned faculty and guest presenters from around the world and within the Western community from May 4-23. This is the first year of the program.

To be considered, interested students must complete an application and live audition. The application deadline is Friday, Nov. 28.

Music performance studies professor and program director Sophie Roland-Wieczorek says the three-week session will give students an opportunity to ‘exercise’ their vocal skills during the off-season after the school year.

“Singing is like any sport, it needs constant supervision and practice,” she says.

Students will be studying the various aspects of an opera production, including role preparation, performance practice, dramatic exercises and study, audition training, promotion, management and vocal and physical health.

As the world of opera continues to change with the crossover of film directors into the opera industry, Roland-Wieczorek says special attention will be paid to stage technique, including character development, stage deportment and character interaction.

The workshop culminates with a public performance.

“I’m really hoping to focus on the process of putting an opera production together or becoming an opera singer, rather than the final product,” she says.

Similar operatic programs are offered in the United States and Europe during the summer months, but these can be costly. “I prefer bringing faculty here and keeping the cost down,” she says, adding May represents an off-season for faculty as well.

Roland-Wieczorek says the program is “about taking risks” and the ability to adapt into a medium that is reinventing itself.

“The balance of acting and singing has changed,” she says. “We have to train them to be singing actors and acting singers.”

Roland-Wieczorek is no stranger to such a challenge. She initiated a similar program at Indiana University.

The program will act as a complement to an already well-established opera program at Western under the direction of Theodore Baerg. It also poses an opportunity for students to learn alongside internationally acclaimed performers and coaches.

Roland-Wieczorek drew on her own contacts and colleagues to assemble the impressive list of faculty and guest presenters. “I’m pleased with who we have on board,” she says.

In addition to Baerg, who will act as a vocal coach, the faculty and guest presenters include: Canadian mezzo-soprano Kimberly Barber from Wilfred Laurier University; New York Festival of Song’s artistic director and Juilliard School faculty member Steven Blier; award-winning Canadian theatre actor and director Jack Grinhaus; collaborative pianist and Don Wright Faculty of Music Assistant Professor Carolyn Herrington; and soprano and Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal director Chantal Lambert.

Co-founder of The Dance Movement in London, Ont. and nationally recognized choreographer Ashley Morrow; Italian opera coach and director Simone Luti; director and founder of the American Opera Theater Timothy Nelson; Western’s head opera coach and pianist Mark Payne; London, Ont. freelance pianist Suzy Smith; and founding artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria Timothy Vernon round out the list of instructors.

Twenty-five students will be selected for the program and the age limit is 34 years old. Applications must perform three arias at the audition, in at least two languages. They will also be required to recite a monologue.

The audition dates are as follows:

London – Dec. 12
Toronto – Dec. 15
Montreal – Jan. 15
Winnipeg – Jan. 17

Singers who reside more than 350 kilometres from an audition site may submit a DVD recording in lieu of a live audition. The recording is due no later than Jan. 17.

For more information on the Canadian Operatic Arts Academy, visit www.music.uwo.ca.