was your summer festival cancelled?
Join us for the viva festival!
The Virtual intensive vocal academy
presented by Opera project columbus
June 22-26, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT on Zoom
featuring our esteemed faculty
FACULTY AND COURSEs
Ed Bak
the music of language
Monday, June 22, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT
How characteristic features of the major singing languages (French, German, and Italian) influence musical style. Specific areas of focus are phrasing, inflections, and speech rhythms.
Ed Bak, pianist, is a professor in the vocal area at The Ohio State University School of Music. He was appointed to the full-time position in autumn 2014 following 10 years as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist in the school. He is highly sought after as a collaborator and appears regularly in concert with established artists and emerging talents, and has been heard in such venues as the Teatro Colon, The Monnaie, The Festival Lanaudiere, The Philips Collection, and Kolarac Hall. He is active as a chamber musician and has shared the stage with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony. He has also worked with great artist teachers like Renata Scotto, Ellen Faull, Shirlee Emmons, Renee Fleming, and John Shirley Quirk. He is a regular faculty member at Prelude to Performance in New York City, and at the AIMS institute in Graz, Austria.
WENDY TAUCHER
PERFORMANCE SKILLS FOR OPERA SINGERS
Tuesday, June 23, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT
Creating character through the heart, soul, body, and brain.
The workshop will explore the process a singer should bring to the creation of their role. Discussions will include how to access skills in acting movement, and interpretation while keeping musicality and vocal technique at the fore. The goal is to encourage singers to prepare their entire role while integrating all of the above mentioned considerations, have them ready at the first rehearsal, and evolve given the director’s overall concept and specific instructions.
New Yorker Wendy Taucher brings a unique experience to her work as a director/choreographer. Equally at home in opera, theater, and concert dance, career highlights include fellowships from the NEA and Jacob’s Pillow, Arezzo International Festival Best Direction, commissions from the Studios of Key West and Harkness Dance Foundation, work as a teaching artist at Lincoln Center Education, as an author for Pearson Education, and collaboration with the Jose Limon Dance Company. Wendy’s work has been favorably featured in media around the world including the New York Times, NPR Chicago/Cape and Islands/Key West/Nebraska, Village Voice, Dance Magazine, Opera News, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Times of London, La Republica, The Scottsman, MV Times and Slovenian TV. She produces salon operas annually on Martha’s Vineyard, NYC and on tour, with casts that often include soloists from the Metropolitan Opera and NYCO. She has directed/choreographed for Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, Eastman Opera Theatre, Connecticut Opera, Nevada Opera Theatre, Chelsea Opera, and Mississippi Opera among many other companies. Robert Brustein (founder of Yale Rep and Harvard’s ART) said of a Taucher’s recent Magic Flute “That was a truly splendid evening…Congratulations to all your performers. They are, without exception, superb. I am sure Mozart must have been happy too.”
GIUSEPPE FILIANOTI
SINGING THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE
Wednesday, June 24, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT
“What I do is the study of interpretation with words. It’s not strictly diction.”
This class will cover:
Pronunciation and articulation: the importance of the formation of vowels and consonants for an opera singer
How to unite the consonant with the vowel
Open and closed sounds depending on the different Italian vowels
Diction and interpretation in the Italian repertoire
Giuseppe Filianoti is one of the preeminent lyric tenors of his generation. Since his professional debut in 1998, Mr. Filianoti has emerged as a beacon of style and nuance in a wide-ranging repertoire. While the majority of his performances have centered on the Bel Canto and later 19th-century lyric Italian and French works, he has also successfully essayed roles by Cherubini and Mozart through such 20th century masters as Strauss, Debussy, and Stravinsky. His engagements have included a guest appearance by the Teatro alla Scala at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in Don Giovanni, the Verdi Requiem in Strasbourg, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s Gala (televised on “Live From Lincoln Center” series), both La Clemenza di Tito (including a “Live in HD” performance) and La Rondine at the Metropolitan Opera, Rigoletto with Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Clemenza di Tito for his company’s debut at Triests’s Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, and Les Contes d’Hoffman at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
Additionally Mr. Filianoti has also enjoyed frequent engagements at many of the world’s other leading opera houses including the Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden, Opera National di Paris, and both the Deutsche Oper and the Staatsoper Berlin among many others.
Many of the tenor’s performances of both rarely heard and popular works have appeared on CD and DVD on such labels as Opera Rara, Naxos, BMG/Ricordi, Bongiovanni, ROF, TDK, Arthaus Musik, La Voce, Dynamic, Hardy Classics, and CPO.
DEVON CASS
hOW TO GET THE PERFECT HEADSHOT AND IMAGE
Thursday, June 25, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT
NYC photographer and makeup artist Devon Cass teaches you a day to evening look perfect for auditions and performing. Then he will show you how to get an engaging marketable headshot that is sure to make you shine and get noticed.
Devon Cass: a makeup artist, photographer, master of the celebrity lookalike, author. All of Devon’s talents uniquely blend together to make whatever he does a pop culture phenomenon. He has been written up in top magazines from Marie Claire to Entertainment Weekly and appeared on almost every major television talk show throughout the US and Europe.
At the age of 21 Devon moved to NYC and by 22 had opened his first studio. His assignments included working with major recording companies as well as celebrities such as Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan, Isaac Hayes, Donna Karan, Traci Lords, recording artists such as Fabolus, Fatman Scoop, Leslie Uggams, LaToya from Destiny’s Child, Nancy Wilson, and more. Opera divas included Deborah Voigt, Denyce Graves, and Patricia Racette.
Devon has been hailed as a “makeup genius” in articles showcasing his talent such as in Glamour Magazine. His objective is to help give everyone the opportunity to feel, become and embody a more professional and celebrity styled image.
EMILIO PONs
AUDITIONING IN EUROPE
Friday, June 26, 1 pm - 2 pm EDT
A frank discussion about pitfalls and common mistakes many singers make when seeking work across the pond. Real and concrete advice about gaining the advantage in overseas auditions.
Dr. Emilio Pons (Mexico/Germany), tenor, has performed over 30 roles such as Taminoi, Don Ottavio, Ferrando, Lensky, Nemorino, Tom Rakewell, and many others across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
He has earned both a DM and an MM from the Indiana University School of Music as well as an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance from the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City.
Featured most prominently amongst the many opera houses and festivals in which he has performed are the Festival d’Aix-En-Provence, Theatre des Champs-Elyseeas, Mariinsky Theatre, Grand Theatre de Geneve, Royal Danish Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Grand Theatre de Luxembourg, Vlaamse Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, Opera de Bellas Artes, ec.
Known as a skilled polyglot, he speaks English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Russian fluently. He is co-founder of the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy, member of the European Cultural Parliament, and is also active internationally as an agent, having brokered contracts in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Mexico for a select number of internationally renowned clients.