<p>Brevard Music Festival, Chautauqua Summer Music Festival, Opera in the Ozarks, or The Seagle Colony ...</p>
<p>If you had the choice to make between these four summer music programs/festivals for opera (vocal performance), which would you choose, and why? I'm asking for an undergraduate student, if that makes a difference in your answer. Assume that all costs will be equal, please. I'm just asking about the musical, vocal performance 'experience.'</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, none of these programs are really suitable for undergrads. Although Opera in the Ozarks does occasionally take a younger (usually senior in college who knows one of the teachers on staff there) student for their Studio Artist division, the singers these programs want are older, graduate school or beyond age who are ready to head for good YAPS or embark upon a professional career.
These are intense programs, requiring a lot of singing, and that just isn’t good for younger voices. While it’s wonderful to aspire to great things, damaging one’s voice needs to be avoided at all costs Another thing to always keep in mind is that you get “one chance to make a first impression” as the saying goes, and to audition when too young and not up to the required standard can land a singer on the “do not listen to again” list- yes, those DO exist. I know of a very talented young woman who did, in fact, audition a few years ago, while still an undergrad, for some well-known summer programs; she was just not able to sing at the level of the older, better trained students. She has a lovely voice and is doing very well as she finishes grad school, but she is not welcome to re-audition at those programs now because of her earlier attempts. Had she waited, she would have been able to take full advantage of what these fine programs had to offer.
I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade here, but there is plenty of time!</p>
<p>Unless things have changed dramatically in recent years, Brevard has always been a program which catered to undergrads. They even have a high school program, now, I hear. You might give that one a closer look.</p>
<p>twodown- they do have a high school summer program at Brevard but it’s make-up is very different from that offered in the higher division. The HS students take a range of classes, including theory and music lit. The program itself is titled “Voice”, is Art Song based and is for students aged 15 thru their senior year in HS.
In contrast, the other program is listed as “Opera” and the median age in that division is around 23, so there are singers in there who are 25 plus. Those are fully-staged operas, and it’s just not safe, nor necessary for younger students to be singing over and orchestra.
I know of singers who have auditioned for/attended each of the listed programs and those accepted were all older. Again, there is plenty of time for these things…</p>
<p>Mezzo’sMama, the undergraduate student I’m referring to has already been formally accepted into one of them and informally told to expect an acceptance to 2 of the others. We don’t yet know about the fourth. Now decisions are upon us. And in quick order, unfortunately. (The student has no connections to any of the programs’ faculty or administration, btw.)</p>
<p>The student’s voice teacher, vocal coaches, and opera director all supported and even encouraged the decision to audition and attend if accepted. </p>
<p>The programs are all reputable, with reputable faculty, so we were assuming they would not do anything to damage the voice. Is that not a good assumption? They also advertise their programs for ages 18 and up, 20 and up, or 21 and up.</p>
<p>Do you happen to know anything about the Programs themselves that would make one more suitable or advantageous than another?</p>
<p>The chance to study with Ms Malas (Chautauqua) appears to be a huge draw. Right?</p>
<p>All of these programs have a good reputation. If your singer is a lighter voice female, it is possible that the role assigned would be fine. If the singer has a lot more color to the voice and might be assigned more dramatic roles, the whole prospect is risky. Ditto for male voices: if a light tenor or lyric baritone, what he may be assigned could be OK. If a deeper voice and/or leaning to a more spinto sound, the younger singer will not have a healthy endurance. There are possibly exceptions to these guidelines. If you would care to send me more specific information about the singer in a private message, what repertory was sung at auditions, where the singer studies, etc., I would have a more accurate perspective.</p>
<p>^Thank you! I’m on my way to Europe for a few days. Will PM you tomorrow from there, if I can find a computer! Time is of the essence.
:)</p>
<p>I’m PMing with the ever-helpful lorelei. Thanks to her and Mezzo’sMama and twodown for sharing your knowledge of these programs! I appreciate it!</p>
<p>Is there anybody else out there who’s had experience with any of these programs that can fill us in? The student has to submit a decision right away. And we pretty much know only what’s available on the programs’ websites. </p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>SimpleLife I was trying to PM you but it would not go through. I have general info on one of the places on your list that probably will not influence your decision, but will be happy to share if you are interested and can PM me.</p>
<p>^Yeah, sorry about that. My account is set up to accept PMs from ‘contacts’ or ‘friends’ only. I’ll change that now. That should fix the problem. It’s interesting to me … I guess this is pretty much a PM sort of subject! :)</p>
<p>^^Oh brother, CLRN8MOM, I’m sorry! Now my inbox is full! And I’m in Europe, so I can’t save the current messages yet – and therefore can’t delete them. I’ll clear out some space when I return this evening. THEN, you’ll be able to PM me. So sorry for the inconvenience! Would love to hear what you have to say! Should be good by late tonight … :)</p>
<p>If you go into CC through Google or Safari, you can edit and delete, but not if you go through CC app. I could not even access messages through the app, but linked from email notice of message, and it worked just like from regular site on laptop. Similar problems with Facebook app.</p>
<p>Lorelei,thanks so much for clarifying that! I’ve been unable to access things via my iPhone or iPad and didn’t know why. Have you sent a message to the main board moderator to let him know if the limitations? He was great about tweaking the iPhone App when I pointed out a problem, so hopefully they can work on these things too.</p>
<p>^^Oh my gosh. That is so good to know! I couldn’t figure out WHY I couldn’t access my messages on my iPhone. “Invalid Thread” or something like that. Thanks again, lorelei!</p>
<p>i was accepted to chautauqua for violin with a three quarters scholarship. how is the level of playing at chautauqua ?</p>
<p>Level of play is pretty darn high. It’s not the <em>highest</em> of all the summer programs but it’s definitely still a first-tier program for instrumentalists. But really, if it barely costs anything, DO IT.</p>
<p>how about comparing it to bowdoin. i mean including living costs i’m paying in the range of 800-900.</p>