AUDITIONS FOR SINGERS AGES 20-32
Eugene: Monday, March 8, 7:30-9:30 pm University of Oregon School of Music, Room 178
CORVALLIS: Tuesday, March 9, 7-9 pm, OSU Music Department, Benton Hall
Portland: Saturday, March 13, 12-5 pm, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Portland
SEATTLE: Saturday, March 20, Seattle Opera, 2-5 pm
Please contact Ruth Dobson directly at vocalacademy@astoriamusicfestival.org, dobsonr@pdx.edu
OR rdobson@uoregon.edu for an audition time on one of the above dates. A DVD/CD or audio file (MP3 format) is acceptable for singers who are unable to make either audition date or you may request an alternate time if it can be arranged. There is a $10 audition processing fee, which is payable at the time of the audition.
Audition repertoire: Please prepare 2 memorized operatic arias of contrasting style and language and one art song, a resume and a complete repertoire list of art song divided into categories of French, German, English, and Italian, plus a list of operatic arias you would be prepared to present during the Festival for master classes or performances. An accompanist will be provided.
You will be notified of acceptance into the program by April 1
Tuition for the apprentice program is $950. Half payment ($475) will be due as a deposit by April 15, and the other half by May 15. There are no exceptions to this timeline. Some scholarship help is available. If you wish to be considered for scholarship help, please submit a letter outlining your need at the time of the audition. Housing is provided and will be either homestays or group dormitory housing. Singers are responsible for their own meals during the Festival. Checks should be made out to Astoria Music Festival and mailed to the above address.
Faculty:
Ruth Dobson, Director of Apprentices, Performance Class
Dorothy Danner, Stage Director
Luke Housner, Coach/Accompanist
Richard Zeller, Master Classes and Coachings
Additional Master Classes/Classes will be scheduled with visiting artists of the Astoria Music Festival.
ABOUT THE APPRENTICE PROGRAM
The Apprentice Program of the Astoria Music Festival accepts 15-20 advanced young singers each summer. Singers will receive coaching in song and operatic literature, performance opportunities in both recital settings and staged operatic scenes, and participate in master classes with visiting Festival artists.
Apprentices will be considered for solo roles with the professional productions of the Festival and will sing in the chorus as needed and assigned. Apprentices will need to be in Astoria for the entire two weeks of the Festival. Private lessons with faculty can be arranged ad additional cost. In addition to the staged scenes program and other apprentice performances, there are solo roles available for apprentices in Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, in the new Musica Sacra series on Sunday mornings, in the Festival Opera, Wozzeck, and in the Festival All-Stars Grand Finale.
2010 Festival Highlights
Friday, June 18 Gala Opening: An American SongFest, Broadway and Blues
Norman Leyden, Conductor
Thomas Lauderdale plays Rhapsody in Blue
Katie Harman and Richard Zeller sing Broadway
Saturday, June 19 Festival Orchestra: Scandinavian Midsummer Night
Sibelius, Finlandia (with North Coast Chorale)
Sibelius, Violin Concerto
Elizabeth Pitcairn, Violin Solo
Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite (Complete Incidental Music)
Astoria Festival Apprentice Vocal Artists, Ruth Dobson, Director
Sunday, June 20 11:30 am Musica Sacra: "Coffee, Croissants and Cantatas"
Pergolesi, Stabat Mater
J. S. Bach, Psalm 51 "Remove My Sins, Oh Lord"
4:00pm Festival Chamber Players
Richard Zeller, Baritone
Elizabeth Pitcairn, Violin
Sergey Antonov, Cello
Tuesday, June 22 Festival Academy Apprentices Artists: Opera Scenes
Wednesday June 23 Chamber Concert: Vienna, City of Dreams Pierrot Lunaire
Thursday, June 24 Too Much Coffee Man! The Opera
Friday, June 25 Festival Orchestra with Sergey Antonov, Cello
Mozart, Overture
Schumann, Cello Concerto
Sergey Antonov Cello
Saturday, June 26 7:30 pm Festival Opera: Alban Berg's Wozzeck
Sunday, June 27 11:30 am, Musica Sacra: "Coffee, Croissants, and Cantatas"
United Methodist Church
4:00 pm Festival All Stars & Apprentices Grand Finale
ABOUT THE ASTORIA MUSIC FESTIVAL
Keith Clark, Artistic Director
www.astoriamusicfestival.org
The 8th annual Astoria Music Festival will take place at the Historic Liberty Theater in Astoria, Oregon from June 11-27, 2010. Festival performances for 2010 will include Alban Berg's great opera, Wozzeck, and Scandinavian Midsummer Night, featuring the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. Guest artists in 2010 include violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn, cellist Sergey Antonov, baritones Richard Zeller and Victor Benedetti, and sopranos Katie Harman and Amy Hansen.
Recent performances of the Festival have included Purcell's The Fairy Queen, named by the Oregonian as one of the best productions in the state in 2009, The Tragedy of Carmen, Der Stein der Weisen , highlights from West Side Story, concert versions of La Traviata, Falstaff. Rigoletto and Cosi fan tutte, and fully staged productions of The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. The Astoria Music Festival received the Ovation Award for best Festival in the State of Oregon in 2008.
FACULTY BIOS:
Dorothy Danner, Stage director, was co-founder of the Glimmerglass Young Artist Program, has served on the faculties of the Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music, and is a frequent guest director at Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. She recently returned to Virginia Opera to direct Lucia di Lammermoor, having directed highly successful productions last season of Bizet's Carmen and the company premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. She has also previously directed for Virginia Opera Thea Musgrave's A Christmas Carol, The Opera; Tosca; Porgy and Bess; Die Fledermaus; The Merry Widow, and La Traviata. She has staged operas for Glimmerglass, Houston, Minnesota, Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco Opera and Portland Opera. She garnered wide critical acclaim for A Midsummer Night's Dream at Juilliard; for the PBS television showing of Ballymore; and the Boston Pops' Tribute to Gilbert and Sullivan. Ms. Danner's recent productions include the Washington National Opera premiere of Audition starring Placido Domingo and Kristin Chenoweth, Hansel and Gretel for Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Merry Widow for Kansas City, La Fancuilla del West for Tampa Bay, The Barber of Seville for Portland Opera, La Fille de Regiment for Cincinnati Opera, Three Penny Opera for Opera Omaha, Tartuffe for Skylight Opera, and La Boheme for San Antonio Opera,
Luke Housner, principal coach/accompanist, is a member of the coaching faculty at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia. Of their recent production of Richard Strauss' Capriccio, critics raved, including Robert Baxter at Concertonet.com: "Pianist Luke Housner has prepared a delectable production of Capriccio that drew enthusiastic approval on opening night from a capacity audience. Presiding at the keyboard, Housner revealed the lyrical beauty of Strauss final opera. He played with compelling beauty and musical mastery, honing his talented cast into a taut ensemble. The big concerted numbers unfolded with rare precision but also with a passionate edge. Housner shaped this long score with a fine feel for the climaxes and also underlined the soaring lyricism in Strauss' music." In previous seasons at AVA, he was musical director for a conductor-less, fully staged production of Janacek's Kat a Kabanova, Barber'sVanessa, Wagner's Das Rheingold and Strauss' Elektra. In 2006, he was a guest vocal coach at the Central City Opera Festival and guest vocal coach at Portland Opera for their Young Artist Studio, as well as serving as a coach, continuo player and chorus master for Portland Opera's Don Giovanni. Mr. Housner joined the Academy of Vocal Arts music faculty and the Curtis Institute of Music opera department in 1996. He earned a Master's Degree of Music in Vocal Accompanying and Coaching from University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana with instruction from internationally acclaimed vocal coach John Wustman.
Ruth Dobson, Apprentice program director, performance class, was awarded the 2007 Oregon Governor's Arts Award for her longtime distinguished work in the field of voice and opera education. Currently a member of the voice faculty at the University of Oregon, she retired in 2005 from Portland State University, where for 28 years she was Director of Opera, also teaching voice, vocal pedagogy, and song literature. Under her direction, PSU Opera productions of Le nozze di Figaro in 2000 and Don Giovanni in 2003 won first place in the National Opera Association competition. For ten years she was Founding Artistic Director of Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute at PSU. In addition to her work as Co-Founder and Apprentice Director of the Astoria Music Festival, she is Artistic Director of Portland SummerFest and on the Board of Directors of the National Opera Association. Her many current and former voice students are singing professionally throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Kelley Nassief, Audrey Elizabeth Luna, Clayton Brainerd, Anna Jablonski, Charlotte Pistor, Katie Harman, and many others. Dobson has been a frequent soloist with most of the major performing arts organizations in the Northwest, including the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Abbey Bach Festival, and the Peter Britt Festival. She received her master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she held a fellowship as an opera coach/accompanist. She has since returned to the University of Cincinnati to give master classes for the Grandin Festival.
Richard Zeller, Baritone, is internationally acclaimed for his concert and opera roles. His recent engagements include the roles of Macbeth and Valentin in
Faust for Portland Opera, Marcello in
La Boheme and
Tannhauser at the Metropolitan Opera, and Scottish Opera's widely heralded award-winning production of
Macbeth directed by Luc Bondy at its Edinburgh Festival premiere in 1999/00 and revival at the Vienna Festival. Highlights of past seasons include Metropolitan Opera performances of Giordano's
Andrea Chenier and Gounod's
Faust, and Chicago Lyric Opera's
Boris Godunov and
Andrea Chenier. He has performed Gluck's
Alceste at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Gluck's
Iphigenie en Tauride in Madrid. He has frequently performed the role of Germont in Verdi's
La Traviata in opera and concert venues that include Hamburgische Staatsoper, San Diego Opera, Scottish Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Rotterdam, Portland SummerFest and the Astoria Music Festival. Other Verdi baritone roles include Amonasro in
Aida with Portland Opera and Florida Philarmonic; the title role in
Rigoletto with New York City Opera; and Count di Luna in
Il Trovatore with both San Diego Opera and Scottish Opera.
