Today, we take a momentary break from chronicling the 2015 season in order to give a shout-out to singers and pianists who are interested in working with us next year. That’s right: you can now apply for an audition for summer 2016. How To Get Started Go to our Auditions page for full dates, deadlines, instructions and a link
Read MorePosts Categorized: Auditions
End of the Road
We’re home at The Barns, and I continue to fall down on the blogging job. :( The fatigue is increasingly overwhelming as we push toward the audition tour finish line tomorrow at 6pm! Of course, the finish line is just another term for the starting gate for the repertoire and casting process. Wish us luck as we
Read MoreHigh Risk Arias!
Our Chicago week was spent in a lovely room with natural light at Pianoforte Studios on S. Michigan. The staff was terrific, the acoustics was blessedly neutral, and we were surrounded by keyboard instruments. (There’s a Grotrian Steinweg under wraps in the far right corner of the photo; it’s the twin of my piano at
Read More‘Nati Road Trip!
Cincinnati auditions came and went, in a whirlwind 2.5 days. Our 5:30am departure for the airport on Saturday morning (following this absolutely beautiful Friday night concert that Lee Anne booked) turned into the beginning of a road trip, as our flight into CVG was cancelled, and no others were available to get us into town
Read MoreAudition Season, A to Z
Tomorrow will be spent packing, in preparation for the WAS-NYP-CVG-ORD-PHL-LAX-SFO-SEA-IAH-IAD 8,000-mile/1,000-aria adventure that is the next 6 weeks. As I get ready, I’m aware that many of you need to get your heads in the game for your own audition odysseys. To that end, here’s a look back at various bits of audition season advice
Read MoreFrom the Horses’ Mouth(s)
Enough of me writing audition season advice. (Well, not really… I will weigh in eventually…) This year you’re going to hear from those who have been there: working singers who have learned things the hard way. I’ve asked Wolf Trap Opera alumni to send me audition advice that they’d like to share with young artists, and so far
Read MoreAria Frequency: Observations
Today’s post is for those of you who are fans of the Aria Frequency Lists, my annual autumn accounting of the popularity of various audition arias. Our audition application website captures singers’ arias lists (or “packages”) in a way that allows us to churn out this data every year. (For those of you who wonder
Read MoreRecognizing Talent
I drop back into the blogosphere today after a few weeks of radio silence brought to you by the post-audition-tour casting frenzy. We’re consumed with the first step of our freakishly fast pre-production process which takes us from a blank slate to opening night in 6 months. And of course, until the smoke begins to
Read MoreAudition Tour 2014: Singing on the Left Coast
Auditions in LA got us off to a marvelous start for our west coast leg. (My own Pacific sojourn had already started with a brief personal trip to Seattle, where sadly, the lack of a Young Artist Program at Seattle Opera now means that it is no longer a must-hear stop on our audition travels.)
Read MoreSummer 2014: The Short List
We’re at the halfway point of the audition tour (10 days down, 10 to go), and certain operas in the future repertoire database are beginning to edge out others. Of course, anything can change (and does…) right up until the last day of the auditions. (Last year’s casts for our Verdi operas came together on
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