Posts Categorized: Blog

We have discovered a new use for Facebook. Rahree casually mentioned on her FB status that the hotel seems intent on putting decaf coffee packets in the rooms. And that it was having a deleterious effect on her morning. Fast forward a couple of hours to checking into the Wortham Center for today’s auditions, at

And so it begins. In another rehearsal room in a series of towns that all begin to look the same. Friends are jealous when I tell them that November means Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York and Philadelphia. But it’s really an unbroken series of the insides of airplanes, taxicabs, rehearsal rooms

In his recent Auditions Schmauditions post, Chris Foley linked back to his recap of last year’s Wolf Trap Opera aria frequency list. In reviewing it, I remembered that Chris had wondered aloud which arias were sung by the singers who ended up being chosen for this year’s company. Here you go. The first selection is

Blogging has had to take a back seat to screening as we topped 1,000 applications. I truly hate this part of our process – not just because it means saying no (something I struggle with in all its guises), but because it means saying no in a very unsatisfying and incomplete fashion. We used to

Catching up with some more questions from the comments section of previous posts – answers from yours truly and my colleague CameraMan: Recently in an audition (where I offered Tu che di gel, Je veux vivre, Ach ich fuhl’s, and Sul fil d’un soffio etesio), I was chastised for offering both the Juliette and the

This is my least favorite part of our annual cycle, bar none. We’ve received about 1,000 applications for next month’s audition tour, and we need to pick fewer than half of those singers for our audition tour. Why? First (and least controversial), it’s sheerly mathematical. We (I) can only really hear about 30 people a

More questions via the comments section: Do you have any advice about how to enter the audition room, greet the panel, and set myself up to sing? This always feels so awkward. Are there any things singers do as they’re making their entrances and exits that are turn-offs? First of all, there’s no reason to

Sorry for the silence. The combination of fatigue from the 30-day July blogging blitz and the predictable end-of-season brain drain seems to have defeated me. Ariadne is yet to come, but first, it’s the onset of audition season! FILENE YOUNG ARTISTS APPLICATION DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 30 Houston, TX – November 6 Los Angeles, CA – November

I spent today revising the web pages for the 2009 audition tour applications. Official links and details will follow soon, but it looks as if all auditions will take place between November 6-22. The first deadline will be September 30. We’ll be in Houston, LA, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and, of course,

I’ve been enthusiastically following the posts and comments on the discussion of Historically Informed Performance (I do love that it’s called HIP… I need someone working on some awe-inspiring abbreviations for me…). Thanks to Brian Dickie for bringing this up, then following up. And hats off to Tim Nelson for his thoughtful and detailed explanation.