Studio Day 3 – New York

Monday was spent listening to candidates for our studio, hearing singers who are doing undergrad study or just beginning a graduate degree. This is tough stuff. Not because these kids aren’t talented, but because it takes an entirely different kind of listening and discernment. My hat is off to those folks in university and conservatory who regularly listen to 18-year-olds and have to make any kind of judgment call about who gets into a program, who gets scholarships, etc. It too often feels like a crap shoot at this early age.

Mezzo vs. Soprano

Give me a day or two, and I’ll respond to the comments that Sunday’s post generated. I’m struggling with some significant mental fatigue and trying to reserve my few moments of clarity for the auditions themselves.

The Shorter List

Some things are falling off the Longest Short List; other things rising toward the top. Here, the newest version. But don’t hold me to it.

This list is for The Barns only. The Filene Center is an entirely different animal, with its own very short list. But that’s a story for another day.

Where Do These People Come From?

The second in a series of regular postings listing the universities and conservatories from which this year’s auditionees hail. If you’re considering a career in opera, and you’d like to know where the schools are, this might be of interest.

In each city there are a few people who travel from other parts of the country because they have a date conflict with our auditions in their home area (for example, someone from Rice University traveling to New York because the Houston audition date was inconvenient). I’m not listing those outliers, but rather the schools that line up geographically with each part of the country we visit. I’ve put an asterisk by the ones that show up with more frequency.

From the Seattle auditions:

Graduate Programs
University of Colorado
University of Kansas
University of Washington

Young Artist Programs
Seattle Opera
Portland Opera

From the Chicago auditions:

Graduate Programs
DePaul University
Indiana University*
Northwestern University*
Roosevelt University (CCPA)
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music*
University of Colorado
University of Illinois*
University of Michigan
University of Northern Iowa
University of Iowa

Young Artist Programs
Lyric Opera of Chicago*
Chicago Opera Theatre
Forth Worth Opera

From the New York auditions:

(Although many people travel to New York to audition, this list focuses on the institutions in New York and New England. I’ll cover the mid-Atlantic and southeast later.)

Undergraduate Programs
Boston Conservatory
Boston University
Columbia University
Eastman School of Music*
Hofstra University
Hunter College
Ithaca College
Manhattan School of Music*
Mannes School of Music
New England Conservatory*
Oberlin College
Penn State University
Queens College
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Purchase
The Juilliard School*
University of Connecticut
Westminster Choir College of Rider University
Yale University*

Graduate Programs
Bard College Conservatory of Music
Binghamton University
Boston University*
Columbia University
Eastman School of Music*
Juilliard Opera Center* (sometimes classified as a young artist program)
Manhattan School of Music*
Mannes School of Music
New England Conservatory*
The Juilliard School*
Yale University

Young Artist Programs
These aren’t geographically limited to the northeast. This is a full list of the YAPs represented by this week’s singers.

Connecticut Opera
Florida Grand Opera
Forth Worth Opera
Indianapolis Opera
Metropolitan Opera
Orlando Opera
Pittsburgh Opera
Sarasota Opera
Seattle Opera
Tri-Citis Opera
Virginia Opera

Sono stanca

Hoping to break through this wall of fatigue any minute now. I was counting on the 2-mile commute from the hotel to the audition site to energize me, but it hasn’t exactly kicked in…

Back soon.

Back soon.