“Everybody says don’t it isn’t right, don’t it isn’t nice . . . don’t get out of line . . .” Ever wondered if, as a classical singer, it might be fun to sing music theatre repertoire? Have you wondered if there was a difference in how you would sing it? Ever asked yourself, “Will it ruin my voice . . . can I do both?” Well, how do you know unless you give it a try? Come sing your favorite piece of music theatre or classical repertoire and find out. “. . . don’t be afraid!” —Stephen Sondheim (Anyone Can Whistle)

Mezzo-soprano Dianna Heldman is currently the associate director for the Program in Vocal Performance, the Steinhardt School, New York University, where she teaches voice, opera workshop, and vocal pedagogy. Her performing career extends throughout the U.S. performing principle roles with Birmingham Opera Theater, Indianapolis Opera, Lyric Opera of Dallas, Opera Festival of New Jersey, The Florentine Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Memphis, Kentucky Opera, Lyric Opera of San Antonio, and Opera North.

Michael Ricciardone has worked extensively in musical theatre and classical music both as a singer/performer and as a pianist, coach, conductor, and master teacher. He joined the national tour of Sunset Boulevard in 1999, performing the role of Max. In the summer of 1998 he starred as Georges in the Theatrefest production of La Cage aux Folles at Montclair State University.

Great singers all have excellent posture. Why? We will explore what the vocal benefits are for improved posture, how it develops and why it is essential. In this practical, hands-on, interactive class Karen Brunssen will share practical ways to improve your singing through easily assimilated attention to those muscles that develop into the best posture for singing. Find out what both the immediate and long-term benefits might be for your voice.

Karen Brunssen is coordinator of the Voice and Opera Program at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. Brunssen’s performing career throughout the U.S. and Europe spans over 30 years in concert, oratorio, recital, and opera. Her students sing with the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship, Santa Fe, Chautauqua, Chicago Opera Theatre, Glimmerglass, and more. Noted for her lively workshops and masterclasses, Brunssen is a frequent clinician and has done weeklong teaching residencies at Cambridge University in England during the past three years.

Mimi in Rent is not Mimì in La bohème. Although the roles are based on the same character, the two shows require different styles of singing. In this masterclass Margaret Garrett will work with singers on producing healthy and stylistically correct musical theatre techniques. Topics may include belting, faux belt, and mixed voice. To participate, register at the Ouachita Baptist University booth.

Margaret Garrett is an assistant professor of music at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where she teaches studio voice and vocal literature. Her DMA is from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, MM from Indiana University-Bloomington, and BM from North Carolina School of the Arts. Garrett has performed as a soloist in oratorios, orchestral and chamber works, and opera. Her students have performed lead roles in opera and professional musical theatre.

Tenor Salvatore Champagne joined the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory in 2004. From 1989-98 he appeared as leading lyric tenor in European opera houses, including the Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro Bellini, and Opéra du Rhin. A winner of several prestigious singing and teaching awards, his students have also been recognized with prizes in numerous vocal competitions, including the finals of the Metropolitan Opera Council auditions, and appear regularly with apprentice programs and professional performing organizations throughout the U.S. and Europe.

This masterclass for singers interested in finding more efficient breath management and support will emphasize the bel canto technique. Singers will perform a selection (or segment) and then Marilyn Mims will diagnose ways the singer can be more efficient in managing breath and providing support for the tone through practical demonstrations and applications.

Marilyn Mims debuted during the 1987-88 season as leading lady with the New York City Opera in La traviata, at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York in Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, and with the Metropolitan Opera in Die Fledermaus. During the next seven seasons she sang seven major roles at the Metropolitan Opera (Violetta, Fiordiligi, Konstanze, Gilda, Lucia, Rosalinde, and Donna Anna) including two live Saturday afternoon broadcasts as Violetta and Fiordiligi, with James Levine conducting. Her performance of Ortlinde in Levine’s recording of Wagner’s Die Walküre earned her a Grammy Award. In 1995 she retired from full-time professional stage pursuits and teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic University where she teaches voice and is producing director of the Opera Workshop Program.

Have you ever heard a singer with a beautiful voice and perfect technique and still felt strangely unmoved, as if something were missing? Chances are, that singer was lacking authenticity in some form or another. To be authentic, a singer must be true—true to the music, true to the text, true to the character, true to the voice, true to the emotions, true to the self. Bring an aria or art song, and we will explore ways to create a polished performance that is still truly and uniquely your own.

Pianist and mezzo-soprano Louise Lofquist is visiting assistant professor of music at Pepperdine University, where she serves as voice teacher, opera coach, and accompanist. She made her pianistic debut with the National Symphony at age 18 and subsequently received degrees in history from Duke and Stanford, and later in music from UC/Santa Barbara and USC. She is active as a collaborative pianist, solo pianist, and singer in southern California. As a collaborative pianist she has appeared with such artists as baritone Rodney Gilfry, soprano Jessica Rivera, violinist Gilles Apap, and clarinetist Fred Ormand. As a solo pianist, she has lately performed concertos of Shostakovich, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. As a mezzo-soprano, she has been enjoying the oratorio repertoire, heard most recently as alto soloist in Handel's Messiah at Pepperdine.

This masterclass will be about the world of imagination that the singer creates for every song and aria he or she sings. Learn how to create specific imagery as initiated by the text and its setting, and how to draw in the listener to join you on our emotional journey.

Hailed by the New York Times as “one of our most elegant and intelligent singers,” Jon Garrison has had a long and distinguished international career in concert and opera. He has sung with over 80 opera companies around the world, including the Met, English National, Paris, and Hamburg. He has appeared with over 120 symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and most of the major orchestras of this country and Great Britain. Garrison is Artist in Residence at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J.

In this masterclass for young vocalists, Jane Randolph will provide artistic feedback as well as technical advice on how to sing in the healthiest way possible. With over 25 years of experience working closely with vocalists and other instrumentalists for whom breath support is vital to performance, Randolph offers a unique and focused approach to singing that enables students to perform with greater freedom and effortlessness. This approach, combined with her extensive background in opera, recital and oratorio repertoire, will create a valuable learning experience for participants and audience members alike.

Jane Randolph's 25 years of experience teaching voice to students has led her across North America from L'Atelier de L'Opéra de Montréal and L'Université de Montréal to establishing private studios in San Diego, San Francisco, and New York. Her students have sung in major national and international opera companies and have been winners of countless prestigious competitions, such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the San Francisco Opera Auditions, and the Operalia-Domingo Competition. After completing her studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, Randolph spent four seasons as a coloratura soprano at the Staatstheater in Luzern, Switzerland. She subsequently enjoyed an extensive career in opera, recital, and oratorio in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Randolph is renowned for her commitment to her students as well as her passion for the art of singing.

Excellent audition techniques are essential for singers. Christine Anderson presents a workshop on audition techniques to give singers the tools needed to create a dynamic first impression. In a class geared towards college-bound vocalists, Anderson will work with performers to uncover the dramatic intent of songs and how to project it, make technical comments on diction and presentation skills, and give advice on selecting repertoire appropriate for the college audition.

Soprano Christine Anderson is the chair of the Department of Voice and Opera at the Boyer College of Music and Dance of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. She holds a BM from Illinois Wesleyan University and earned both MM and DMA degrees at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, where she also taught in the Musical Theatre Department. Anderson has presented masterclasses and papers at many conferences including the Australia Voice Symposium and the Hawaii International Conference. She has also served as clinician and adjudicator for several organizations including NATS and the Voice Foundation.

This class will look at the total audition process from résumés and headshots, to audition attire, to the singer-actor as auditioner, to how to bring performance skills to the audition. The class is designed to be an interactive discussion as well as a mock-audition masterclass. Opera or art song repertoire are welcome.

Stage director and bass-baritone Paul Houghtaling is the director of the Opera Department at the University of Alabama. He is in increasing demand as a teacher and workshop presenter for Young Artist Programs and has performed and directed a wide variety of repertoire throughout the U.S. and Europe. Learn more at www.paulhoughtaling.com.

Combining classical vocal technique with an in-depth look at style, text, situation and character, this class will explore with an eye toward audition or recital preparation some standard songs of the American Musical Theatre repertoire written between 1940 and 1960 by artists such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Frank Loesser, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter.

Jennifer Bird has performed more than 50 roles in opera, operetta and musical in both Europe and the U.S. Highlights have included Maria in West Side Story, Violetta in La traviata at the Bremer Theater, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, and Euridice in Orphée aux Enfers at the Vienna Volksoper. Bird is a member of the voice faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Singer-actors assume the need for vocal technique. But there is also a learnable technique to approach the universal problem of gesturing while singing. This workshop will provide a useful and practical vocabulary and method to demystify this process and help remedy the problem of physical awkwardness on stage.

Joseph Evans has appeared as leading tenor at La Scala, New York City Opera, the English National Opera, Venice, Switzerland, the Houston Grand Opera, San Diego, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Palm Beach, Boston, and Cleveland. Recordings include Bellini’s I Capuletti ed i Montecchi, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, Dvorák’s American Cantata, and both Of Mice and Men and Cold Sassy Tree by Carlisle Floyd. Recent directorial duties with American opera companies include Tosca, L’Elisir d’amore, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, and Il barbiere di Siviglia. He is professor of music and coordinator of Voice Studies at the University of Houston Moores School of Music.

Buck Ross is director of the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston. Noted for his work in contemporary opera, he recently directed productions of The Ghosts of Versailles, A Wedding, Flight, The Grapes of Wrath, and Florencia en el Amazonas. He is the librettist for Robert Nelson’s A Room with a View. He holds an M.F.A. in stage direction from the University of Minnesota where he was an assistant to H. Wesley Balk.

What element of your singing, if improved, would enhance significantly the overall quality of your performance? Is your biggest challenge breath management and support? Legato line? Negotiating the passaggio and the following high or low pitches? Resonance and blending of registers? Issues with performance anxiety, focus on stage, or interpretation of a text? Whatever musical, vocal, or dramatic issue is troubling you this class will offer suggestions for strengthening your “weakest link” and creating a more confident, enjoyable performance for both singer and listener.

Jean del Santo, associate professor of voice at University of Minnesota, Minn., has sung as soloist with the late Robert Shaw in performances of Britten’s War Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9. With regional opera companies throughout the country she has sung the roles of Countess, Pamina. Susannah. Fiordiligi, Mimi, Musetta, and Cio-cio San. In San Francisco Opera’s production of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen under conductor Edo de Waart, del Santo sang the roles of Ortlinda and Wellgunde. She has also served as an on-site evaluator for the Opera/Musical Theater division of the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to her musical pursuits Ms. del Santo is a certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Her teaching style is a unique combination of imagery and metaphor infused with a solid knowledge of vocal physiology and anatomy.