Florence Voice Seminar 2005
This past summer, I did the Florence Voice Seminar program. It was a little over three weeks long and clearly, in Florence, Italy. I <3 Tuscany.
I studied with Julian Rodescu. I love him as a teacher and learned so much from him. The other voice teachers include Laura Brooks Rice, Sally Wolf and Ms. Benita Valente. Every single one of these people is not only a fantastic teacher, but have had extensive careers. They teach along the same lines so they work as a team.. it's very comforting. The coaches were unbelievable too: Debra Scurto-Davis, Grant Wenaus and Martha Collins.
A typical day consisted of acting master class for 2 hours in the morning (for the first week, and then we took time to sight see with our tour guide the last 2 weeks during those hours). I had a lesson at noon and a coaching at 12:30. I grabbed lunch before my two hours of Advanced Italian in the afternoon. Sometimes I had an opera scene coaching at 5 and then i grabbed dinner before the master class. This was my daily schedule, give or take a coaching. The 3 weeks were intense. We had a 30 min lesson every single day where we went over rep - eventually one or two of your strongest pieces/arias would be picked for the ending recital concerts. We were each assigned opera scenes based on our original audition. I sang "Sull'Aria".. a simple duet because I wanted to cover as much rep with Julian as possible. There were two concluding recitals at the nearby church. We had to split it into two nights because there were 30 of us and whole lot of rep.
What else? Oh. Facilities. Our main space is a villa that belongs to the widow of a descendent of a Florentine Duke or something. It's enormous and beautiful. Most of the students lived in the 4th and 5th floor of the main house. Others stayed in the guest house of the villa and some students were housed in apartments nearby. Weekend trips include San Gimignano and Siena.
I don't know what else to say. I loved this program though. I learned so much about performance aspect of an Aria (Martha Collins is really one of the best coaches I've ever worked with). The atmosphere is so supportive. They push you to your potential and the outcomes are amazing.
My Pictures
Florence Voice Seminar
I studied with Julian Rodescu. I love him as a teacher and learned so much from him. The other voice teachers include Laura Brooks Rice, Sally Wolf and Ms. Benita Valente. Every single one of these people is not only a fantastic teacher, but have had extensive careers. They teach along the same lines so they work as a team.. it's very comforting. The coaches were unbelievable too: Debra Scurto-Davis, Grant Wenaus and Martha Collins.
A typical day consisted of acting master class for 2 hours in the morning (for the first week, and then we took time to sight see with our tour guide the last 2 weeks during those hours). I had a lesson at noon and a coaching at 12:30. I grabbed lunch before my two hours of Advanced Italian in the afternoon. Sometimes I had an opera scene coaching at 5 and then i grabbed dinner before the master class. This was my daily schedule, give or take a coaching. The 3 weeks were intense. We had a 30 min lesson every single day where we went over rep - eventually one or two of your strongest pieces/arias would be picked for the ending recital concerts. We were each assigned opera scenes based on our original audition. I sang "Sull'Aria".. a simple duet because I wanted to cover as much rep with Julian as possible. There were two concluding recitals at the nearby church. We had to split it into two nights because there were 30 of us and whole lot of rep.
What else? Oh. Facilities. Our main space is a villa that belongs to the widow of a descendent of a Florentine Duke or something. It's enormous and beautiful. Most of the students lived in the 4th and 5th floor of the main house. Others stayed in the guest house of the villa and some students were housed in apartments nearby. Weekend trips include San Gimignano and Siena.
I don't know what else to say. I loved this program though. I learned so much about performance aspect of an Aria (Martha Collins is really one of the best coaches I've ever worked with). The atmosphere is so supportive. They push you to your potential and the outcomes are amazing.
My Pictures
Florence Voice Seminar