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| Type | Summer Program, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. |
|---|---|
| Established | 1987 |
| President | Ann Baltz |
Academic staff | 16 |
| Location | , California , United States |
| Website | OperaWorks.com |
OperaWorks is an opera training program, founded by program director Ann Baltz, and conducted in Northridge, California, USA.
OperaWorks is a training program for singers and instructors working in the field of classical music. Accepting a limited number of students selected each year from up to eight cities across the United States, the program operates from the beginning of June and runs through the end of July, annually. OperaWorks was founded in 1987 [1] by classical pianist Ann Baltz as a response to what she saw as the myopic tendencies of conventional operatic training. Baltz envisioned a new approach to the training of vocalists, in which the "total instrument" would be addressed, not just the voice itself. Over the years, her program has expanded to include instruction in movement, Yoga, acting, visualization, conducting, improvisation and the Alexander technique, as well as career management. [2] [3]
In 2006, Baltz invited independent filmmaker Brad Mays to spend an entire summer filming the various classes and events at OperaWorks. The results are to be seen in the documentary feature film SING*ularity . [4]
Eileen Farrell was an American soprano who had a nearly 60-year-long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. NPR noted, "She possessed one of the largest and most radiant operatic voices of the 20th century." While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances. Her career was mainly based in the United States, although she did perform internationally. The Daily Telegraph stated that she "was one of the finest American sopranos of the 20th century; she had a voice of magnificent proportions which she used with both acumen and artistry in a wide variety of roles." And described as having a voice "like some unparalleled phenomenon of nature. She is to singers what Niagara is to waterfalls."
Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016, and again in May 2024.
Camilla Ella Williams was an American operatic soprano who performed nationally and internationally. After studying with renowned teachers in New York City, she was the first African American to receive a regular contract with a major American opera company, the New York City Opera. She had earlier won honors in vocal competitions and the Marian Anderson Fellowship in 1943–44.
In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.
John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer, educator and writer. Since making his professional conducting debut almost half a century ago, he has appeared with most of the world's great orchestras, guest-conducted at the premiere opera houses, produced and musically supervised Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway musicals, and served as university faculty and administrator. Through his varied career, he has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many genres of music and supervised and conducted important premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Hindemith, Bernstein, Sibelius, Ives, Elfman and Shore. He is also a leading performer of music banned by the Third Reich and especially music of Hollywood's émigré composers.
The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los Angeles. The school is located on the USC University Park Campus, south of Downtown Los Angeles.
Ainadamaror An Opera in Three Images is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto was written by American playwright David Henry Hwang and translated from English into Spanish by the composer. It premiered in Tanglewood on 10 August 2003 and, after major revisions, the new version was given its premiere at the Santa Fe Opera on 30 July 2005.
Chandos Records is a British independent classical music recording company based in Colchester. It was founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens. Since March 2024, it has been owned by Klaus Heymann.
Bruce Adolphe is a composer, music scholar, the author of several books on music, and pianist. He is currently Resident Lecturer and Director of Family Concerts of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he has been a key figure since 1992. Adolphe performs his weekly "Piano Puzzler" segment on the nationally broadcast Performance Today classical music radio program hosted by Fred Child. "Piano Puzzler" was on National Public Radio starting in 2002, and is now on American Public Media. The program is also available as a podcast and from iTunes. Mr. Adolphe was also founding artistic director of Off the Hook Arts Festival, an interdisciplinary festival combining music, science, and visual arts, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 2010 to 2022.
The Community Women's Orchestra (CWO), based in Oakland, California, was founded by conductor Nan Washburn in 1985 as a community project adjunct to The Women's Philharmonic (TWP), a now-defunct, professional orchestra.
The MasterWorks Festival is a month-long intensive summer training program for classical performing artists. Beginning in 2018, MasterWorks was held in Spartanburg, SC, USA, at Converse College. In fall 2022, MasterWorks announced that it would be moving to Campbellsville University, in Campbellsville, KY, for summer 2023.
Michael Chioldi is an American opera singer who has performed leading baritone roles in the opera houses and festivals of North and South America, Europe and Asia. He first appeared at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1995 when he was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition.
There is no authoritative system of voice classification in non-classical music as classical terms are used to describe not merely various vocal ranges, but specific vocal timbres unique to each range. These timbres are produced by classical training techniques with which most popular singers are not intimately familiar, and which even those that are do not universally employ them.
Rhythm in a Riff is a 1947 medium length musical film produced by William D. Alexander and directed by Leonard Anderson. The film stars Billy Eckstine and his band performing as well as Ann Baker, Hortense Allen Jordan, Sarah Harris, and Emmett "Babe" Wallace. The film is extant. The film was.made in New York City. It was released by Astor Pictures. The film was targeted to am African American audience, features an African American cast, and was produced and directed by African Americans. The film is also known as Flicker Up.
Lorenda Starfelt was an independent film producer, as well as a committed political activist and blogger who notably dug up president Barack Obama's birth announcement in an August 1961 edition of The Honolulu Advertiser while researching her documentary on the 2008 presidential election, The Audacity of Democracy.
SING*ularity is an independent documentary film produced and directed by Brad Mays, and co-produced by Lorenda Starfelt at LightSong Films in North Hollywood.
David Michael Schuster is an American spinto tenor.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Scott Joiner is an American singer, composer, teacher and conductor. He created the role of Dickon in the world premiere of Nolan Gasser's opera The Secret Garden with the San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances in 2013. Among the five one-act operas he has written, The Shower was presented at the Wiener Kammeroper in 2019, and Death of a Grailsman received a YouTube premiere in 2021. He composed the score and starred in the short opera film, Connection Lost or L'opera di Tinder, which won Best Score at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival. The miniature one-act opera received its live stage premiere by Opera Carolina in November 2016 as part of National Opera Week. Joiner and Tinder Opera Co-creator, Adam Taylor (writer/director) were featured on NPR's All Things Considered in 2017.
The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs is an opera with music by American composer Mason Bates and an English-language libretto by Mark Campbell. It was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, with support from Cal Performances. The opera is about Steve Jobs, one of the most influential people in recent history; it is set at a time when he must confront his own mortality and circle back on the events that shaped his personal and professional life.
