2010 Session I: June 6, 13, 20, 27
2010 Session II: July 11, 18, 25, Aug 1
Sundays, 1:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Fine Arts Building
410 South Michigan, Studio 608, Chicago, Illinois

Voices of the Millennium is a unique summer course for singers and pianists, focusing on the abilities of both performers to express, as actors, the texts of the songs and arias before performing the music, thus ensuring precise understanding of the texts and discovering colors and intensities that deepen the artistry of the final musical performance.

The distinguishing feature of a fine singing artist is the way in which the text, whether libretto of an opera or the poem of an art song, is painted. The technique of singing has this as its end: the expression in sound of the words.

Voices of the Millennium seeks to deepen the understanding of singing artists by a thorough examination of the texts, in great detail. In this course, singers are asked to recite the words to songs and arias, both in the original language and in English, until they achieve a personal, emotional understanding--coming to know not just the meaning of the words, but also his or her own subtext. Thus singers acquire first-hand information about how composers constructed phrases to highlight certain words, and how those words might be colored.

Voices of the Millennium: Bring your interpretation to life.

Andrzej Stec, tenor, (2004), BM-Performance NIU; MM Northwestern University; has just graduated with a DMA (Interpretation) from University of Montreal.

He has been in Chicago Opera Theater's Young Artists Program (2007) and has performed with Rockford Chamber Orchestra (2007). With Opera Circle, Cleveland, he has sung in the US premiere of Elsner's opera "Echo in the Woods," (2010) and has been re-engaged by that company to sing Arturo in Bellini's "I Puritani" in November of 2010 and Szymanowski's "King Roger" in June of 2011

George Humphrey (2007), tenor, is represented by Pamela Curzon in New York, and currently lives in Munich. He has recently sung Don Jose in Carmen for Dachau Opera and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra and the Lyrisches Opern Ensemble in Dachau. He will perform the role of Siegmund in Die Walküre for Hawaii Opera Theater and Lohengrin in the eponymous opera for Frankfurt am Main opera in 2010. He won second place in the Barry Alexander International Voice Competition in 2007, and was a finalist in both the Liederkranz and the Joy of Singing competitions in New York City the same year.

Agust Olafsson (2006), baritone, has performed the three great Schubert cycles, Die Schöne Müllerin, Winterreise and Schwanengesang, in Reykjavik this Spring, 2010. In 2009 he completed a two year contract with Iceland Opera, Reykjavik, where he performed Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress, Germont in La Traviata and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. He was re-engaged to sing the role of Belcore in L'elisir d'amore in 2009 and was awarded the Icelandic Theater Award (Griman) as Best Singer of the Year for that role.  He was chosen in 2008 by the composer Sveinsson to premiere his Fourth Symphony in Reykjavik with the Icelandic Symphony, and he has made a recording called "Aldarblik," Icelandic songs of the 20th century. He was invited to sing in a concert celebrating the life of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at Wigmore Hall, London, in 2007. He is mentioned on the blog Barihunks (http://barihunks.blogspot.com/2009/03).