Voices of the Millennium receives international attention

Coverage of the recent benefit concert received international attention, in the form of articles in several Chinese language publications, including WorldJournal.com: http://tinyurl.com/VoMworldjournal

2011 Session: 18-26 June

Fine Arts Building
410 South Michigan, Suite 825
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 and collaborative artists by a thorough examination of the texts, in great detail. In this course, singers and pianists are first asked to tie their breathing to the sounds they make through Fitzmaurice Voicework. Voicework is a synthesis of yoga, bioenergetics, shiatsu, Alexander and meditation techniques. Using this released physical energy, performers then recite the words to songs and arias, both in the original languages and in English, until they achieve a personal, emotional understanding--coming to know not just the meaning of the words, but also individual subtext from the body's core. Thus singers and pianists acquire first-hand information about how composers constructed phrases to highlight certain words, and how those words might be colored. Read more about Voicework at http://www.fitzmauricevoice.com

Voices of the Millennium: Bring your interpretation to life.

Voices of the Millennium is delighted to announce that we have been able to add a master class from Roy Cornelius Smith to this summer's lineup.

Roy has had a great season, going from standing ovations in Lyric Opera of Chicago's Fanciulla del West to Calaf at La Scala. He will be doing the master class on 22 June, from 7-10:00 p.m. as part of the course.

Find out more about Roy Cornelius Smith at his web site: http://www.tenors.net

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. Andrzej will give a recital at Northern Illinois University on 20 April 2011 with the pianist Jean-Eude Vaillancourt of the University of Montreal.

George Humphrey (2007), tenor, is represented by Pamela Curzon in New York, and currently lives in Munich. In 2011, George Humphrey made his debut at Bayersiche Staatsoper, Munich, in a new opera by Benjamin Fleischman called Rothman's Violin. Click here to learn more about the debut. 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 performed 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 in 2010-11, and he has received the Icelandic Best Musician of the Year award for those performances. He is a star at Icelandic Opera, Reykjavik, where he performed Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress, Germont in La Traviata and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. His interpretation of the role of Belcore in L'elisir d'amore in 2009 was awarded the Icelandic Theater Award (Griman) as Best Singer of the Year. In 2008, the composer Sveinsson chose Agust 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).