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.

The job of the singing artist is to bring the music of the great composers to life. Rather than using music to make personal statements, the artistic commitment to text, music and voice brings life to the performance. This course seeks to foster that goal.

In this course students will learn:

• The connection between the low breath and the emotional content of the spoken word
• The connection between the weight of the spoken words and the inflection of the legato line
• The connection between the low breath, the inflected legato line and the portrayal of emotional content in music
• The connection between the emotional understanding of the spoken and sung words and possible stage movements

The method for this course is

• Declamation without the use of music
• Acting in English, Italian, German and French languages
• Chanting the text in rhythm to the accompaniment
• Applying colors, emphases and emotional content discovered during this process to the legato vocal line
• The use of Alexander technique and Fitzmaurice Voicework "to explore the dynamics between body, breath, voice, the imagination, language and presence." Read more at http://www.fitzmaurice.com/about.htm).

The goal to to create the framework in which individual interpretations may come to life.

Voices of the Millennium

2011 Session: 18-26 June

Fine Arts Building
410 South Michigan, Room 825
Chicago, Illinois

Final concert 26 June

Singers and pianists must understand the specific meaning of each word of a song or aria, and must then find emotional connections within themselves for the music truly to come alive.

This workshop asks participants to first release physical tensions through Fitzmaurice Voicework, then isolate the texts and recite them, as actors, in order to identify the meanings and emotional resources and to portray them.

The colors and intensities appropriate to each text are then transferred to the music, creating performances that reflect the performer’s personalities and that fully realize the composer’s intentions.

Students will chose selections from standard operatic repertory for each of the sessions in the appropriate language for that session.

Alternatively, students may also choose song repertory from those languages. A mixture of the two genres is fine.

Please have the diction throughly studied and the text ready to declaim when you arrive for class. We recommend the diction CDs associated with the G. Schirmer Opera Anthology, edited by Robert L. Larsen. We recommend The Singer's Manual of English Diction by Madeleine Marshall (G. Schirmer), and The Singer's Manual of German and French Diction by Rochard G. Cox (G. Schirmer).

Cost  is $1650 and includes:

• Acting and movement techniques classes, daily
• Text recitation classes, daily
• Application of text to songs and arias, daily
• One private coaching or voice lesson
• The final concert at Pianoforte Studios (Suite 825, Fine Arts Building), open to the public, 2 pm, Sunday, June 26
• A final party after the concert

Classes will take place at the Fine Arts Building, 410 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 825, Chicago, Illinois. Admission by live or taped audition. Live auditions can be scheduled in Chicago only. Deadline for application is 1 May 2011. Application fee is $40, and you can pay online.

A note about Suite 825: formerly the showroom for Pianoforte Chicago, dealer of fine pianos, the suite was originally constructed as a studio for elocution. It has a small stage and a very fine Fazioli piano. The showroom for Pianoforte Chicago is now on the main floor of the Fine Arts Building; learn more at http://www.pianofortechicago.com.