IDEAS Guest Artists
BWVP Guest Artists enrich student educational, developmental, and network-building experiences through connections with world-class guest artists and industry professionals.
IDEAS Guest Artists include internationally acclaimed Performers, Stage Directors, Conductors, Agents, and Administrators.
IDEAS Guests bring a diverse perspective from many facets of the industry ranging from on-stage performance, to audition technique, interpretation, entrepreneurship, marketing, social media, young artist and resident artist program expectations, the business of opera, and more.
The IDEAS Guest Artists are underwritten in part by Bella Voce, the BWVP student organization and advocacy group.
IDEAS Guest Artists
BWVP Guest Artists enrich student educational, developmental, and network-building experiences through connections with world-class guest artists and industry professionals.
IDEAS Guest Artists include internationally acclaimed Performers, Stage Directors, Conductors, Agents, and Administrators.
IDEAS Guests bring a diverse perspective from many facets of the industry ranging from on-stage performance, to audition technique, interpretation, entrepreneurship, marketing, social media, young artist and resident artist program expectations, the business of opera, and more.
The IDEAS Guest Artists are underwritten in part by Bella Voce, the BWVP student organization and advocacy group.
IDEAS Guest Artists
BWVP Guest Artists enrich student educational, developmental, and network-building experiences through connections with world-class guest artists and industry professionals.
IDEAS Guest Artists include internationally acclaimed Performers, Stage Directors, Conductors, Agents, and Administrators.
IDEAS Guests bring a diverse perspective from many facets of the industry ranging from on-stage performance, to audition technique, interpretation, entrepreneurship, marketing, social media, young artist and resident artist program expectations, the business of opera, and more.
The IDEAS Guest Artists are underwritten in part by Bella Voce, the BWVP student organization and advocacy group.
Innovation
Cutting-Edge Real-World Focused Curriculum
Wholistic Total-Body Instrument Training to Develop Complete Artistry
Voice Lessons, Coaching, Diction & Literature, and Conservatory Core
8-Semester Performance Workshop Sequence
Comprehensive Preparation to win Top Graduate School Placement
Build and Develop Your Foundation for life-long success
Unique Partnerships with Professional Companies and Organizations
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Opportunity
for ALL BWVP Majors:
Cast in at least one Main Stage Opera production each year
Perform in two Workshop productions every semester
Participate in at least one master class each year
Work with Guest artists in professional residencies
Connect with top Grad Programs through Grad School EXPOs
Develop Professional Network through collaborations
Nine newly commissioned Micro Operas for Baldwin Wallace Voice Performance Students
A co-production between Baldwin Wallace Voice Performance, Cleveland Opera Theater, and On Site Opera
COMPOSERS and LIBRETTISTS
Griffin Candey
Kermit Cole
David Cote
Lisa DeSpain
Jerre Dye
Jake Heggie
Sarah LaBrie
Libby Larsen
Caroline V. McGraw
Nkeiru Okoye
Rachel J. Peters
Kamala Sankaram
Gene Scheer
Josh Schmidt
Dawn Sonntag
Royce Vavrek
Michi Wiancko
TALKBACK
A Talkback session followed the premiere of each opera.
Watch the talkback session recordings to go behind the scenes and learn about the process of bringing the new operas to life in unique and challenging circumstances with the Creative Team and Artists.
AN "ORIGIN STORY"
How OPERAS in PLACE came to be
Baldwin Wallace Voice Performance had a brilliant '20 / '21 season planned:
Our Playhouse Square debut with a new production of Monteverdi's L’Orfeo (Nov. '20), the highly anticipated World Premiere production of La Casa de Bernarda Alba (Feb. '21), and a magical production of Händel's Alcina (March '21).
When COVID-19 made it neither feasible nor safe to produce our season as planned we began exploring alternatives. Offering a virtual version of those planned live in-person productions felt like a "second best" compromise. While still sheltered in place we considered programming a season of operas that had been written for TV or radio performance, but although the delivery medium would be conducive to social distance protocols, those operas were written to be rehearsed and performed in a standard in-person format and would be exceedingly difficult to rehearse, collaborate, and perform remotely. Rather than offer a "second best" or try to retro-fit repertoire that could possibly amplify COVID safety protocol-imposed limitations, the project would need to be flexible in order to facilitate rehearsals and performances in a wide variety of scenarios in a way that would be safe to artists and audience no matter what the virus dealt us. A new project vision emerged to offer a reimagined season designed to embrace our circumstances in a way that would amplify the opportunities, rather than the short comings of our circumstances that required remote collaboration.
Director of Opera Studies, Scott Skiba reached out to a number of world-renowned composers and librettists to pitch the project vision and ask if they would be willing to participate. The pitch: Would you please consider writing a Micro Opera - 10-ish minutes in length on any topic of interest - specifically for the BW Voice Performance students? The subject matter and style is wide open to creative freedom. Since it's likely that university COVID safety protocols would mandate that in-person rehearsal and performance would not be possible, the only stipulation is to write in a way that could be rehearsed and performed separately so that we can embrace remote collaboration that would require cast members to rehearse via Zoom, for the orchestra to rehearse and record separately from the singers and perhaps from each other, and for the cast members to record audio and video separately from each other as well.
An amazing group of internationally-recognized composers and librettists - fantastic artists and humans all - agreed to take part in this project. BW students had the unique an unprecedented opportunities to collaborate with exceptional librettists and composers, and to learn about audio, video, and digital techniques that are being advanced and explored in this time, and to develop new repertoire in a never-been-done-before process. What would ensue is a strange artistic journey of creation, collaboration, rehearsal, recording, and performance that culminates in this virtual festival presentation of nine new Micro Operas. Along the journey, the students developed and applied skills in the Operas in Place project that are transferable to other future creative recording and production projects.
Each Micro Opera is unique in style, story, and approach. Each stands alone individually and each compliments the other among the eclectic array. These were operas "in place" of what was planned, and accomplishable even if the need to shelter "in place" persisted... but they became much more than that. Each of these operas became a place to connect over great distances, a place to be together although apart, and a place to come together in the creative art making process in a uniquely memorable and meaningful way. "In place" and "our place" ...our necessary place to connect, to collaborate, and to create as we all navigated through uncharted territory in every sense imaginable. Thank you for being part of this unique journey!