LYRIC OPERA NORTHWEST SUMMER 2010
MUSICAL THEATER AND OPERA WORKSHOP
summer@lonw.org
8642 Fauntleroy Way SW
Seattle, WA 98136
(206) 938-7820
Lyric Opera Northwest (“LONW”), in partnership with the Seattle Theater Group (“STG”), which manages the Paramount and Moore Theaters, is offering a pair of INTENSIVE TWO-WEEK-LONG SUMMER WORKSHOPS. From July 12, 2010 until July 23, 2010 will be
(1) a session for 11-13 year olds and
(2) a session for 14-19 year olds in musical theater studies.
Classes will take place at the Waldorf School, located on the grounds of Sacred Heart Church, Seattle, 160 John Street, Seattle, WA 98109, by the Seattle Center Childrens Theater in lower Queen Anne.
MUSICAL THEATRE PROGRAM
Activities to be covered in the Musical Theater program include daily acting, singing, movement and dance classes, scene preparation and song interpretation, stage combat, improvisation, commercial workshop, stage make-up, as well as vocal technique, audition techniques, theory and musical training. At the end of the musical theater session, auditions will be held for LONW’s October, 2010 production of Oliver! at the Moore Theater. Tuition will be $375.
All classes are subject to change or cancellation.
OPERA PROGRAM
The second session LONW offers will be a two week long OPERA PERFORMANCE study for adults 19 year of age and up, and will run from July 26, 2010 through August 6, 2010.
The opera program with include vocal coaching and repertoire building, scene and ensemble preparation, movement, ballroom dancing, Alexander technique, stage combat, stage make-up, art song and aria presentation and interpretation, auditioning, networking, mentoring for career development guidance and workshops. Working international professionals will be instructing. At the end of the opera session, auditions will be held for LONW’s upcoming production of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Moore Theater. Tuition will be $950.
All classes are subject to change or cancellation.
ENROLLMENT PROCESS & DEADLINE
Enrolling is easy, but is designed to make sure that only those who display the passion and self-discipline required to respond to caring teachers and mentors will fill available seats. LONW engages in inclusive community participation. Some financial aid is available based upon need, focusing especially on disadvantaged and underprivileged students exhibiting zeal for these performing arts.
See this form and this form for a two page brochure which you can print. It has an application form, but there is an easier application here, so just click. Then fill it out and either (1) scan it into a pdf and e-mail it to summer@lonw.org, or (2) mail it to:
Lyric Opera Northwest
c/o Craig H. Nim
8642 Fauntleroy Way SW
Seattle, WA 98136
OPERA only :
1 – Obtain TWO RECOMMENDATIONS from voice teachers, coaches or directors with whom you have worked.
Both OPERA and MUSICAL THEATER applicants:
2 – Submit an APPLICATION along with your HEAD SHOT PHOTO.
3 – Schedule an AUDITION (or submit a videotape or DVD containing two showtunes (musical theater applicants) or arias (opera applicants)).
But act now — the DEADLINE is JUNE 30, 2010.
Teacher Biographies
SeattleVoiceStudio.com is the voice studio of International Artists Pamela Casella and Craig H. Nim. While we have been long successful in opera, concert, recital, musical comedy, symphony concerts, television and radio, we are proud not only to be working with other colleagues and professionals, but also to those rising talents who show great potential and love for the arts.
As an established voice teacher in NYC, Germany and Seattle, both at home and at Cornish Institute, many of Ms. Casella’s students have not only sung in Fifth Avenue Theater (it not being uncommon to have 6 to 9 of her students in a single production there), Issaquah Theater, Civic Light Opera, Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue Opera performances, as well as Mr. Nim and Ms. Casella's own opera company, Lyric Opera Northwest (www.lonw.org), but they have also appeared on Broadway, and others have gone on to the Metropolitan Opera studio, the Zurich Opera studio, full scholarships at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Indiana School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Northwestern University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the LaGuardia Performing Arts High School in NYC, Cornish Institute and various other conservatories and music schools throughout America and Europe. Ms. Casella's students have also gone on to winning the Metropolitan Opera auditions and Seattle Opera Guild grants.
Pamela Casella, acclaimed international artist, winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition (in which she was asked to sing the role of Mimi in La Boheme), Columbia Artist and veteran of major opera companies and symphony orchestras on both continents, was described by Maestro Nicola Rescigno as being one of only two American sopranos he had ever known who understood what is meant by "bel canto." Maestro Rescigno, if you will recall, was one of the founders of the Chicago Opera [see http://www.lyricopera.org/about/lyric-history.aspx] and responsible for the importation of bel canto sensation Maria Callas to American audiences. [See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDQkgjzky44 to understand their collaboration a little better]. After Ms. Casella's audition with him, he hired her to sing Desdemona in Verdi's "Othello" with the Dallas Opera
Ms. Casella was a Columbia Artist who, after studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, was the first voice heard in the Seattle Opera’s opening performance of Wagner’s RING OF THE NEIBELUNGEN, singing the role of Woglinde. She went on to sing many other roles there, some of which were The First Lady in Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” Micaela in “Carmen,” Mimi in “La Boheme,” the High Priestess in "Aida" with Martina Arroyo, Pousette in "Manon" and finally the Seattle Opera invited her to return again and sing the much more intensive and demanding role of Santuzza in Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.” She also appeared with the Seattle Symphony singing the role of Marguerite in Gounod’s “Faust.”
From Seattle, she has performed with virtually all the major opera companies, some of which include San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Houston, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Boise, Sacramento, Vancouver, B.C., Anchorage, Alaska and the American Opera Center at Juilliard.
Moving on to the east coast, she toured the United States as both Mimi and Musetta in “La Boheme” and as Donna Elvira in “Don Giovanni,” and Cio Cio San in "Madama Butterfly," hitting every major city. She performed Gretel with the Pittsburgh Opera. She also performed all over the United States with her husband, Craig Nim, in a series of Symphony Pops Concerts, conducted by Norman Leyden, who was the arranger for The Glenn Miller Orchestra back in WWII.
Other conductors she worked with include Maestros Nicola Rescigno, Max Rudolph, Eugene Ormandy, Zubin Mehta, Anton Guadagno, Anton Coppolla, Kurt Herbert Adler, Stephan Minde, Gunther Schuller, Michelangelo Veltri, Reiner Miedel, Willie Waters, Eve Queller, and numerous others.
There were also the demanding, aforementioned performances of Desdemona in Verdi’s “Othello” with the Dallas Opera and Maestro Nicola Rescigno. She has sung with Eve Queler’s Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Verdi’s “Nabucco” in the role of Anna. She sang Tosca in a concert performance at Alice Tully Hall where she garnished the following critique by Bill Zakariasen of the New York Daily News: “In the first act duet from Tosca, Casella’s opulent, easily produced voice, fiery temperament and feel for the grand line showed solid credentials for a distinguished international career.” She also covered Tosca in Bremen, Germany and Genoa, Italy, and was asked to sing “Die Zauberflote” in Avignon and Nice, France.
Ms. Casella was a first place winner in the regional Metropolitan Opera competition. Then, from a field of 3,000 contestants, she won the Luciano Pavarotti Opera Competition in 1985 and was selected to sing with Maestro Pavarotti in “La Boheme.” She achieved a gold medal in the MacAllister Competition (from a field of over 2,000 contestants). She won first place in the grand finals of the San Francisco Opera Merola program, and has been awarded top grants with the Minna Kaufmann Rudd Foundation and the Astral Foundation competitions.
New York critic Peter G. Davis said the following of her performances as the Marquese in Verdi’s early work “Un Giorno di Regno,” “One by one the characters introduced themselves with a parade of awkward gestures, until Pamela Casella appeared late in act one and the Marquese and proceeded to show up everyone with her witty acting and ability to bring a strong personality into sharp focus. Her voice is also attractive and technically accomplished, all indicative of an exceptional talent that should go far.” Her performances of Ariadne in Glimmerglass Opera’s production of Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos” elicited the following response from Will Crutchfield of the New York Times: “Ariadne herself was Pamela Casella whose steely but steady voice cut through the orchestra till the end.” She is an accomplished veteran of the concert and recital stage, performing across the United States, reaching many varied audiences.
Ms. Casella teaches now at her home in West Seattle, Washington, along with her husband, international bass-baritone-tenor, Craig H. Nim. They are co-producers of Lyric Opera Northwest.
Craig Nim, Executive Director and co-founder of Lyric Opera Northwest, has had a performing career which has seen him singing leading roles with the New York City Opera and numerous other American and European opera companies, as well as appearing on Broadway and being engaged as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. He has appeared with symphonies, pops concerts, summer stock companies, musical theater productions, dinner theaters, concert halls, chamber groups, recitals oratorios and touring companies all over the United States and Europe. A master vocal technician, he has won several national and international competitions as a bass, a baritone and as a heldentenor! A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, Mr. Nim had over 45 professional musical comedies and 20 professional operas to his credit, along with 3 performing arts union cards (AGMA, AFTRA and Actors Equity) before he graduated. Mr. Nim has extensive experience with voice-over projects and commercials, and is an expert in stage makeup, particularly character design. He studied stage combat at CMU, on Broadway in The Three Musketeers, and in the national tour of the Pirates of Penzance.
Pamela Turpen has been dancing for 20 years. She received her BA in dance performance from UNLV. Locally, she has performed with 5th Avenue Musical Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Children's Theatre, Village Theatre, ACT Theatre, SD Prism Dance Theatre, and ARC Dance. She has also taught and choreographed for all ages for 14 years, concentrating on modern dance and musical theatre. She loves to make people laugh and you may see her around town impersonating Marilyn Monroe, Wonder Woman, and many more characters that she does for a company called, Live Wires, doing comedic roasting and singing telegrams. She also loves to sink her teeth into edgy characters and pursues film and commercial in her spare time. Modeling has also added to her repertoire, posing for companies such as Getty Images, Colorblind, Microsoft, Boeing, Shelley Corbett, and Anderson Ross. She one day hopes to take the stage as a comic in a one woman show!
Jesse Stoddard has performed in theaters and theme parks across the US as a musical theater performer, both in traditional musicals, as well as cabaret musical reviews. He has excelled in ballroom dance, gymnastics, lyrical jazz, modern dance, tap, stage combat, and a variety of other dance forms from break dancing to African dance. His first love is dance, but he realizes the importance of today's performer to be a "triple-threat." Jesse received a BA in Dance from the University of Washington, as well as a minor in music and most importantly, he has worked professionally in a variety of capacities in the theater, both in New York City as well as locally. Jesse has also worked on the business side of theater, helping create and put productions together on many levels. His greatest passion is choreography and direction, where his specialty is bringing out the best in new and seasoned performers.