Soiree Lyrique to begin Vocal Competition June 3
Soiree Lyrique has announced its first Vocal Competition with cash awards and scholarships to its Young Artist Program.
There are four divisions:
• Division I: Twinkling Stars (age 12 or younger), first prize $100;
• Division II: Starbursts (age 13 to 18), first prize $250; second prize $100;
• Division III: Shooting Stars (age 19 to 26), first prize $500; second prize $250; third prize $100;
• Division IV: Everlasting Stars (27 or older), first prize $500; second prize $250; third prize $100.
A preliminary competition will be held Saturday, June 3, in the Music Room of Snuffy's Villa in West Dundee. Selected singers from the preliminary competition will be given a scholarship to participate in the Young Artist Program, June 17 to July 23. Rehearsals and coaching will be held on week nights and weekends.
Master classes with Eric Weimer, assistant conductor with Lyric Opera of Chicago, will be held June 17-20. Weimer is completing his 29th full season with Lyric Opera and his expertise offers the scholarship winners a profoundly enriching and once in a lifetime experience. Amy Hutchison, an internationally acclaimed stage director, will assist these young artists in bringing to life their vocal repertoire through acting classes and staged scenes. Her instruction will be July 8-15.
Additional rehearsals and coaching will be provided by Chiayi Lee, Rosemary Schroeder, artistic director Solange Sior and Tetyana Torzhevska, in preparation of two public productions. " A Broadway Show" an outdoor production will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 16, on the Terrace of Snuffy's Villa in West Dundee as well as the semifinals of the vocal competition. The event will be moved to the music room in case of rain. Opera Scenes and the final round of the vocal competition will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 23, at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Elgin.
After the performance, the judges will gather to finalize their choices, while guests and audience members gather for a social hour. Before the conclusion of the social hour, all four division awards will be announced and the presentations made.
A registration form along with a $50 nonrefundable registration fee needs to be received by May 30. There is no other fees to participate in this program. To download a form, visit www.soireelyrique.org. Space is limited; interested vocalists should enroll quickly.
Those interested in learning more about Soiree Lyrique and its upcoming performances can visit www.soireelyrique.org. Soiree Lyrique now in its third season is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization serving the Fox Valley with lyrical songs from opera to Broadway. All concerts are non-ticketed with a suggested donation of $15 to $30. Its mission is to create and nourish a greater appreciation of the classical vocal arts and to educate through professional performances and community outreach programs.
• Eric Weimer is in his 29th full season as an assistant conductor with Lyric Opera of Chicago. In this work, along with numerous engagements with the Metropolitan Opera, Bayreuth Festival, San Francisco Opera, and Canadian Opera Company, he has prepared some 220 productions collaborating with most of the world's greatest opera maestri and singers. While famous as a German specialist, he has prepared no less than 13 complete cycles of Wagners's "Der Ring des Nibelungen." He also is known for the breadth of his experience with other repertoires, particularly the Baroque and the Italian. A former musicologist, Weimer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is the author of Opera seria and the Evolution of Classical Style, He is also in great demand as a coach of young singers. He has been a member of the music staff of the Ryan Opera Center since 1992 and has also had numerous residencies with the other principal opera training programs in this country: particularly the Met's Lindemann Program and the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program. Weimer appears with increasing frequency as conductor. The 2014-15 season saw him on the podium for two performances of "Der Fliegende Hollaender" with the Washington National Opera as well as runs of "L'elisir d'amore" and "La Fille du Regiment."
• Amy Hutchison recently directed William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge for Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, and she has staged the opera at Washington National Opera and Portland Opera. Her other productions nationwide have included "Turandot" (Orlando), Carmen (Milwaukee, Kansas City, Columbus), "La Traviata" (Costa Mesa), "Don Pasquale" (Indianapolis), and an original production of "Help, Help, the Globolinks!" (Madison Opera, available on CD). She has staged the Sendak/Corsaro production of Hansel und Gretel for the Zurich Opera and for the Canadian, Indianapolis and Baltimore opera companies.
A resident of Chicago, she has created productions of "Dido and Aeneas" for Elgin Opera and Ned Rorem's "Our Town" and Conrad Susa's "Transformations" for DePaul University Opera Theatre. Chicago audiences have also enjoyed her "Faust" (DuPage Opera Theatre) and "Gallantry and The Telephone" (Opera Moda). Hutchison was a member of Lyric Opera of Chicago's stage direction staff for seven years and was associate director for Lyric's critically acclaimed "Faust" (2009); "Die Fledermaus" (2006-07); "Aida" and "Tosca" (2004-05).
Hutchison's long relationship with Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center includes directing Don Giovanni and Offenbach's "RSVP: A Musicale at Mr. Cauliflower's." Dedicated to the development of young artists, Hutchison was director of Baltimore Opera's Studio Artist Training Program in 2000. Her academic work began as director of opera for Princeton's renowned Westminster Choir College, where she created productions of "Xerxes," "Die Zauberflöte," "Dido and Aeneas," and "La Clemenza di Tito" (1997-99).
As associate director, Hutchison has staged Porgy and Bess throughout the United States and at La Scala, the Opera National de Paris, the Teatro La Fenice, and at opera houses in Düsseldorf, Lucca, and Tokyo. Her professional opera career began as a member of the stage direction staff at Houston Grand Opera.
She has assisted esteemed directors Robert Altman, Frank Corsaro, Francesca Zambello, David MacVicar, Robert Carsen, Frank Galati, Graham Vick, David Pountney, John Cox, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Christopher Mattaliano, Harry Silverstein, Tazewell Thompson and Ian Judge, among others. Hutchison is a graduate of the Conservatory for Theatre Arts at Webster University, where she was introduced to opera via The Conservatory's unique relationship with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
• Pianist Chiayi Lee received a doctor of musical arts in performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa, and both a master's degree and a performer's certificate from Northern Illinois University. Lee is an active pianist with an extensive background in solo and chamber music performance. She has worked and performed with numerous ensembles, instrumentalists and vocalists She was a member of the piano faculty and the staff accompanist at Coe College. She also was the staff accompanist at Cornell College, and the chorus accompanist for Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre in Iowa. She also worked for Elgin OPERA, DuPage Opera Theatre and Interactive Opera Company. She currently is the adjunct piano faculty and staff accompanist at Harper College.
• Coach and pianist Rosemary Schroeder received her doctoral fellowship in opera directing, organ, conducting, and church music from Northwestern Graduate School of Music. She has an MSEd with a published thesis in education and psychology from Northern Illinois University. Schroeder received a BMEd in piano, voice, and pedagogy from DePaul University. She taught kindergarten through graduate courses in regular grades, special ed, music, and psychology. Schroeder performs internationally as a concert pianist, organist, choral director, and improv jazz musician. She has won many awards including the Florida Artist of the Year for her accomplishments in singing opera/musical theatre, concert piano and orchestral/choral conducting. Schroeder is the organist-pianist at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Geneva. Schroeder is an active supporter, and volunteer for clean environment and equal human rights causes. She maintains piano and voice studios in St. Charles.
• Vocal coach Tetyana Torzhevska was born in Ukraine and currently resides in Algonquin were she is a private vocal and piano instructor. In 1991 she graduated from National Academy of Music "P.I.TCHAIKOVSKY" in Kiev, Ukraine, where she studied with "National Artist of the USSR" Lilia Lobanova and Professor Zoya Lichtmann.
She made her opera debut in 1989 at the State Opera Studio in Kiev in the role of Parasya in Mussorgsky's Sorochintsy Fair. In 1991 Tetyana was invited to sing as a soloist with the Ukrainian Separate Model Orchestra. She performed with them in France, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and won first prize on International Festival "Golden Lyre" in Poland (1993).
In 1993, she was invited to sing title role in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta at the Kiev State Opera. Her powerful and flexible soprano spinto allows her to sing a wide ranging repertoire from lyric coloratura as Violetta from La Traviata to such dramatic role as Tosca. Her operatic repertoire also includes the roles of Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Lisa (Queen of Spades), Zemfira (Aleko), Marguerite (Faust), Leonora (Il Trovatore), Leonora (La Forza del Destino).
She has been heard throughout Europe on the concert stages with "Johan Willem Friso Kapel" orchestra (Netherlands), trio "Bravo" (Germany), Folk-orchestra "Sviatovid" (Ukraine), Ukrainian National Army Dance and Song Company, Kiev Symphony and many others. Her concert repertoire includes works from Bach and Mozart to Shostakovich and Stezenko, Ukrainian folk songs, Russian songs and romances. As opera singer she performed with Ukrainian National Opera, Army Opera Center (Kiev), State Operetta Theater (Kiev), Lviv State Opera.
• Solange Sior is the founder and artistic director of Soirée Lyrique NFP. She is a former winner of the Canadian Music Competition and winner of the National Bel Canto Competition, as well as finalist of The Metropolitan Opera National Council.
She has performed with many organizations in the Midwest and in Canada, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Florentine Opera Company, Light Opera Works, Lincoln Opera, Chamber Opera Chicago, Chicago Concertante, New Music Chicago, New Millennium Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Choral Union, and Youth and Music Canada.
At the prestigious Shaker Mountain Music Festival, she performed three years in a row and sang the lead roles of Marguerite, Suor Angelica, and Manon. She sang Mimi in La Bohème at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy. She has also performed the roles of Madama Butterfly, Violetta, Musetta, Pamina, Fiordiligi, Monica, and the title role in Rose-Marie and "The Incomplete Education" by Chabrier.
Sior holds a bachelor and master's degrees in vocal performance from the University of Montreal and a D.E.C. and laureate's degrees from Montreal's Vincent-d'Indy Music School.
She maintains a voice and piano studio, Fox Valley Music Studio, Ltd. in West Dundee. In 2014, she received the Margaret Hillis Award for the Arts and in 2010 an Elgin Image Award for her work with Elgin Opera.