PROGRAM DATES:
July 16 to August 7, 2010

PARTICIPANTS: 
20 North American and Austrian singers and 2 pianists.  Minimum age: 18, no maximum age

WHERE:
Maurach am Achensee, Tirol, Austria (Innsbruck is 25 minutes away; the Munich airport is 90 minutes away)

MULTIPLE PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITES:
Theatres and churches in Maurach, Pertisau and Achenkirch, the three towns on Lake Achen.

Final staged concert in Maurach. 

Special concert in the locomotive house of the Achesee steam train

For a complete list of performances, click on the concert link above.

MASTER CLASSES:

Yodeling

Acting for opera

The Business of Opera: The European Opera System vs. the American System

TUITION:

The cost of the program for singers is $1500 plus $2000 housing for a total of $3500.  Pianists pay no tuition, but must pay $1500 for housing.  Tuition includes housing (double occupancy) with two meals a day.  A single room costs an additional $300.

Each participant is responsible for his or her own airfare and health insurance.

Some scholarship assistance is available, based on need.

As a stage director, I have worked with many, many young singers who have graduate degrees in performance and still do not know how to sit gracefully in a hoopskirt, or how to maneuver while wearing a sword. Even experienced performers need this kind of work, from a soprano who had trouble with the rapidly changing emotions of a mad scene to a famous bass who told me “I never know what to do with my hands, but at this stage of my career, it’s embarrassing to ask.” (I gave him some suggestions.)

– Elizabeth Bachman