Last fall I had the honor of founding Fisher Ensemble's Education & Outreach Program with my wonderful co-teacher Shawna Avinger. Our first project was Viva Vocalists, a class dedicated to educating students of all ages about contemporary music, with a focus on performance (or as we like to say, learning through doing).
Viva Vocalists' fall term culminated in student productions of Kurt Weill's Down In The Valley and Douglas Moore's Gallantry, presented as part of the Wayward Music Series at The Chapel at Good Shepherd Center. For our spring term we got back to basics with our Skills Intensive, focused on the crucial performance skills of sight-singing, music theory, acting and dialogue. Students have been working since March on solos and scenes from opera and musical theater; they will perform highlights from the term at our Spring Showcase in just a week and a half (more on that in another post).
Feedback from students about our spring term has been overwhelmingly positive, so much so that we have decided to offer specialized sessions this summer. With three classes and an all-day workshop devoted to single topics, students can choose the area in which they would most like to improve or spend the summer becoming a better musician. The low time commitment ensures that even with summer travel, one or more course will fit into nearly everyone's schedule. How can you go wrong?
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