August 21-31, 2008
at Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington, USA
This workshop offers advanced singers and continuo players (keyboards, harps, lutes, bowed bass) the opportunity to work on all the musical and dramatic aspects of the 17th-century opera repertoire with a faculty of specialists. Founded by Seattle native Stephen Stubbs, the Accademia d'Amore has an established track record for training musicians in the subtle art of 17th-century vocal performance and instrumental accompaniment. Its attendees have gone on to successful careers in baroque opera in Europe, the US, and Canada. Stubbs relocated his successful workshop to Seattle in 2005. 2008 will see the fourth season of this workshop.
The Accademia d'Amore is accredited through Seattle Pacific University. A maximum of 2 credits are available for the workshop. Credits cost $47 each. Please contact Maxine Eilander for more details.
Musical coaching:
Stephen Stubbs (musical director)
Nancy Zylstra (vocal coach)
Maxine Eilander (harps and continuo)
Jillon Stoppels Dupree (harpsichord and continuo)
George Shangrow (harpsichord and continuo)
Margriet Tindemans (viola da gamba)
Elizabeth Brown (lute, guitar/continuo)
Stage directors: Roger Hyams, Anna Mansbridge, Grant Herreid
Application deadline:
June 15, 2008
Singers please provide an audition tape and summary of experience and a recent photo. Audio material should be a minimum of two pieces, preferably one in English and one in Italian. Inclusion of recitative and aria is helpful, preferably some material from the 17th century.
Instrumentalists please provide a summary of experience.
There are a limited number of participants, so apply early!
Download a PDF application form.
Fee:
Singers: $ 650
Instrumentalists: $ 500
Auditors: $ 30 per day
Schedule:
The workshop will contain musical and scenic rehearsals in preparation for a staged performance of all the scenes worked on during the week.
In the middle of the workshop, there will be an informal student concert with music of the students’ choice. This is a very important part of the week where students have an opportunity to show other sides of their musicianship.
Accommodation*:
Dorm facilities with Community Bathrooms (1 large bathroom on each floor):
Apartments:
Each residence hall provides a TV lounge as well as smaller lounges on each floor. Most lounges are equipped with refrigerators. Our rooms include twin size beds, chests of drawers and desks.
*Accommodation prices to be confirmed at a later date.
Participant review:
"The Accademia d'Amore 2006 was a smashing success, as far as I am concerned. To be part of something so huge, concentrated, musically superlative, friendly, and inspiring was a lifetime highlight I cannot extol too much. To enumerate what should have been different, better, the same, taken out or altered would be silly for me as I thought the organization and carry-through of all those rehearsals, that voluminous music book, and the working out of staging and musical hours was brilliant.......I hope you know how special you are, faculty and organizers, to give us this Accademia d'Amore experience. Your virtuosity in leading us in rehearsals, your teaching abilities and your genuine love for your artistic expression is infectious and gives us profound satisfaction and joy through the music. While we learn and perform, achieving better phrases and musical notes with each rehearsal, we are transported from our daily lives and requirements into the artistic culmination of performance. This is an act of peace and human fulfillment, a way of countering the troubles of the world by making music come alive. To have such a collection of people from so many backgrounds become a family for ten days is a tribute to your efforts and a bond for the future." Ellen Seibert, August 2006.
The Accademia d'Amore Faculty:
Stephen Stubbs
A Seattle native, Stephen Stubbs has lived in Germany since 1982 when he was appointed instructor and later professor at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen. He is an active lutenist, conductor, and founder/director of the ensembles Tragicomedia and Teatro Lirico. Stubbs has directed many 17th- and 18th-century operas in Europe, Canada, and the USA. He has recorded as soloist and director for Teldec, EMI, Harmonia Mundi, ATMA, CPO and ECM. In 1997 he founded the Accademia d’Amore in Bremen. It has now been established as a yearly event in Seattle after its very successful first season in 2005. 2006 will see the opening of a graduate program there for singers and continuo players called the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera.
Nancy Zylstra
Since 1979 Nancy Zylstra has been on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute. She also taught at the Kitchener-Waterloo Baroque and Classical Workshop, Vancouver Early Music Workshop and Cornish College's “Baroque Voice”. She has taught studio voice at the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, and Cornish College. Her 20-year career as a soloist included performances with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and American Bach Soloists. Zylstra is a board member of Early Music America.
Roger Hyams
As an actor he has appeared in plays ranging from new writing at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh to classics at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the summer 2000, he directed an acclaimed Monteverdi L’Orfeo with Stephen Stubbs at the Vancouver Festival, and in 2003 he co-directed Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea there. He has directed at the Accademia d’Amore in Bremen for the past 8 years.
Anna Mansbridge
Anna Mansbridge, Artistic Director of Seattle Early Dance, is from the U.K., where she studied early dance for many years with teachers foremost in the profession. She holds a First Class Honors Degree in Dance and Education from Bedford College, U.K., and an M.F.A in Choreography and Performance from Mills College, CA, USA. Ms. Mansbridge has been teaching and performing early European Court dance (16th-18th centuries) since 1990.
Margriet Tindemans
Margriet Tindemans has delighted audiences all over the world with her performances on early stringed instruments: viola da gamba, medieval fiddle and rebec, renaissance and baroque viola. She performs and records as a soloist and with Medieval Strings, which she directs, and the King's Noyse. She was a founding member of the ensemble Sequentia and of the Huelgas Ensemble. She directs the Medieval Women's Choir performing medieval repertoire composed by and for women. Margriet records for Musica Omnia, harmonia mundi, Erato, Wildboar, BMG Accent, EMI, Smithsonian Collection and Koch International Classic.
Maxine Eilander
Maxine Eilander has appeared as a baroque harpist with many leading ensembles and festivals throughout Europe, Canada and the USA, including Tragicomedia, Teatro Lirico, Boston Early Music Festival, Tafelmusik, Les Talens Liriques. She has made many recordings, including Handel’s Harp concerto with Tafelmusik, Sonata al Pizzico (duos for harp and baroque guitar with Stephen Stubbs), and a new recording soon to be released with Teatro Lirico for ECM. Maxine teaches baroque harp at the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera which opened its doors in 2006.
George Shangrow
Conductor and keyboardist George Shangrow founded the Seattle Chamber Singers in 1969 and Orchestra Seattle in 1979. He began his professional conducting career at the age of 18 and has concentrated his musical efforts with Orchestra Seattle and the Seattle Chamber Singers. He has appeared as guest conductor with the many organizations from the Seattle Symphony to the Japanese Sapporo Symphony. He has recorded with London Records, Voyager Records, America, and Sonic Window Records. Seattle music lovers also know him as KING-FM host of the Live By George show.
Jillon Stoppels Dupree
Jillon Stoppels Dupree has received high acclaim as both a soloist and ensemble artist in the USA and throughout Europe. As an ensemblist, she has performed with Musica Pacifica, Music’s Re-Creation, Baroque Northwest, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Solo recital tours have included engagements at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the College of William and Mary, and the Santa Barbara Art Museum. She can be heard on the Meridian, Deca, Delos, and Wildboar labels. This season she will be recording the complete harpsichord works of the 18th-century Belgian composer Joseph-Hector Fiocco.
Grant Herreid
Grant Herreid performs frequently on early reeds, brass, strings and voice with Hesperus, Piffaro, and My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and plays theorbo and lute with the baroque ensemble ARTEK and New York City Opera. Active as an educator and coach, he teaches classes in Renaissance music and 17th century continuo song at Mannes College of Music in New York, and directs the New York Continuo Collective. He has both created and directed many early music theater shows, including the 17th century "Il Caffe d'Amore", the 15th century "Holly and Ivy: A Midwinter Feast of Fools" and the 14th century "Guillaume de Machaut and the Fountain of Love", and he devotes much of his time to exploring the esoteric unwritten traditions of medieval and early Renaissance music with the group Ex Umbris.
Elizabeth Brown
Elizabeth C. D. Brown is head of the Guitar and Lute program at Pacific Lutheran University and is active throughout the Pacific Northwest as a solo and ensemble performer. In addition to her many solo performances throughout North America, Ms. Brown is a member of La Lira, Baroque Northwest, and the Puget Sound Consort and has appeared with many other ensembles and in operas by Monteverdi, Purcell, Blow, Verdi and Rossini.