Graduate Vocal Arts Program

×

Core Seminar I: Poetry Into Song

This seminar views text as a central point of departure for all vocal performance. It introduces and develops an essential range of workshop skills in working with text and understanding its realization in song. The choice of poets becomes a means of connecting with primary bodies of established repertory, with works by lesser-known composers from past style periods, and with music by contemporary and active composers. The seminar is designed to begin with a study of a poet’s life, work and style, and continues with a detailed examination of an appropriate musical exemplar. Workshop skills are further refined as the student works independently to find, prepare and perform related repertory.

×

Core Seminar II: Music for Today

This course explores developments in vocal music, acknowledging an artist’s vital need to engage with music of and for today alongside canonical works that have shaped music history. With a curriculum that reflects contemporary currents in both music and broader society, the seminar incorporates the study and performance of seminal 20th and 21st century works with student-led exploration of living composers’ repertoire. Renowned guest artists, including performers and composers, contextualize, coach, and offer perspective from their careers. Selected course projects and performances since 2020 have included György Kurtág’s complete Kafka-Fragmente, a study of climate change and environmentalism in music, premieres of works in Yiddish at midtown Manhattan’s YIVO Center, and a survey of contemporary BIPOC-identifying composers.

×

Core Seminar III: The Performer as Curator

In this seminar each group of 3-4 students creates and produces with their pianist one concert and one outreach event, both of which are performed in nearby community venues. Every aspect of creation and production - searching for music, choice of repertoire, shaping the program, securing a venue, publicity, printed program and program notes, scheduling of rehearsals - everything is coordinated and organized by the students themselves. This seminar helps students appreciate a full range of options and possibilities available to them, in order to recognize the ways in which their individual strengths and acquired skills relate to these possibilities, and to better understand and appreciate the steps to realizing their musical, artistic, and creative goals. Building on skills and awareness acquired in the Professional Development Workshop (detailed below), students learn to develop working relationships not only with fellow musicians, but also with those involved in other essential roles in the industry, such as artistic direction, promotion, and grant applications.

×

Core Seminar IV: The Singer and the Stage

This seminar encompasses a fully staged operatic production and utilizes the skills developed in the three previous seminars. These productions strive to combine technical vocal artistry and dramatic skills with creative productions and ideas that are co-developed between the artists and the production team. The seminar also includes an intensive study of classical and Baroque operas by Mozart and Handel, through individual role development.

×

Acting Explorations

This workshop gives students an opportunity to focus solely on the acting component of performing. In a studio setting, students work on a variety of theatrical texts selected to address the particular needs of each performer.

×

Diction and Phonetics

This workshop is an advanced study of the diction of the languages most commonly used by singers. German, Italian, and French diction are studied, with additional units in other languages such as Spanish or English. Also included is attention to the physiology of phonetics, in order to create a better understanding of how diction relates to the production of sound, as well as an exploration of the repertoire and composers of each language.

×

Language Translation for Singers

This workshop, taught by Bard College language professors, develops translation skills, reading facility, and general cultural awareness of the three main languages used by singers: French, German, and Italian.

×

Opera Workshop

The opera workshop develops the singing actor through creative questioning, acting and improvisation exercises, and aria and opera scene work. Stagecraft techniques are developed to create the most effective storytelling. Interpretation of character is developed through discussion, research, and analysis to enable clarity of communication and a personal artistic voice. Additional work in audition techniques and presentation of professional materials may also be addressed.

×

Professional Development

This workshop consists of 13 encounters with a variety of professionals who present topics of interest necessary for the students’ development as individual artists. Led by Lucy Fitz Gibbon (VAP ’15) the workshop’s content ranges from “outer artist” concerns such as networking, auditioning, and promotion, to “inner artist” considerations of creativity, authenticity, and self-care.

×

Recital Class

This workshop consists of 13 encounters with a variety of professionals who present topics of interest necessary for the students’ development as individual artists. Led by Lucy Fitz Gibbon (VAP ’15) the workshop’s content ranges from “outer artist” concerns such as networking, auditioning, and promotion, to “inner artist” considerations of creativity, authenticity, and self-care.

×

Performance Workshop

Led by Stephanie Blythe, the weekly Performance Workshop offers all VAP singers an opportunity to perform in class, and share with their classmates. Students are encouraged to perform any wellprepared piece of their own choosing, three or four times a semester.

×

Vocal Chamber Music

The vocal chamber music workshop cultivates the skills of instrumental collaboration and is run in partnership with the Conservatory chamber music program. Vocal Arts Program students come together with Conservatory instrumentalists to perform works from the vocal chamber music repertory.

×

Vocal Ensemble

Led by Erika Switzer, the study of duets, trios, and quartets from the art song repertory cultivates skills in listening and musicianship. The workshop culminates in a public performance of works for vocal ensemble.