This post was originally written as a Facebook note.
Okay, so there’s no question at this point that my personal fundraiser on Razoo has, so far, tanked. I suspect that my friends are pretty much tapped out, and I can understand it. I fundraise a lot. As the sole adult responsible for Act Too Studio’s teen Opera Workshop, it’s my job to somehow get the money I need to run it. But I know I’m always asking. And I’m going to ask here just one more time, for now at least.
I turn to crowdfunding for this workshop, because the truth is that the most passionate students are not necessarily the ones with money, and I want to make sure they can participate. And because I know that if everyone who saw these pleas donated even just $10 (the minimum on Razoo), our fundraising would be in pretty good shape. So it’s worth annoying you one more time.
But today I’m also going to make a larger plea… one on behalf of the future of the arts that I’d beg you to consider. For this, I’ll steal the text from my Razoo page, because it says everything I really want to. Please read, and if you are moved to do so, donate and/or share.
Three years ago, in the fall of 2013, I had just made the official, rather terrifying decision to leave my job of nearly 11 years to teach at my family’s small performing arts studio full-time.
As I faced the prospect of my new life as a dedicated teacher, constrained only by my own imagination (and our studio’s budget), my mind exploded with the possibility of it all. As one of the multitude of people now responsible for training the next generation of singers, I would now also become responsible in some small way for shaping that generation’s vision of what music in the theater would be. When it became obvious that the future I envisioned for them would begin with classical singing, nobody was more surprised than I. As a young voice student, I’d resisted the idea of a future in classical singing as stubbornly as I could (despite the fact that I was in a classical voice program, with professors urging me towards that future every day), and yet, over the years, that’s the music that has endured for me. It is the richest theatrical music I know, filled with emotion and all the terrifying complexity of human existence.
When the notion first occurred to me of putting together some opera scenes with our vocally capable teen students, I figured maybe three or four of them would be interested. I sent out an email to 13 students to gauge interest. All of them wanted to be included. Thus, Act Too Studio’s teen Opera Workshop was born.
Each year, the program has grown in ambition, and each year I wish I could do more for them. What began as a few opera scenes turned into an exploration of the entire second act of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The next year, we produced a fully-staged opera (Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium). This past summer, we created our own full-length work out of madrigals and opera fragments by 17th-century composer Claudio Monteverdi, and performed it in a local opera house with a small orchestra. Here are some short clips from the piece in rehearsal and performance:
Il sogno d'Arianna: Clips from Act Too Studio on Vimeo.
What these students did with this piece—what they made of it, and the way they embraced it—*this* is what the future of the theater could be. These are not child prodigies who have been steeped in classical music their entire lives. These are normal teenagers with the theater bug, who go to public school and love Hamilton and High School Musical. But they’ve also fallen in love with *this*.
As one of my most glorious young sopranos headed off to college this year, determinedly majoring in musical theater, I finally understood how my college professors felt, and how much it meant that they thought I was capable of making a career in classical singing. But as they cursed my reluctance to heed that call, I wonder if they had any idea what their influence would mean for me, long-term, and how the things they taught me would shape my own vision for the future of the arts. I treasure the opportunity to share my renewed love for the operatic repertoire with these brilliant young people, who are already grasping now what it took me years to accept. That talented soprano is one of those young people, and wherever her future takes her, she’ll bring with her the experiences she gained in our Opera Workshop.
My students will not all become opera singers—most likely very few of them will. But they all *will* be a part of shaping the future of the arts in our society. They will be the ones who, in industry in education, determine our musical legacy. Here’s where I come to you.
Each year we’ve gone further, and each year has cost more money. My dreams for these kids and their program are limited only by what we can afford. Please help me start this season off strong by making even the smallest donation to this program and what it represents. Help me give them the tools to bring their love of opera to the table, wherever their paths might lead them. Help them awaken a passion for classical performance in their own generation and beyond!
DONATE HERE: https://www.razoo.com/us/story/Operateens
