For five emerging opera singers, months of training, performance opportunities and professional development will soon come together in a concert at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n
The concert, part of the Walnut Creek-based Festival Opera company\u2019s annual Salon Series, will showcase the inaugural class of the Walnut Creek-based company\u2019s Resident Artist Program. The five singers will perform arias and scenes starting at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 in the main room of the Piedmont Center for the Arts (PCA), followed by a reception during which attendees can meet the artists.<\/p>\n
Zachary Gordin, Festival Opera\u2019s general director, described the \u201cResident Artist Showcase\u201d as a culmination of the work the singers have undertaken since May \u2014 namely, performing and understudying roles as well as participating in coachings, workshops and other professional development activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is their first opportunity to all get together and sing some of their favorite signature arias at this point in their careers,\u201d Gordin said about their upcoming PCA performances.<\/p>\n
The inaugural Resident Artist Program includes soprano Marielle Leiboff, mezzo-soprano Phoebe Dinga, soprano Rachel Nelson, tenor Spencer Greene and baritone Liam Daley. Gordin described the cohort as a relatively young group, with most having recently completed their master\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re what I would call emerging artists,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re sort of in that transition between school and really making a professional career.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Festival Opera, the PCA has been the go-to venue year-after-year for the group\u2019s Salon Series. Gordin said the PCA\u2019s large main room, which can seat 100 or more people, is one reason the company keeps returning but that the art on the room\u2019s walls is also part of the appeal: The room doubles as a gallery, with a new exhibition rotating in every few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this visual component of us not quite knowing what art installation will be there (and) having that be an exciting part of the experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The PCA board\u2019s ongoing support, including from PCA President Sue Malick, and support from the broader Piedmont community have also helped make the Salon Series an annual fall event at the venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve loved all of the offerings we\u2019ve done in that space, giving that space a really solid classical-based vocal experience that a lot of them can even walk to from their homes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The PCA\u2019s other draws include the main room\u2019s top-notch acoustics and its well-maintained piano, both of which Gordin described as \u201cbeautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s kind of a sweet situation, and it\u2019s affordable for us as a presenting organization \u2014 they give us a little community benefit rate because they want the arts in that space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As a teacher, artist mentor and an Oakland native with a long history in classical music, Gordin said having the Resident Artist Program\u2019s inaugural class perform in Piedmont feels especially meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart and my roots are definitely here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just feels so right to bring together these artists and to formalize this opportunity for them in my hometown.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program has given him the opportunity to get to know the resident artists as individuals, understand their strengths and areas for growth and help prepare them for professional careers. That work has extended beyond developing their voices and stage roles to include other attributes he sees as essential to navigating life as a working artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an artist, you can\u2019t just expect to get hired,\u201d he said. \u201cSo a large component of this has been business training and entrepreneurial skills so that they have a saleable product and know what to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Leiboff, who lives in San Francisco, the Sept. 27 concert is a monumental occasion: She previously sang at the PCA as part of a recording session, but this will be her first official performance there. Leiboff echoed Gordin\u2019s perspective that the concert is a culmination of what she and fellow resident artists have been working on for the past several months and said she appreciates the thought Gordin put into the program\u2019s components.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he has been aiming to do is help us explore different types of repertoire that we may not be used to as well as help grow our technique and our stage presence,\u201d Leiboff said.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, she not only understudied a role in Festival Opera\u2019s production of \u201cAlcina\u201d but also performed a full role in its Opera in the Park production of \u201cElixir of Love\u201d in Walnut Creek and Orinda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this weird gap where you\u2019ve just graduated school and then no one will hire you for anything because they haven\u2019t seen that you\u2019ve done anything,\u201d Leiboff said. \u201cSo Zach took that opportunity and was like, \u2018OK, well, these young people can do it. Why not let them?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
At the PCA concert, Leiboff will have yet another opportunity: to sing \u201cbeautiful music\u201d with fellow resident artists Dinga, Nelson, Greene and Daley.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a chance to showcase the dramatic parts of our learning that we\u2019ve done and an exploration into new repertoire,\u201d she said, adding that she\u2019s excited to perform some pieces she\u2019s never done before.<\/p>\n
Leiboff said that she and the other resident artists are each performing one or two arias, along with some duets and group numbers. The program will start with Giuseppe Verdi\u2019s \u201cLibiamo\u201d from \u201cLa traviata,\u201d which dates back to 1853, and will be followed with pieces by George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Georges Bizet, Jules Massenet and others, concluding with Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cMake Our Garden Grow\u201d from \u201cCandide\u201d (1956).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe move through time in that way,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou get to explore light to heavy in terms of repertoire and baroque to modern, which is really interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordin noted that the time travel through classical music masterpieces, including crowd pleasers and the more obscure music choices, is purposeful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s how I love to program it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou might not like everything on the program, but everybody will like something on the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
JL Odom is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco who can be reached at\u00a0jlodomphd@gmail.com<\/a>. When they\u2019re not covering the Bay Area, they\u2019re usually training for their next marathon.<\/p>\n FYI<\/p>\n The Salon Series by Festival Opera will take place on Sundays, starting with their \u201cResident Artist Showcase\u201d at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27, followed by \u201cMad Scenes\u201d at 4 p.m. Oct. 25 and \u201cBorders of Dreaming\u201d at 4 p.m. Nov. 22. For details online or to buy tickets, visit festivalopera.org\/salon-series<\/a>. The PCA is at 801 Magnolia Ave. in Piedmont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For five emerging opera singers, months of training, performance opportunities and professional development will soon come together in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5445,389,184,7,2644,332,181,23,13744,330,143,145,1904,144,10239,13745,420],"class_list":["post-464969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-concerts","tag-east-bay","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-montclair","tag-music","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-hills","tag-oakland-news","tag-opera","tag-piedmont","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}