OPERAWORKS, INC.
GRANADA HILL, CA

After working in many professional capacities with opera companies and apprentice programs around the country, OperaWorks founder Mission and Vision Since 1986, OperaWorks’ curriculum has been continuously evolving and adapting to the ever-changing demands of a singing career as well as the environment of the industry. Our exceptional Our Mission To train and empower opera professionals to excel artistically, personally and professionally, and to develop new audiences through innovative alternatives to traditional opera productions. OperaWorks’ vision is to be the top artist development program in the country, preparing performers in a way that values and respects them as whole individuals and as talented artists. Our What You Get From OperaWorks OperaWorks was the first program to offer classes in yoga, Feldenkreis, Aikido, visualization, expressive conducting for singers, marketing, career planning, and social media. Currently, the curriculum includes acting, repertoire coaching, musical improvisation, acting improvisation, and audition techniques. “the training provided at OperaWorks enhanced optimal performance and increased self-esteem, while decreasing shame, trait perfectionism and anxiety.” Participants & faculty in the 1988 OperaWorks program After working in many professional capacities with opera companies and apprentice programs around the country, OperaWorks founder OperaWorks began as two-week summer programs in Tampa and Pittsburgh 1987-89. The curriculum consisted of Performance Techniques, Musical Improvisation, Alexander Technique, and individual coachings, all of which remain at the core of the programs today. Following a two-week 1990 winter program in Phoenix, OperaWorks moved to Los Angeles as a three-week program at California State University, Northridge where the programs have been in residence since 1990. As OperaWorks’ founder and artistic director, this statement comes from a deeply personal perspective. I share this to illuminate how the very core of OperaWorks’ mission came into being in 1987. The impetus to create a place where singers could make music in a positive and nurturing environment came out of my own musical education and professional experiences. I began piano lessons at age four and concluded 24 years later with a masters degree in piano accompanying and acceptance into a top opera apprentice program. Since then I have served as music director of apprentice programs and assistant conductor/chorus master in opera companies across the United States. I noticed a pattern in my education that was typically Play—Stop—Correction—Play Again—Stop—Correction—Play Again, etc. without any positive feedback – only what I was doing wrong. Hearing an occasional encouraging word would have given me some hope but, after years of relentless corrections from well-meaning teachers, my self-confidence was destroyed. OperaWorks’ training programs began 30 years ago as a response to my debilitating experiences, and remains at the heart of OperaWorks’ activities. Although our curriculum contains innovative classes designed to develop complete performers, it is the manner in which the classes are taught that has had the most profound effect. When a singer is stopped in a coaching or class, the first words they hear will be positive before the teacher suggests a change. The three seconds it takes to say, “That initial breath was better” keeps the defensive wall from coming up and the music flowing. Our faculty has worked together for many years, and they were sought out as much for their generosity of spirit as for their expertise. We work together as a team for the sole purpose of empowering singers to fulfill their potential. To provide an artist with a place where they are valued as a person and performer, to challenge them to be better and risk new things, to see them let down the walls and realize how good they really are and how much they have to offer the world – that is why OperaWorks exists. OperaWorks faculty since 2015 Operatic improv performances with OperaWorks at Classical Singer National Conventions, Opera America, & Hollywood Ford Amphitheater [All OperaWorks programs – 2018] OperaWorks faculty since 2005 OperaWorks faculty since 2010 OperaWorks taught me that sometimes what we might perceive as the ‘flaw’ is not a flaw after all – it’s part of what makes us interesting and whole as people and as artists. It’s more important to make a bold choice and risk exposing a weakness, than to try to play it safe and hide our full humanity from the world. At OperaWorks I encountered, for the first time, a curriculum that utilized dramatic and musical improvisation as a tool to discover one’s deeply personal and distinctive gifts. I was given elements that are essential to being not only a professional artist, but more than that, one with a unique artistic voice. Rather than focusing solely on the “product” which is typical of other programs, OperaWorks focuses on the process… [It] was life-changing; it was great to know I could take risks and have a safe and supportive environment in which to do so. [OperaWorks] was transformative and empowering on all levels. By letting go of long-held fears and inhibitions, I finally felt free to explore my personal and artistic potential. [OperaWorks] gave me what I never learned anywhere else. We live in a world of recordings and a wealth of knowledge on what is right and wrong. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of what we don’t know. OperaWorks taught me the best answers lie within each of us as an individual. We are all unique and it is through that unique perspective that our best art will be created. My experience at OperaWorks was truly life changing. Striving to strengthen the whole person, not just the singing voice, opens up creativity and expression I never knew existed. [OperaWorks’ teachers] were the first group of mentors who openly talked about the realities of being a professional singer and gave me the tools to actually be able to survive and enjoy the fight to the top.