Vocal Music

Italy -- the land of song. What better place to pursue a program of vocal study this summer than in Spoleto, in the heart of Italy. Our personalized program enables students to work with a variety of teachers (in addition to the Renaissance humanist studies pursued each morning): voice lessons with Dr. Terry Rhodes (Professor, Opera Director, and Chair of the Music Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), acting with Jack Zerbe (Professor of Dramatic Art at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC), Italian diction with Candida Pilla, and vocal coachings with Laura Magnani and Angelo Silvio Rosati (the latter two are Spoleto musicians who have been with our program since its inception). In addition to the lessons and coachings, we produce an opera scenes program during the session. This past summer the students performed scenes from Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro") to an enthusiastic public.

Vocal students coming to the Spoleto Study Abroad program study voice on a one-on-one basis, working on technique, breath management, postural/alignment issues, style, dictions, interpretation and stage comportment. Both classical and music theater selections may be the selected works for study, however we emphasize Italian operatic and song repertoire, given our faculty and setting. Students bring or request music of particular interest to them; individual goals are set and worked toward - such as preparing for college auditions, for the upcoming high school musical or the state's honors chorus, solidifying technique, learning new repertoire, etc.

Students have opportunities to perform in master class and/or recital situations, to sing in smaller chamber music duos and trios, and to sing in the choir, which presents a number of concerts throughout the city and region. Our choral repertoire has included Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with orchestra, Renaissance motets and madrigals, mass settings spanning the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods, American spirituals and musical theater medleys. This past summer the Spoleto Study Abroad choir performed in the Basilica of San Gregorio in Spoleto and the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Castel Ritaldi.

Singing a Palestrina motet in the environs of a beautiful 13th c. Italian church, we feel the music come alive in an extraordinary musical experience. Constantly, we find the rich tradition, the historied culture, and the sumptuous surroundings inspiring us in ways we couldn't have imagined before coming here.

"I have had such an amazing time here in Spoleto! Thanks for all the help you've given me in lessons and opera scenes. It was so much fun... I feel like this Spoleto trip has enriched me as both a person and a singer." -Tara Morrow