MEDIA RELEASE

www.banffcentre.ca

For Immediate Release
March 25, 2002

Two of The Banff Centre’s new arts programs are hitting the right note with young musicians in Canada and around the world. In the past few weeks, The Banff Centre has seen a record number of applications come in for the Opera as Theatre (Glynis Leyshon, program head), and the Song in Collaboration (Edith Weins, program head) program, developed by The Banff Centre’s Theatre Arts and Music & Sound departments, respectively.

"It’s encouraging to see such an overwhelming response from artists about these new programs," says Joanne Morrow, The Banff Centre’s vice-president, Arts. " The staggering response speaks to the demand in the arts community for opera and voice training of this calibre," says Morrow.

Opera as Theatre emphasizes the acquisition of solid theatrical skills and self-confidence by young singers who have already achieved a high level of musical sophistication – in other words, it helps singers to become actors.

"This emphasis on instilling overall theatre knowledge in musical artists is relatively rare in opera programs throughout Canada, and indeed, throughout North America. Opera departments in universities and colleges often include some basic training in movement and speech, but they do not concentrate entirely, as this program does, on theatre studies for singers," says John Murrell, artistic director/executive producer of the Theatre Arts department at The Banff Centre.

Immediately following Opera as Theatre, the Song in Collaboration program provides a forum for singers to explore the vocal chamber repertoire, and for pianists to enhance their skills for successful musical partnerships with singers. These two programs, in sequence, offer a well-rounded and thorough base of training for musical and theatrical performance in the vocal music.

The artists in both programs will share their training with the public this summer at The Banff Arts Festival – a showcase for outstanding new talent.

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Please click here, for more information about either program: Opera as Theatre and Song in Collaboration. The Banff Centre is a member of the Professional Opera Companies of Canada. Check their website for details on this year’s OPERA America Conference and the Opera Festival 2002, in Toronto: www.opera.ca.