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You followed us around the country with Darren’s travelogue as we heard auditions from 200+ singers selected from a pool of over 300 applications. After much travel and even more deliberation – we are so excited to share our 2019 roster with you! A few fun facts about this stellar group of 32 young performers to get us started:

• 14 are returning for a second or third summer on the hill (we love familiar faces!) and 18 are brand new (and we can’t wait to get to know them, too!).
• 9 are sopranos; 6 are mezzo-sopranos; 6 are tenors; and 11 are baritones/basses.
• They hail from 20 different US states and 3 countries (USA, Russia, and China).
• All 32 singers have or are currently completing a Bachelor’s Degree; 22 have or are completing a Master’s Degree; and 4 have or are completing a Performance Certificate or Doctoral Degree.
• They will collectively perform 42 roles in 4 operas and 2 musicals over the course of our 2019 season. [whew!]

You can visit our 2019 Artists page to learn more about each individual singer. Know them, love them, and better yet – come hear them sing this summer from June-August! Season tickets are on sale now, and single tickets will be available starting April 1. You don’t want to miss a moment of our exciting 104th season!

This month we’re excited to have a guest on the blog, artistic director Darren K. Woods. He brings us a play-by-play of his experience at this year’s New Works Forum, held annually at Opera America since 2012 as a discussion epicenter and idea incubator for the many and various voices that produce new opera. Without further ado, here’s Darren!

SMC at Opera America’s New Works Forum

The New Works Forum at Opera America is one of my favorite meetings to attend each year. Now in its seventh year (and I’ve been to every one), it is a wonderful gathering of composers, librettists, producers, singers, funding professionals, conductors, dramaturgs – well – every type of person who makes new opera happen. This year Seagle Music Colony was incredibly well represented.

On Wednesday, Tony took the train down from Schroon Lake so that he could be at rehearsal the next morning for The Ghosts of Gatsby, Evan Mack and Joshua McGuire’s new chamber opera that was workshopped at SMC this summer. “Gatsby” was one of the three operas to be showcased at the forum. Seagle, along with Opera Birmingham and Samford University, commissioned the opera, and it was a wonderful opportunity to reunite with Keith Wolfe, who was a singer and managing director at Seagle for many years and is now the General Director of Opera Birmingham. Mark Adamo, composer of Little Women and Lysistrata, another new work we’ve done at SMC, and his partner, Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano, hosted us in their home for rehearsal all day Thursday. We put together a stellar cast, including a number of SMC alumni. Scott Clark was F. Scott Fitzgerald, while Francesca Mehrotra was Zelda 18 and Shelley Mihm was Zelda 24. One of the artists from the premiere in Birmingham, Kathryne Overturf, sang Zelda 48. Our own Jennifer McGuire was at the piano.

[Read more…] about Recapped: New Works Forum 2019

The holidays are upon us once more, and that means it’s go time for singers all over the country and the world. With this post we’re bringing you and yours a (non-exhaustive) brief list of some of the performances happening this month where Seagle singers can be heard in a variety of productions, holiday-themed or not. If you’re looking for a last-minute gift – consider the gift of an experience and support all these hardworking musicians by attending a live performance! In a time when the world feels darker (both figuratively and literally… the sun sets at 5:00PM every day here on the East Coast!), music has a wonderful way of soothing, unifying, and restoring. Do yourself a favor and get to a theater, church, symphony hall. Even if you don’t see something near you it on this list, chances are lots of great music is being made right in your neighborhood.

What is your favorite holiday piece to hear live? Let us know in the comments!

DEC 9, 23, 25; JAN 19 // Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Theater am Goetheplatz, Bremen, Germany

Stephen Clark ’12-’13 will sing the role of Sam in Verdi’s classic opera. Not exactly your typical holiday fare, but the opera IS about a party, so…if you find yourself in Deutschland on Christmas day, give this opera a try!

DEC 12-13 // Lucinda y la Flores de la Nochebuena (Mack)
San Francisco Opera, San Francisco, CA

Seagle board member, composer, and friend Evan Mack collaborates once more with San Francisco Opera to bring his holiday children’s opera to Bay Area youth. The piece explores the story of “how the poinsettia became a meaningful symbol of the holiday season.”

[Read more…] about Where Are They Singing Now – Holiday Edition 2018

Helloooo to all our dear friends out there! It’s been a while since you’ve heard from the blog, but it has been one heck of a season and we’re back to tell you all about it.

The 103rd summer season was a wonderful success, and our emerging artists each left with hearts full and minds ready to take on their next projects. It is especially touching to see their tributes on Facebook or Instagram when they’ve a chance to return home and catch up on a bit of sleep: to hear how their minds were changed or expanded, how they have found their voice, or how they started out with colleagues and left with lifelong friends. That, my friends, is what Seagle Music Colony is all about! ICYMI we’ve uploaded albums from each of the summer’s mainstage productions on Facebook so you can relive the summer highlights all year long.

This year, we also tackled a full docket of activities in the Fall Season, which included three touring performances (a children’s opera, a musical revue, and The Falling and the Rising tour – check Facebook for more details about how those went!) and two workshops of new works. The first workshop, a one-act opera entitled The Ghosts of Gatsby, is the latest collaboration of Evan Mack and Joshua McGuire. It called for a quartet of singers to sing, dance, and go a little mad – and

the audience reaction was enthusiastic! If you weren’t able to join us in August for the performance, not to worry. The Ghosts of Gatsby world premiere is scheduled to take place November 15-18, 2018 at Samford University. The opera was also named a finalist for the National Opera Association Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition; the winner will be decided at the national convention in Salt Lake City, January 6, 2019. This piece is almost certainly going places, so keep an eye (and an ear!) out. [Read more…] about That’s a Wrap! Let’s Recap