What a busy SPRING!

I am so relieved to have made it through the SPRING! 

We started in February with the Carnegie Mellon Dalcroze Eurhythmics Immersion Weekend for Music Educators, February 23-24, 2013. We had 25 attendees from 5 different states, and 22 CAPA teenagers showed up to the demonstration class and they rocked it! It was a great two days. 

This was the 4th annual Carnegie Mellon Dalcroze Eurhythmics Immersion Weekend for Music Educators. If you have not attended yet, you really should consider setting the dates aside for 2014. It is well worth the time. HERE is the info for 2014.


March brought my Spring Opera at CAPA, the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts High School. This year we produced, what I believe to be, the 1st full production of Lucas Foss' GRIFFELKIN ever performed by a totally teenage cast. It was quite strong and I spent the whole time wondering if anyone in the greater opera/classical music community would care. Is anyone out there interested in the feeder programs to the feeder programs? Here is an example of an URBAN PUBLIC school, doing real rep, with a successful track record and bringing up the next generation of opera lovers.

I have been music directing the Opera Workshop at CAPA for many years. We have done a wide range of works over the years from Kurt Weill to Gilbert and Sullivan, Mozart to Menotti. We have mounted full productions with full orchestra, presented evenings of scenes in the Black Box, and have collaborated with multiple theaters and opera companies (sometimes as their chorus, other times as their full main stage subscription series production).

The course is required for all CAPA Voice majors, grades 9-12. This is about 65 student singers each year. 

I have mounted enough productions with this group to have recognized my pattern. We work like dogs for months getting a production up to speed, I don't tell enough people about it, then I get to tech week and think, HOLY CRAP, this is the coolest, why don't more people know about the great work of these teenagers. 

This year I went out of my way to tell everyone I could find and I am glad I did. It was a superb run for all involved. 

You can see more pictures from the production HERE.

Now, to pick something for next year!