Last year I was invited by the Canadian Opera Company to be a ‘Teaching Artist’ for the 2022/23 season. Teaching Artists deliver interactive workshops in various settings, and in this season, I partook in two workshops.
The most recent workshop was on March 15 as part of Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw amphitheater, and featured Karine White (Laetitia), Renée Salewski (director), Timothy Cheung (piano) and myself, leading the audience in an interactive workshop inspired by Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1939 opera The Old Maid and the Thief. Navigating through dramaturgy, with the performance of a couple of its most famous arias (I performed “When the air sings of summer”) as well as scenes, this workshop provided an educational exploration of the well-loved radio opera.
📷: Karen E. Reeves
Previously, on January 23, The Canadian Opera Company presented its second Youth Opera Lab (YOL) in conjunction with The Marriage of Figaro dress rehearsal. Karine Whie, Hyejin Kwon and I along with Madeleine Smith, manager of community partnerships and programs at the COC, developed and executed a 90-minute interactive workshop focused on the music and history of The Marriage of Figaro. We also discussed how opera singers prepare for the stage. Musical excerpts were featured - I performed “Se vuol ballare” and “Hai già vinta la causa…”
It was a privilege to be involved in these workshops with the organization, and I look forward to future collaboration.