You may be part of our industry that is underserved.

We were not looking to start a summer program.  However, for quite some time we had discussed how we might impart career development skills to performance faculty and performers with professional level talent.  While working with Scuola Italia the past two summers, we were so impressed by them that when they asked us to create a program in Piobbico for 2008, we could not resist.

Why this program is different.

The path toward an operatic career is replete with obstacles.  Many performers find themselves trapped in a huge no-man’s-land between their academic training and the professional world.  Others are burdened with a gap between their academic and performance resumes. It is often logistically impossible to maintain an institution’s desired level of performance profile while still fulfilling academic responsibilities.  Additionally, some simply have not allowed themselves the luxury of concentrating on their own art.  Perhaps they find themselves feeling removed from the professional performance circuit and questioning how best to prepare their own students.

If you relate to any of the above, The Professional Advantage is for you.

Learning by example

We have observed opera-company-based apprentice and young artist programs that are set up to serve everyone except the singers.  We have also seen many star-centered training programs that leave you no closer to knowing how to get a job.  Singers with marketable talent have too few opportunities to tackle standard repertoire, experience language-based training, or to absorb operatic traditions and stagecraft.  One needs to know how to get hired and stay working in a changing industry. In other words, you need ACCESS to those who have done and are doing it.  Everyone’s road to a career is different and marked with failures as well as triumphs.  There is no singular path to success.  We offer you the opportunity to learn from nine vastly different “good examples.”

Co-Founders,
Amy Johnson & Vernon Hartman