Tuesday, Jul 5, 2016
The Westminster CoOPERAtive Program, Westminster Choir College’s three-week intensive opera training program, begins on Sunday, July 3, and will continue through Saturday, July 23. The public is invited to attend an array of free recitals, concerts and master classes featuring talented singers and accompanists from around the world who are taking the next step in their operatic careers.
The public events include operatic aria concerts, featuring participants performing arias from familiar and not-so-well-known operas on Wednesday, July 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, July 8, at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, July 13, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, July 20, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, July 23, at 2 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, N.J.
Students will also present intimate art song recitals on Saturday, July 9, which will focus on German lieder; Saturday, July 16, which will focus on French melodie; and Friday, July 22, which will focus on American art song. All recitals will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Bristol Chapel.
The CoOPERAtive Program brings to Princeton some of the most influential people in the operatic field today to serve on its faculty and hold master classes. Program participants will perform in master classes with Susan Ashbaker, master coach and artistic advisor to the CoOPERAtive Program, on Sunday, July 3; Craig Rutenberg, consultant and coach at the Atkins Young Artist Program at the Maryinski Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday, July 14; Kathleen Kelly, coach/conductor of opera at University of Michigan, on Monday, July 18, and Tuesday, July 19, with Gina Lapinski, Metropolitan Opera stage director. All master classes begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert L. Annis Playhouse and are free and open to the public.
CoOPERAtive Assistant Director Eric Rieger will present a recital with pianist J. J. Penna on Tuesday, July 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert L. Annis Playhouse. They will perform Britten’s Winter Words, op. 52 and Schumann’s Dichterliebe, op. 48.
To celebrate the CoOPERAtive Program’s 11th year, Westminster will host “An Evening of Divas, Divos and Dessert” on Monday, July 11, at 7 p.m., in the Robert L. Annis Playhouse. The event will include light desserts followed by a master class with CoOPERAtive Program Director Laura Brooks Rice. Tickets are $20, and the proceeds will support the CoOPERAtive program. Tickets will be available at the door and online at www.rider.edu/arts.