INTRODUCTION
What do Plácido Domingo, Roberta Peters, Patrice Munsel, Adelina Patti, Manuel Garcia, and a host of other great names from the annals of operatic history potentially have in common with your high-school aged student, son or daughter? All were active singers in operatic productions during their teen years, a time when most of today's youth have not even heard of opera. Here in New York City, we have so many musical resources available to prepare our young artists for future careers but few for the youngest singers wishing to undertake serious study of the greatest of the performing arts, grand opera.
While many of our city's great opera companies use and train children and teens in their choruses, there have been fewer opportunities for these young singers to explore what goes into preparation of a leading or supporting role in grand opera. Once a certain age has been reached, many of these kids must leave those institutions, having to wait up to ten years to resume further operatic studies.
Citywide Youth Opera, Inc. (CYOp), a not-for-profit, 501c3 tax exempt
organization launched in the Fall of 2005, seeks to remedy this situation. This
program offers young singers in-depth musical, dramatic and interpretive
training, culminating in a public performance of legitimate operatic works by the
great composers of music history from the Baroque through contemporary periods. The program is open to students ages 14 to 21.
Attention to repertoire is what makes CYOp unique. While other programs have been created to coach teen singers in individual arias, art songs or in the process of creating an original opera, CYOp teaches skills to bring forth a polished performance of established repertoire, in addition to also offering aria study geared to the individual performer's needs.
AMONG THE STAFF AT CYOp
CYOp's founder and Artistic Director, Andrés Andrade, spent five years as
the director of the opera program at LaGuardia Arts High School, where he very
successfully managed the development of that program which has included
fully-staged, professionally-staffed and costumed productions with orchestra.
Under Mr. Andrade's direction, that program produced Handel's Alcina, Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice ( the subject of a special feature on National Public Radio's
Morning Edition), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Offenbach's Orpheus in the
Underworld, and Lehár’s The Merry Widow.
An accomplished singer and vocal
instructor with over twenty years experience, Mr. Andrade has sent several of his
former students into some of the world's top conservatories and college music
departments. He is a member of the National Association of Teachers of
Singing, the New York Singing Teachers Association, and the faculty at Queens
College.
Citywide Youth Opera, Inc.
P.O. Box 3647
Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163
212-539-3561
