St. Vincent dePaul Performance Night

Bryna Berezowska, COT Teaching Artist

As the audience piled into the St. Vincent dePaul Center (SVDPC) theater space, the young performers seemed excited, nervous and anxious to begin.  As a teacher, there is nothing more exciting and nerve-wracking than seeing the culmination of so many months of work. It is amazing to see the students’ growth in confidence, creativity and performance ability over the year. For me, the most exciting thing was noticing how the performers reacted to the audience adulation. They were singing with more energy and dancing their little hearts out for their peers and parents. You could see genuine joy on their faces, knowing that they were entertaining and even inspiring the younger kids!

During the “Gangnam Style” dance the younger grades in the front rows were doing the hand actions along with the performers. The young audience members were mesmerized by the operatic alien song, and amused by Mr. Cool zapping all the aliens cool. The fashion girls sounded particularly lovely in the climactic song “We are the fashion girls, and we’re here to accessorize you”! Overall, everyone did a fantastic job pulling the show together. Transitions were smooth, voices were clear and strong, and lines were delivered with confidence and character. I couldn’t be more proud of the group, and I’m sure we have some budding opera performers and opera goers in our midst. I believe we also reached the parents of the Opera For All students as well. So many parents came up to me and gushed about how amazing this experience was for their children and how much they enjoyed it and wanted to see more. Nothing honors a teacher more than a student who feels a sense of accomplishment due to the growth they’ve experienced over the months of work. It wasn’t always easy. One of the older boys in the class started out as unsure, standoffish and even a little “too cool for super school”. By the second half, he was the leader of the group, knew all his lines, and all the dance moves. After the performance he came up to me and asked to take a picture with me. This warmed my heart and reminded me why we are doing all of this. His mother was glowing with pride, and both have been instilled with a love of music and opera from now on.

Chicago Opera Theater for Teens - Performance

Chris Richard, COT for Teens Music Director 

What a whirlwind of a week!  Chicago Opera Theater for Teens is having a busy end of program.  On Monday, April 8 we had a big performance with other After School Matter programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  It was a wonderful evening of performances by 2 of the dance ensemble and 2 of the vocal groups.  We were lucky enough to set off the night on a bright and positive step with our dazzling performance.  Our teens have been working very hard this term on being a true ensemble - learning how to act, dance and sing as one.  We concentrated this term on 5 strong chorus and group pieces from the world of opera and musical theater.  The students really enjoyed our selections and dove in whole heartedly.  Our list of numbers which we have been able to perform are:

The Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi

Dance a Cachucha from The Gondoliers by Giblert & Sullivan

Fie on Sinful Fantasy from The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai

The Ballad of Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim

One Day More from Les Miserables  by Claude-Michel Schonberg

My co-teach, Caryn Ott Hillman and I decided on these pieces because they would showcase our students talents and really wow the audience.  The Anvil Chorus is such a standard in the opera repertory we wanted to make it our own and have the students give some input as to how we staged it.  We talked with the class about what was going on in the opera's storyline when the chorus comes and asked if they could come up with any ideas how they would stage it.  We asked if they could relate to the chorus and if there were elements in their own lives that could be brought into the piece.  It turned out to be a wonderful piece of a work by all!

Ms. Ott Hillman had a great time delving into the choreography for Dance a Cachucha, really giving it a spanish flare.  I'm sure she can tell you more about in her own blog.

The chorus from The Merry Wives of Windsor is something I brought to the table. I thought it had such interesting juxtaposition of darkness and brightness and the teens really got into the idea of characterization thru those themes.

We were able to show off some of the amazing individual talents in our program by splitting up the solo work in The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.  Again, Ms. Ott Hillman inventive staging of it really took the audience to a creepy and spectacular place.

What can one say about One Day More from Les Miserables?   It is truly a show stopper of a piece (not to mention it finished the first act!)  Our students were so excited to get to work on this piece.  Every day they would ask, 'Are we going to work on One Day More?'  Their enthusiasm was overwhelming.

Today we performed at the Garfield Park Conservatory.  What a beautiful place!  It is such a treasure that our city has.

We were able to sing and dance amongst the stunning flowers.  All of the azaleas and bougainvillea were in full bloom and it framed our students so wonderfully.  The space was gorgeous and our students singing was glorious - what a combination!

We have one more week of program and already we've done so much!  We are proud of each and every one of them!

One more week and one more performance.

In bocca al lupo!

Mr. Richard

Six Years and Counting at Clinton

Lisa Golda, COT Teaching Artist

This year marks my fifth at Clinton, and the sixth that Chicago Opera Theater has been in residence there.
Our program has changed so much in the interim, both in terms of what our students at Clinton are currently accomplishing artistically, and in terms of how much Opera for All has grown!

This year, our teaching artist staff has tripled, with teaching artists in several schools throughout Chicago. Several fundraising campaigns, a video, fantastic donors, and a supportive new Artistic Director seem to indicate that our program will live up to its name!

We are no longer a team of three or four intrepid TAs toughing it out in isolation, but a big strong group of multi-talented artists led by our tireless and dedicated Education Director, Linden Christ. I'm sure that the increased support and expanded teaching staff is making a huge impact throughout Chicago in the same way that an extended tenure at one school, such as mine at Clinton, can make a qualitative difference in program participation and artistic end result.

I almost quit Clinton my first year. I was commuting from Wisconsin two days in a row, once a week, and a snow-related car accident at Christmastime put my car out of commission for a month. Aside from that interminable four-hour drive, Clinton was challenging at that point; or at least, it seemed so to me. I was a rookie TA. The following year, our sixth-grade kids were a challenging bunch and went through several substitutes after their primary teacher took maternity leave. We ended up with just about a third of that class participating in a dance number in the final show and gave their parts to younger kids. The rest of that class was not able or willing to participate and sat it out. At that time, we provided the kids with a script that we had written and a score of excerpts from existing classical music. We kept props and costumes to an absolute minimum because just getting students onstage to say their lines on cue was a challenge.

What a difference a few years, and a new principal, Mr. Eduardo Cesario, can make!

This year is the second that I have taught students how to write their own script, starting with character development and ending up with dialogue that they themselves create. The late great Mary Scruggs introduced song lyric writing two years ago, which was continued this year by Alyssa Sorresso, and the students themselves; Clinton kids are so invested in this program that we ended up with an EXTRA song, the lyrics of which a few students wrote independently as journal entries that were supposed to be a warm-up exercise for songwriting sessions. We continue to have delightful guest composers helping the kids to craft their own melodies.

But never before have we enjoyed the level of participation and excitement that we do now at Clinton, after six years of being in residence. 

My partner teacher Justin and I had MULTIPLE kids auditioning for roles, sometimes two or three for the same part. We were not able to cast everyone in a featured role due to the fierce competition. These kids had created these characters over a period of several months, and they were determined to play those parts! The kids wrote an incredibly complex script, with three-dimensional characters whose roles continue throughout the show. Classes will be onstage together in several scenes. In the past, we did not mix classes at all due to potential issues with management. Roles were kept short due to the inexperience of our performers and dialogue was minimal. But this year, we've got kids with the talent, the commitment, and the performing bug to make a show like this happen! 

Best of all--all four classes are sixth graders. Four classes of kids the same age as those that dropped out three years ago. We may even have some guest instrumentalists this year--the Assistant Principal, Mr. Turner, is a violinist and expressed his wish to participate in the performance.

I am so happy to be a part of the ongoing evolution of Opera for All at Clinton. As are, obviously, our kids. And that is what OFA is all about.

On with the show!

What is this going to be?  Wait till you see the finished costume piece!!

Student making alien head-pieces.

A finished product!  

The Young Composer

Bryna Berezowska Tallman, COT Teaching Artist

After years of working with students, I have found the immense value of adding music to children’s shows, especially when it is their own music. Students seem exponentially more interested and excited about singing and dancing to their own songs. In addition to adding music, dance and movement are equally helpful.

In our class at the St. Vincent de Paul Center, the students wrote their own lyrics. We worked with a composer to notate some melodic ideas they thought of during the process. The songs came back slightly altered and perhaps a bit un-intuitive for the kids to sing. As we were practicing, the students were having a hard time remembering rhythms in some of the parts, mainly when extra rests were added.

The last class at St. Vincent de Paul, worked on putting their own choreography to the songs they wrote. The improvement in their rhythmic timing was ‘night and day’. When the students had actions to correlate with the rests, they never forgot to wait and rest!

Dancing and creating music helps students feel the beat and music with a flow and consistent meter.  Dancing keeps kids active, helps them burn that extra energy and maintains their focus. 

So, we are excited to have our choreographer, Amanda Compton, visit for the next two classes in April, and continue our own student choreography!

FunderHut Campaign

Jessica Weber, COT Education Assistant

Today was my first experience with being part of a funding campaign going live!  We started our 90 day $10,000 campaign to raise funds for the Opera for All program.  This money will be a great way for us to expand the program to hundreds of more needy students in Chicago.

Check out the program, make a donation, and receive one of the awesome Kudos, many of which are straight from our current OFA students.

Oh, and if you are lucky, you will get a thank you note from me!

Click here to donate!

Creative Chicago Expo

Linden Christ, Manager of Education and Outreach

As the Manager of Education and Outreach for Chicago Opera Theater, I had the opportunity to network with many other arts organizations.    The Chicago Cultural Center hosted a two day event on March 1st & 2nd for arts organizations.   We were a vendor and shared out information with over 7,500 interested people passing through.   Our Education Assistant, Jessica Weber, was an immense help with sharing our information about COT's season and our Education programs.   In addition, our vendor table had a clear view out the Cultural Center second floor of the Harris Theater which was quite helpful in pointing the way for new patrons to attend our performance that night of 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.

We made new connections and reconnected those we already knew.    We were happy to see the Atheneaum Theatre booth, which had COT pictures in their anniversary video from when the Atheneaum used to be our home theater.   This week I'm following up with many different people like Dan from Funderhut, Stephen Carmody a set designer, David - the intrepid songwriter, and many other artists to see what collaborating opportunities we can think of over coffee.  

It was especially exciting to hear people's positive comments about COT and several people knew a bit about our education programs!

Jessica and Linden at the Chicago Opera Theater Booth

Art Day at Reilly Elementary School

Mandy Compton, COT Teaching Artist

Monday was the day that our students have been anticipating for quite some time--Art Day with Ms. Sonja.

 As each class filed in to begin their all-too-short class period, they were treated to the wondrous materialization of their imaginations that Sonja had designed.  Alien Dogs made out of crunched scrap paper and brightly colored tape, Star Cars made out of foam board with push lights for headlights,

and three-dimensional canvasses for the Green Sun, Ummm Burgers, Worm Waffles, and Squid Sandwiches that comprise our "Alien Buffet." 

As we assigned projects for our first class to work on, we had so much interest for each project that we had no trouble putting everyone to work right away.  As the painting and decorating got underway, it was encouraging to see how invested the kids were in the importance of their work.  One little girl was so specific with her project that she insisted her dog have a collar so she could write his name on it.  During the two second-grade classes, we focused on creating their alien antennas (pipe cleaners attached to headbands) and alien skin (puffy paint designs on knee highs for their arms). 

 

 

The kids were really dedicated to putting just the right colors in just the right place , and finishing their projects.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, one little girl who was only able to attend the last five minutes of class was intently focused on finishing her headband and having the googly-eyes in a specific pattern.  We stayed a little late to help her finish and she was thrilled when we let her take her newly created treasure home with her. 

 

Art Day during Opera For All exemplifies one of the many reasons that I am proud to be a part of this outstanding educational program.  We teach kids about every element of an operatic performance, not just singing or music.  Giving each child an opportunity to shine during the different guest artist visits and diverse projects we assign gives them a sense of ownership of the final performance, and a new means of connecting to the operatic genre.  Keep checking back for more news about Reilly's progress in 2013!

Reigniting the Stars

Caryn Ott Hillman, COT Teaching Artist - COT for Teens

Hello, my name is Caryn Ott Hillman.  I am the new stage director and choreographer for After School Matters’ COT for Teens at Gallery 37. 

Let’s see…where to begin?  I grew up in Milwaukee, WI where I took dance lessons from ages three to eighteen. 

Me at the tender age of 10, in one of my many dance costumes.

I started voice lessons in high school and was inspired to study music in college.  I moved to Chicago to attend Roosevelt University where I studied voice under Maria Lagios.  

Posing with Maria and my accompanist at my senior recital

Hugging my Candide when I played Cunegunde in CANDIDE at Roosevelt

After graduation, I performed both opera and musical theater throughout Chicagoland.  

My fellow fairies- I am in orange as Cobweb in A Midsummernight’s Dream at Metropolis Center for the Performing Arts

Model face with another gypsy in GYPSY LOVE at Light Opera Works

Ready to dance in THE STUDENT PRINCE

Now, where did the teaching come into play, you ask?  Well, in college, I returned home to Milwaukee to teach musical theater at a summer camp at First Stage Theatre Academy.  Since then, I have joined the team at Light Opera Works to direct and choreograph their winter/summer workshops and I teach at Emerald City Theatre, as well.  My first thought of working at Chicago Opera Theater came from my dear friend - Chris Richard.  We have performed together on stage in KISS ME KATE and have taught together side by side at Light Opera Works.  My first thought was that working teens was going to be much different than working with grade schoolers, but I was thrilled by the idea!  Having students that appreciate classical music or have a love of singing was going to be HUGE!

I am now only two weeks into the process and I have already witnessed the class come alive when they sing the chorus to the Merry Wives of Windsor. I am filled with so many ideas that I want to add to the pieces that Chris and I have selected for this term:

·        Flamenco dance to Dance the Cachucha

·        Embodying demons from Hades instead of woodland creatures for the chorus in Merry Wives of  Windsor

·        Perform on a dark stage with flashlights for the Ballad of Sweeney Todd

That is just a start!

I truly am inspired by these teens that may have more “real life” issues to deal with than the average teen.  I hope I can be a mentor that can create a Safe Zone for them to feel supported so that their self-esteem can flourish.  I am a foster parent to two beautiful girls.  Therefore, I feel I have a small insight as to how to take a “broken” child and help rebuild him/her.  No child is lost forever, he/she just needs to be harbored and nurtured. 

This is me with my husband Kyle and the girls, Kyla and Shauntae.  Their adoption will be finalized later this month!!!

Dim stars can be reignited – I intend to do that for these teens through preforming.                      

They deserve it!

Composing Through Collaboration

Myron Silberstein, Opera for All Guest Composer

           

          It was a pure delight to participate in Chicago Opera Theater’s Opera for All Program for my first season as composer at two schools: Clinton and Saint Vincent DePaul. I particularly valued the interactive aspect of my work with COT’s elementary students. Composing is a notoriously solitary act; in both schools, though, we enjoyed a genuine collaborative experience in which each student had input into their songs’ rhythms, melodies, and harmonies. My role as a composer was simply to put the students’ ideas together.

           I began each class by asking students to read the text we would be setting. I next facilitated discussion about the text’s emotional content and asked for another reading emphasizing the emotions of the text. We were then able to notice when students’ voices instinctually went up or down, when the speed increased or decreased, and when volume changed. 

Once the broad-strokes structure of our music was on paper, I asked students at Clinton to form small groups to collaborate on creating the rhythm of their song. As Saint Vincent DePaul, the class size was small enough to continue our discussion as a full group. Each group had five to ten minutes to discuss, and then spoke the text in rhythm to the entire class. And then we voted on which rhythm to use. We did the exact same thing when constructing a melody. This is true composition by committee!

I offered occasional coaching: when a group set a text to a repeated interval, I asked whether the repetition produced the tension they had found in the text. We discussed the possibility of using different intervals or of transposing the same interval to different scale degrees and voted for the transposition. I also presented options for the piano accompaniment: should it be bouncy or flowing? Should it stick to a few basic chords or should it have more harmonic variety? But the ultimate decision was in the hands of the students.

And so I left class each day with a notebook full of scribbled transcriptions and jottings about decisions the students had made. I entered the melodies directly into my notation software and then set to work creating an accompaniment that fit the students’ intentions. 

Among the highlights of my work with Opera for All was the students’ reaction to hearing the realization of their melodies. One young singer, who had improvised a very beautiful alien welcome song, was particularly moved: “That’s exactly what I imagined,” she told one of the school’s teaching artists. And she was one of many young composers who are on the verge of bringing their imaginings to reality.

Listening = Art Making at Marillac

Lisa Golda, COT Teaching Artist

 

It's been so exciting to get back to our two after-school classes at Marillac and start creating a script and dialogue for their school-themed opera! 

 

We had been struggling to get the kids' creativity going: our outer space theme seemed too far removed from their own world to resonate with their daily experiences, and they had no interest, or ability, to create a story for characters whose challenges were unrelated to their own. The students came in one day after a particularly hard day at school, and we decided to ask them, as if reporting for a TV news broadcast: Just what is bugging you all? How was your day? Why are you all so grumpy? I thought that if we just found the subject that the kids wanted and needed to discuss, that a creative direction would emerge.

And of course, it did. It's amazing how most if not all art arises from our need to process and share our experiences, good and bad. Answers ranging from salty nachos to teachers assigning READING (horror of horrors, 45 minutes of it!!)  and asking kids to take TicTacs came in torrents from indignant, but giggly, kids delighting in imitating their teachers--- and quickly forgetting their bad moods. We wrote it all down.

Going with the kids' emotional flow, we decided to create a short opera based on the aftermath of a bad day at school and the last day of school before summer vacation. "After School Blues" came out of the initial discussion with our first class, with a trio of "teachers" (reminiscent of the Three Ladies in The Magic Flute) scolding and nagging the kids in their imaginations prior to their entrance. 

 

Teaching Artist, Justin, and Marillac students working through their new piece

 

That rhythmic number is followed by a Marillac counselor's advice to the kids to "sing the blues" to feel happier and the original blues song, "Not So Cool After School Blues". Next, the kids discuss how they will spend their summer break, and then perform "In the Summertime," a very evocative rap.  The rap's first stanza was so beautifully written by one of our older participants, Kobe, that we followed the meter and pattern he set when creating additional verses. 

 

Marillac students working together to create their music.

 

The students have bought in 100%, with even our most challenging and apathetic (seemingly depressed, exhausted, or both?) kids volunteering to do verses, provide beat box beats, etc.. All but a couple of the students doing rap verses came to their second class memorized and obviously ready to deliver their text--and the couple who were not totally memorized quickly stepped it up and got there. The kids were universally fascinated by the process of writing their own dialogue and became very possessive of "their" lines. And they have already almost learned the melody to their song. Art projects to complete the scene are next on the docket. We've gone from struggling to maintain order in class to rowdy but focused 99% participation. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with further songs composed! 

 

 

 

Welcome to Our Opera For All Teaching Artist!

Jennifer D'Agostino - Opera for All Teaching Artist

It has been a couple weeks since I started working for Chicago Opera Theater's "Opera for All" program and I am still amazed at how the students react to the various aspects of putting together an opera! Not only have they had opportunities to watch opera performances, but they also know musical terms, sing out in class and have opinions on how the text/poetry they have written will affect the story of their opera! I am so excited for the plans I have made with Linden Christ for Chase Elementary and for the ideas Mandy Compton and I have discussed for Reilly Elementary, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Who am I and why am I so excited to work with these kids?!

My name is Jennifer D'Agostino. I grew up in Lockport, NY and attended Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory for undergraduate college, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville for graduate school and The University of Wisconsin-Madison for my doctoral degree. All of my degrees are in voice performance with specification on classical music and opera. I have performed in many musicals and operas, have programmed about 10 different song recitals and have even directed, assistant directed and produced shows. A lot of my time in college was spent working in outreach, either for organized groups like the Knoxville Opera Company, "Opera for the Young" which is based in Madison, WI, or as part of a class. I have worked (not in music) in various YMCA after-school programs and church school programs. I feel like my entire life has led me to this job!

Based on what I've seen so far, I can't wait to hear the students gain more confidence as they audition for parts in the operas they've created. I am excited to see the different props and sets the students will create as well as how much fun we'll all have on choreographer day! I am so psyched to see the final performance!