workshopera

Professor Kammersängerin Jeanne Piland




Professor Kammersängerin Jeanne Piland

Mezzo-soprano, Jeanne Piland has had great success singing in most of the major opera houses in the world. Since she has begun to include the dramatic soprano roles in her repertoire, she has distinguished herself even more as one of the finest singers in her profession. In 1997, already renowned for her exquisite portrayal of Octavian, she made her debut as the Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Deutsche Opera am Rhein in Duisburg and achieved an effortless adjustment upwards into the realms of the dramatic soprano. Since then Eboli ("Don Carlos"), Santuzza ("Cavalleria Rusticana"), Giulietta ("The Tales of Hoffmann"), Adalgisa ("Norma"), Sara ("Roberto Devereux"), Gertrude ("Hamlet") and her latest Didon (“Les Troyens”) have followed with praise from press and public alike.

Jeanne Piland has also established herself as a Wagnerian heroine winning accolades as Sieglinde (“Die Walküre”), Kundry (“Parsifal”), Brangäne (“Tristan und Isolde”), and Venus (“Tannhäuser”).

Jeanne Piland received her Bacherlor and Master of Music from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC before she made her professional debut at the Baltimore Opera after becoming a finalist in the Baltimore Rosa Ponsell Opera Competition. She studied with Geraldine Cate, Gladys White and Carolyn Grant and received a Sullivan Grant, Rockefeller Grant, National Opera Institute Grant as well as a Metropolitan Opera Grant before she began her full time career at the New York City Opera with roles such as Cherubino, Nicklausse, Siebel, Orsini, Smeton and Lola.

Dr. Grischa Barfuss, former General Director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, invited the young mezzo soprano for an audition for the role of Silla (“Palestrina”). This marked the beginning of her international career and Ms. Piland’s European breakthrough. The singer’s consistent vocal victories in Düsseldorf led to more successful engagements at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, at La Scala in Milan, in Hamburg, Munich, Paris, Vienna, Cologne, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Zurich, Geneva, Nice, Monte Carlo, Vancouver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington D.C. as well as the festivals in Salzburg, Aix en Provence, Santa Fe and Ludwigsburg.

Aside from her portrayals of Richard Strauss roles, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, for which she was becoming more and more in demand, the Mozart roles were also a contributing factor in her blossoming career. Dorabella, Sesto, Idamante and especially her delightful Cherubino, all were major factors leading to her considerable prominence in her profession.

Another focal point of Ms. Piland’s career has been and is the French repertoire: Marguerite, Charlotte, Mélisande, Thérèse, Carmen, Didon and Sapho, have stunned audiences to wild applause in the world’s opera houses for over two decades. In this season she celebrated 30 years in Düsseldorf, 25 years in Hamburg and 20 years in Munich.

She also created the roles of Esmee in Theo Loevendie´s opera "Esmee" and Olivia in "Was Ihr Wollt" von Manfred Trojahn in their world premieres. Both roles were composed for her.

As a concert singer she has performed often with many of the world’s finest conductors, notably Berlioz’ "Les Nuits d’Eté" and Ravel’s "Schéhérazade". She also, with her accompanist Charles Spencer, gives song recitals preferring the works of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler.

Jeanne Piland lives in Düsseldorf and holds a professorship at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule. Aside from her international appearances, she is still profoundly connected to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she received the honorary title of “Kammersängerin” in 2003.

Her recordings include Berlioz’s "La damnation de Faust" (Marguerite), Massenet’s "Thérèse" (title role), and Mozart’s "La finta giardiniera" (Ramiro), the DVD of "Roberto Devereux" (Sara) with Edita Gruberova and many live television transmissions from Aix en Provence, Hamburg, Ludwigsburg, Amsterdam, Munich and a television production of Fra Diavolo.

Emily Rawlins-Struckmann

Emily Rawlins-Struckmann Personal Career Biography

Emily Rawlins’ career began in Lancaster, Ohio, at the age of thirteen. She presented a song recital for her mother’s local music club. Her encore selection was the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen. The success of this local debut performance, particularly the overwhelming applause for her prepubescent interpretation of one of the world’s greatest operatic heroines encouraged the very young soprano to set her sights on an international career in opera.

After pursuing this goal through her studies at Indiana University and singing leading roles such as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, Poppea, Santuzza and Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades at the Indian University Opera Theater, she won a scholarship to study at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and later a Fulbright-Hays grant to study in Vienna, Austria at the Hochschule für Musik.

Since Ms. Rawlins’ first European engagement in Basel, Switzerland, she has portrayed an amazing variety of operatic heroines internationally. Her vocal range extends from mezzo to dramatic soprano roles, including many world premieres of contemporary composers and leading roles in the traditional operatic repertoire.

She has performed with many renowned conductors such as Christof von Dohnanyi, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado and stage directors Jean Pierre Ponnelle and Otto Schenk. She studied acting with Dino Yanopoulis in Philadelphia and with Stella Adler herself at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York. She participated in Master Classes with Tito Gobbi and Maria Callas.

At the Basel Stadttheater, her debut role as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was such a resounding success that the theater direction awarded her the roles of Poppea, and Pamina in The Magic Flute. The following seasons she sang Violetta, Rusalka, Cio Cio San, Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello and two Strauss roles: Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos.

By the end of the four-year Basel engagement Ms. Rawlins was beginning to make a name for herself as a passionate singing actress. After a guest engagement at the Cologne Opera, Dr. Griesha Barfuss of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, engaged her to sing the major roles already performed in at the Stadttheater Basel. There she added Marie in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride and Zerlina in Fra Diavolo (both filmed for ZDF, German Television) Manon in Henze’s Boulevard Solitude, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s i Pagliacci, and several world premiere works with which Ms. Rawlins became identified, notably Cordelia in Aribert Reiman’s LEAR which she sang later at its American premiere at the San Francisco Opera.

Although Ms. Rawlins career took place mainly in Europe she also performed major operatic roles with the following American opera companies: The Boston Opera (Bolschoi Schedrin Project,) The Boston Symphony (Elektra) The San Francisco Opera (Nedda, Violetta), Austin Lyric Opera (Tosca), San Francisco Concert Opera (La Finta Gardinere) The Houston Grand Opera (Giuletta in The Tales of Hoffmann) The Boston Concert Opera (Hanna Glawari, The Merry Widow), Los Angeles Opera (Anna Karenina) The Miami Opera (La Voix Humaine) Palm Beach Opera and The Columbus Lyric Opera (Salome).

International musical festivals include the Salzburg Festival as Sophie in Cerha’s BAAL, and in 1991 a concert with Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Alban Berg’s Bruckstücke from Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. At the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, Ms. Rawlins won accolades from public and international press for her interpretation of the title role in Paul Uy’s opera Sarah, based upon the turbulent life of Marilyn Monroe.

The opportunity to sing more dramatic repertoire came again in Basel, Switzerland when in 1990, Ms. Rawlins accepted an offer to sing Marie in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. This proved to be her destiny role since Emily Rawlins is now married to her leading man from that engagement, the distinguished Wagner baritone and Kammersänger Falk Struckmann.

In 1993, Ms. Rawlins added Salome (with film director Ken Russell) in Bonn, Germany and Floria Tosca in Jean Pierre Ponelle’s production of Puccini’s greatest dramatic opera at the Lyric Opera in Austin, Texas. In 1994, she sang Venus in Wagner’s Tannhäuser at Teatro Bellini in Catania.

In 1999, she began writing and directing and performing her own educational one-woman shows, The Rather Unusual Recital© and Wagner’s Weiber©. Both premiered at Marylea van Daalen’s Opera Lecture Series at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. Both shows are aimed at educating and inspiring uninformed or as yet uninterested public about the wonders of song recitals, the art of singing and especially to encourage enthusiasm about attending live performances.

Since 2002, Ms. Rawlins has been developing with Jeanne Piland, (Kammersängerin, leading mezzo soprano with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Professor of voice at the Robert Schumann Hochschüle in Düsseldorf, Germany) what she considers to be a new form of performance master class. W o r k s h o p e r a ! is a five-day intensive finishing school for young artists based upon her years of experience working with Professor Piland’s students at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Future projects include Ms. Rawlins’ new one-woman show The Truth about Carmen© 2007.

What Is It?

W o r k s h o p e r a ! is a workshop/seminar/ Master Class created to assist you as a young artist who is 'not quite there yet' to find yourself as an authentic interpreter of operatic repertoire. Further, to help you to find your ‘fach’ or vocal category orientation and support your search for excellence and consistency. This training will automatically help you to attain not only artistic status but the charisma needed to achieve actual employment in the world of opera.

W o r k s h o p e r a ! is a play on words. ‘WORK’ is a given. This is a singing workshop situation. Participants will present 3-4 operatic arias for positive critique and optimal restructuring, thus a creative WORKSHOP atmosphere will be your space to grow.

To complete the wordplay we will be, with your permission, rebelling in the form of a ‘sciopero’ which is the Italian word for strike. We will strike against the negative conditioning you have received about singing in public: who you are and how important you are as an interpreter of great composer’s music. Finally, we hope to be of help in creating a new generation of singers who will open up a new era of young artists who accept their own artistic authority.

Where Is It?

W o r k s h o p e r a ! 2008 will be presented in German and English at:

Mozarteum Salzburg

August 5 und 6
Orchester Haus, Mozarteum
Yamaha Saal
Erzbischof-Gebhard-Strasse 10

*
August 7, 8 und 9
Schauspielhaus Salzburg
„der Klub im Foyer“
Erzabt-Klotz-Strasse 22

When Is It?

W o r k s h o p e r a ! Five day intensive.

August 5th through August 9th, 2008
10AM-1PM.
- Lunch Break -
2PM - 5:30PM
Next W o r k s h o p e r a ! Intensive - to be announced.
Please contact us by email for details

What to Bring

Music and Translations

1. Your arias and/or songs should be memorized.
Two copies of each selection one copy for your accompanist and one for your Workshopera! team.

Note: Please make sure that the copies are easily readable. This means that all of the notes must be visible on the copies- especially the piano accompaniment.

2. Bring a translation and a short opera synopsis for each aria.
This does not a have to be dissertation. A paragraph will do.
Stage Agent is the most concise website for short opera plots and character analysis.

3. If you are interested in Crossover work please bring one or two selections from the Musical Theater repertoire.

Attire for Workshopera!

1.One ‘Audition Outfit’
(something you consider to be suitable for presenting yourself optimally in an audition.) This audition outfit can also double as your attire for the Participant’s Concert.

2. Please bring appropriate shoes for presenting yourself in an audition situation. These ‘proper’ shoes will also be required in some Workshopera! sessions.

4. Casual clothing and shoes for body movement and creativity classes.

5. Women -please bring skirts and summer dresses

6. Men -please bring dark pants and one white shirt

Personal Needs

1. Please bring something to keep you warm, a sweater or jacket in case the class rooms or weather is cool.

2. Summer raingear might be necessary

3. Anything that will make you comfortable with Germany’s unpredictable summer weather.

Electrical

1. Remember please: anything you bring that is electrically powered (hair drier, hot rollers, shavers etc.) must have a voltage switch you can alter to 220 volt and you will need a converter plug for Germany’s two pronged wall sockets.

2. Your digital camera, recording device and laptop usually have built-in AC 220 volt adaptors but you still need a German converter-connection wall socket plug for these devices.

Health Needs

1. If you need dietary supplements, special medication or health products please bring these with you. “Normal” health food needs can be met readily in German ‘Reformhaus’ stores.

Reminder: You may keep your liquid products only if packed in your checked luggage, otherwise they will be confiscated by the security officers at your local airport.

Accomadations/Hotels
(NOTE: For Duesseldorf Workshopera! courses only)

LOCATION: Where to look for a place to stay:

The areas that are closest to the Hochschule in Duesseldorf are:
Derendorf, Pempelfort, Zentrum, Stockum and Golzheim.

Three web addresses for Hotel Reservations

Hotel Reservation Service
Hotel Booking Service
Duesseldorf-Tourismus

(Duesseldorf-Tourismus will available for Workshopera! participants. This is hotel booking agency. They deal mostly with international guests and trade fair travelers)

There is an SAS Radisson and Hilton near by for the people who do not mind spending a bit more for their accommodations or are more interested in a luxury hotel.

Here are three star hotels -nice comfortable hotels without extras close to the Hochschule:

Michelangelo
Gildors
Spichern Platz
National

These four hotels know about Workshopera and are willing to give some discount but not for the two days of the Düsseldorf Fashion Fair.

*For those of you wishing very low cost housing there is a Youth Hostel in Düsseldorf and also some rooms in private homes available.

For information on the low cost housing possibilities please write to oma.hofmann@web.de

Pieter Alferink

Pieter Alferink founded Alferink Artists Management in 1971.

The agency located in Amsterdam, represents artists in the fields of recital, (vocal) classical music and opera both for stage directors and singers as well as conductors.

Over the years the office of Alferink Artists Management has gained a strong international reputation for building lasting and solid relationships with its artists as well as for discovering new talent.

Some of the notable successes are Charlotte Margiono, Nelly Miricioiu, Hans Peter Blochwitz and Thomas Quasthoff (Netherlands).

All started their careers with Alferink Artists Management and are still with them today.

The Alferink agency represents its artists either worldwide or simply in the Netherlands.

Alferink Artists Management built up and continue to nurture lasting relationships with promoters, orchestras, concert venues and theatres in Europe, the United States, the Far East and Australia.

For various promoters the agency provides vocal casting services for recitals, concerts and opera productions as well as producing entire projects, ranging from intimate recitals in churches to complete staged opera performances and festivals.

Alferink Artists Management is always striving to establish new relationships, be it with artists of excellence, innovative promoters or with new staff in its bright and friendly offices on the Herengracht.

Peter Benecke

Peter Benecke began his European career in 1981. in Düsseldorf and Duisburg as a leading tenor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. After four and a half years there he became a freelance singer throughout the Germany and European countries for nearly nineteen years.

His career spans over 20 years of operatic appearances in Europe. He was engaged as leading tenor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany where he acquired a repertoire of more than 40 leading tenor roles. His repertoire includes music from the Baroque to the Renaissance period to modern music, with composers ranging from Cavalli to Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner and contemporary, living composers. He has participated in several world premieres of new works in Germany. He has performed concert repertoire with many leading orchestras in Germany as well.

He has worked with such illustrious conductors as Jiri Kout, Friedemann Layer, Christian Thielemann and many others. In 2006, Mr. Beneke performed a cycle of songs written specifically for him by Marcus Englemann, renowned composer from southern California.

He began teaching while already engaged as a tenor at the in Düsseldorf. Peter has been teaching singers for the past fifteen years and took up teaching as his main profession after his move to California in the year 2000.

Many of his students have become promising young artists and many have gone on to professional careers in opera both in Europe and the US. He continues to perform concert repertoire, ranging from Bach to contemporary music.

Peter Benecke’s goal is to train singers toward honesty of performance, singing with the natural voice with which they were born. The process of learning to sing is likely to be the biggest journey of self-awareness any person ever undertakes, and the rewards are tremendous.

Harriet Rawlins Hill

Harriet Rawlins Hill holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Indiana University School of Music. Her Voice Teachers were Margaret Harshaw and Elizabeth Mannion.

She is currently on voice faculty of Otterbein College in Ohio, with a focus on the vocal study of both musical theatre and classical techniques.

Harriet Rawlins Hill spent over 25 years in New York City working as an actress, singer and occasional casting agent for off Broadway productions. Over her 30-year career, she has appeared on the national musical theatre stage in nearly 3,000 performances. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, Carousel, and the original production and DVD of Sweeney Todd, starring Angela Lansbury are but a few of the musical theater productions in which Ms. Rawlins Hill has performed leading and supporting roles.

The Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire has continued to be a musical specialty, having sung the roles of Ruth in Pirates of Penzance, Buttercup in The HMS Pinafore, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore, and Dame Carruthers in the Yeoman of the Guard. She was a principal soloist on a CD of the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire with the Rochester Philharmonic, conducted by Mark Elder.

Ms. Rawlins Hill’s Professional Affiliations include her thirty-eight year membership in Actors Equity and her new membership in the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Her personal summary of onstage musical theatre and operetta professional performances totals approximately 3,000, of those, her Actor’s Equity Performances total nearly 1500.

In addition to her work as vocal teacher and performer Harriet Rawlins Hill is also the Auditions Coordinator for the Department of Theatre & Dance at Otterbein College and personally schedules, counsels audition candidates and their family and hears over 300 audition appointments each year.

Her main teaching focus is vocal technique, crossover potential, song selection, vocal and dramatic coaching; monologue selection; plus staging class situations for mock auditions focusing on audition demeanor and stage presence under pressure.

Click HERE for Workshopera! Salzburg 2008
Created by
	and
Jeanne Piland		Emily Rawlins-Struckmann

	Peter Benecke formally of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
	Pieter Alferink International Opera Agent, Topic: The Audition; What Agents are looking for
	Harriet Rawlins Hill Voice Faculty of Otterbein College Topic: Crossover Career Potential in Musical Theater

	Nadia Belneeva Hamburg Symphony & Hamburg State Opera
	Gretchen Stein formerly of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
	Jori Schulze-Reimpell Köln and Düsseldorf Hochschule