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ABOUT COA OPERA EVENTS OPERA INTERNATIONALE U.S. ACADEMICS
Professional
Collegiate
Teen Opera
Children’s Programs OPERA GUILD SPONSORSHIP PREMIERES MEDIA GALLERY ARCHIVES HOME |
celebrating the 10th annual
California Opera Arts
& Education Festival
Fresno * California
July 16th - August 2nd
Made possible, in part, through the Community Enrichment Program of the Fresno Arts Council and the Bonner Family Foundation
Festival Events are FREE with donations welcome at the door in order to promote a greater interest in, exposure to, and attendance of opera in Fresno!
History of the California Opera Arts & Education Festival
For 21 days and nights each summer, California Opera Association fills Fresno’s historic theaters, churches and outdoor spaces with renowned artists as well as emerging performers in disciplines ranging from opera theater, musical theater, dance, and chamber, symphonic and choral music, as well as the visual arts. The California Opera Festival has firmly established itself as one of the world’s major emerging opera festivals, presenting world premieres and American works since its inception in 2000. One of the Festival’s tenets is to provide young performers the opportunity to work with veteran directors, designers and performers.
California Opera Festival’s mission is to create a comprehensive and innovative arts festival that produces and presents events featuring an international mix of distinguished artists and emerging talent. The California Opera Festival strives to offer programs of the highest artistic caliber to a diverse and expanding regional, national, and worldwide audience; support experimental and innovative work; nurture exceptional young artists; present a variety of both new and traditional works; and encourage public appreciation of the arts by serving as a leader in the cultural life of the region.
California Opera's Festival transforms the city of Fresno, California, into a vital center for the arts each summer through the presentation of a wide spectrum of the performing and visual arts. By juxtaposing the traditional and the classical with the new and innovative, the festival creates intriguing combinations that reinforce each other while providing a context for an audience to experience a wide variety of work. Each season, audience members experience a distinctively unique festival program, including opera productions; premieres of new music-theater works; chamber music concerts; a new music program; choral and dance, performed by emerging and established artists from around the world.
Now approaching its 10th season, the California Opera Festival has earned a reputation for its dedication to young artists, fascination with contemporary effort, enthusiasm for providing unusual performance opportunities to recognized masters in their fields, and commitment to all the opera arts. California Opera has presented world premieres and American debuts.
The festival’s considerable contributions to the community are the result of international, multidisciplinary artistic programming of the highest caliber, as well as ambitious education, outreach, and audience development initiatives.
Celebrating its 10th season of quality artistic programming in 2009, California Opera Festival is extremely well positioned to draw significant regional and national attention to Fresno and to California with the positive role the festival plays in the cultural and economic life of the community.
THE ESSENCE OF COA
Young Artist Programs
California Opera’s Young Artists Program is an integral part of the company. Each summer more than 30 young singers in three levels – youth, collegiate and professional - are chosen to participate in the program, which offers training and performance experience. The Professional Young Artists Program was established as an important component of the company's mission to promote an artistically challenging environment for aspiring International performers. The youth and collegiate programs provides training and performance experience for talented singers at the very beginning of their careers.
The Young Artists Program is distinguished from many other training programs in the variety and quality of the opportunities it provides participants, often those who hold bachelor's and master's degrees from leading conservatories. Many have already begun professional careers, singing with regional and national companies. Artists grow in a nurturing environment.
One focus of the Program is on education through performance. Young Artists receive opportunities to perform and cover appropriate roles in mainstage productions and to work with world-class directors, designers and conductors. In the course of the summer many Young Artists are selected to present solo recitals.
In addition to rehearsing and performing, Young Artists receive musical coaching, attend classes in diction and acting, and are given instruction in such skills as audition techniques, repertoire and role preparation and the business aspects of managing a career. Administrators from many of the world's leading opera houses visit California Opera productions and programs to hear the performances, and artists may be offered roles or representation as a result of their appearances.
Aspiring and professional artists also compete annually for training and role development as well as performing opportunities with the opera based on performing ability, experience, desire to excel in the field, and potential to positively contribute to the future of the traditional, yet changing face of opera in both local and international venues.
An adjudication panel representative of international opera directors, singers, conductors, and managers select from among hundreds of applicants each year, with preliminary auditions held in several cities across the world. The competition allots monetary, recognition, and encouragement awards to competitors in three age divisions, -17, 18-26, and 27+. Monetary awards are used by participants for college expenses, training, audition costs, and career development activities. Each year, the opera and scholarship donors help young artists with educational expenses, and professional artists gain the tools that they need to excel in a career in the performance field.
Prior competition winners from China, Mexico, Israel, Armenia, Russia, Romania, and the United States have gone on to represent their countries and our locality through their demonstrated successes, and have endeavored to give back to the Fresno community through special appearances in COA Opera Arts Festivals, performances, work with youth, and contributions to charitable organizations in our community.
In the summer, there are many people working together to produce California Opera’s Festival Season; however, the season starts much earlier. In addition to preparing for the upcoming summer, California Opera sponsors a collaborative program with PARCS (City of Fresno Parks, After-School, Recreation and Community Services Department) to provide free after-school fine arts programs to K-12 children. California Opera staff members and artists speak and perform at local schools, with emphasis on the careers available in the performing arts. California Opera sponsors the Rewards Program, which annually awards tickets to local school students and to high risk youth to expose young people to opera.
The California Opera Association collaborates with these educators and community organizations to support our youth and facilitate opportunities to experience the joys of participation in the arts. The children of our community are able to both participate and/or attend these live artistic performances without cost, through community enrichment funds raised via special grants and individual contributions. All children, grades PreK-12, with interest, will be able to perform and are encouraged to attend the opera's after-school program at the City of Fresno Park’s and Recreation Centers to partake in art, dance, and musical drama instruction revolving around the performance themes. Designed to provide access and inclusion to all children, attendees of the performances will see students supported by highly acclaimed international artists of the top vocal and stage performance qualities. These productions have been revered for imaginative, ingenious staging, outstanding and remarkable voices, excellence in dance, musicianship, and innovative integration with other art forms, including art, cultural dance, and culinary competitions, along with the incorporation of American Sign Language, Brail, and K-12 curricular components into students’ experiences. Educational performances at over ten years impact thousands of school children from Fresno and surrounding rural and mountain communities.
California Opera collaborates with community arts, cultural, historical and educational organizations to present often free, family-friendly special events for community members throughout the year. The California Opera Guild presents a series of free, educational seminars that delve into the history and details surrounding the upcoming productions.
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