Accademia d'Amore

Performance of opera scenes from the 17th century

August 12-22, 2010

Venue: Cornish College of the Arts
Kerry Hall, 710 East Roy St, Seattle WA, 98102, USA

This year's workshop moves from Seattle Pacific University to Cornish College of the Arts as part of an expansion of the College's music department to encompass an early music program. More information on Cornish College's Early Music Program.

The Accademia d'Amore offers advanced singers and continuo players (keyboards, harps, lutes, bowed bass) the opportunity to work on all the musical and dramatic aspects of the 17thcentury opera repertoire with a faculty of specialists. Founded by Seattle native Stephen Stubbs, the Accademia d'Amore has an established track record for training musicians in the subtle art of 17th century vocal performance and instrumental accompaniment. Its attendees have gone on to successful careers in baroque opera in Europe, the US, and Canada. Stubbs relocated his successful workshop to Seattle in 2005.

Musical coaching:
Stephen Stubbs (musical director)
Nancy Zylstra (vocal coach)
Elizabeth Brown (lute, guitar/continuo)
Maxine Eilander (harps and continuo)
Jillon Stoppels Dupree (harpsichord and continuo)
Margriet Tindemans (viola da gamba)

Stage directors:
Grant Herreid
Roger Hyams
Anna Mansbridge

Choreography/Dance::
Anna Mansbridge

Application deadline:
May 15, 2010

Singers (25 places) please provide:

Audio material should be a minimum of two pieces, preferably one in English and one in Italian. Inclusion of recitative and aria is helpful, preferably preferably repertoire from the 17th century.

Instrumentalists (15 places) please provide a summary of experience.

Dancers (3 places) please provide:

Stage Assistants (3 places) please provide a summary of experience.

Download a PDF application form.

Please apply early since spots fill up rather quickly!

Tuition:
Singers: $ 750
Instrumentalists: $ 600
Dancers: $ 450
Stage Assistants: $ 450
Auditors: $ 30 per day

Schedule:

The workshop begins on Thursday morning August 12 with registration at 9:30 am, so we suggest arrival in Seattle on August 11 for those from out of town.

The week's schedule will contain musical and scenic rehearsals in preparation for two staged performances of all the scenes worked on during the week. Performances, which are open to the public will take place on Friday August 20, and Saturday August 21.

Besides rehearsals for the performances we offer master classes as well as vocal coaching, sessions for singers on their texts as spoken language, daily movement classes and continuo sessions.

Sunday evening August 15, there will be an informal student concert with music of the students' choice. This is a very important part of the week where students have an opportunity to show other sides of their musicianship.

Sunday August 22 is departure day.

Accomodation:

Dorm info:

Double occupancy at $29.50 per night, or single occupancy at $45 per night.

Community Amenities:

Room Features:

Furnishings (Provided Per Student):

Participant review:

"The Accademia d'Amore 2006 was a smashing success, as far as I am concerned. To be part of something so huge, concentrated, musically superlative, friendly, and inspiring was a lifetime highlight I cannot extol too much. To enumerate what should have been different, better, the same, taken out or altered would be silly for me as I thought the organization and carry-through of all those rehearsals, that voluminous music book, and the working out of staging and musical hours was brilliant.......I hope you know how special you are, faculty and organizers, to give us this Accademia d'Amore experience. Your virtuosity in leading us in rehearsals, your teaching abilities and your genuine love for your artistic expression is infectious and gives us profound satisfaction and joy through the music. While we learn and perform, achieving better phrases and musical notes with each rehearsal, we are transported from our daily lives and requirements into the artistic culmination of performance. This is an act of peace and human fulfillment, a way of countering the troubles of the world by making music come alive. To have such a collection of people from so many backgrounds become a family for ten days is a tribute to your efforts and a bond for the future." Ellen Seibert, August 2006.

The Accademia d'Amore Faculty:

Stephen Stubbs
To cultivate the singers and players of the next generation Stephen founded an early opera course called the Accademia d'Amore in 1997, which is now located in Seattle under the auspices of the Seattle Academy of Opera, the educational department of Pacific Operaworks. As an educator, his deep knowledge of Monteverdi's three operas have lead to his direction of both The Coronation of Poppea and L'Orfeo for Oberlin School of Music and Pacific Lutheran University.

Besides his ongoing commitments to the Boston Early Music Festival and Pacific Operaworks, other engagements as music director have taken Stephen to Bilbao's opera house in Spain to conduct Handel's Guilio Cesare and Gluck's Orfeo as well as Handel's Guilio Cesare in Murcia, Spain. In 2007 he returned to the Netherlands Opera, Amsterdam, where he directed Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, which he has been directing there since 1997. He has also taken an interest in the Passions of JS Bach, and he recently conducted the St John Passion in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Nancy Zylstra
Since 1979 Nancy Zylstra has been on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute. She also taught at the Kitchener-Waterloo Baroque and Classical Workshop, Vancouver Early Music Workshop and Cornish College's “Baroque Voice”. She has taught studio voice at the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, and Cornish College. Her 20-year career as a soloist included performances with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and American Bach Soloists. Zylstra is a board member of Early Music America.

Roger Hyams
As an actor he has appeared in plays ranging from new writing at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh to classics at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the summer 2000, he directed an acclaimed Monteverdi L’Orfeo with Stephen Stubbs at the Vancouver Festival, and in 2003 he co-directed Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea there. He has directed at the Accademia d’Amore in Bremen for the past 8 years.

Anna Mansbridge
Anna Mansbridge, Artistic Director of Seattle Early Dance, is from the U.K., where she studied early dance for many years with teachers foremost in the profession. She holds a First Class Honors Degree in Dance and Education from Bedford College, U.K., and an M.F.A in Choreography and Performance from Mills College, CA, USA. Ms. Mansbridge has been teaching and performing early European Court dance (16th-18th centuries) since 1990.

Margriet Tindemans
Margriet Tindemans has delighted audiences all over the world with her performances on early stringed instruments: viola da gamba, medieval fiddle and rebec, renaissance and baroque viola. She performs and records as a soloist and with Medieval Strings, which she directs, and the King's Noyse. She was a founding member of the ensemble Sequentia and of the Huelgas Ensemble. She directs the Medieval Women's Choir performing medieval repertoire composed by and for women. Margriet records for Musica Omnia, harmonia mundi, Erato, Wildboar, BMG Accent, EMI, Smithsonian Collection and Koch International Classic.

Maxine Eilander
Maxine Eilander has appeared as a baroque harpist with many leading ensembles and festivals throughout Europe, Canada and the USA, including Tragicomedia, Teatro Lirico, Boston Early Music Festival, Tafelmusik, Les Talens Liriques. She has made many recordings, including Handel's Harp concerto with Tafelmusik, Sonata al Pizzico (duos for harp and baroque guitar with Stephen Stubbs)She has just completed recording Handel's Harp, released on ATMA in 2009, with all of Handel's obligato music written for the harp, including his famous harp concerto, which she has also recorded with Tafelmusik (A Baroque Feast, Analekta, 2002).

Jillon Stoppels Dupree
Jillon Stoppels Dupree has received high acclaim as both a soloist and ensemble artist in the USA and throughout Europe. As an ensemblist, she has performed with Musica Pacifica, Music’s Re-Creation, Baroque Northwest, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Solo recital tours have included engagements at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the College of William and Mary, and the Santa Barbara Art Museum. She can be heard on the Meridian, Deca, Delos, and Wildboar labels. This season she will be recording the complete harpsichord works of the 18th-century Belgian composer Joseph-Hector Fiocco.

Grant Herreid
Grant Herreid performs frequently on early reeds, brass, strings and voice with Hesperus, Piffaro, and My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and plays theorbo and lute with the baroque ensemble ARTEK and New York City Opera. Active as an educator and coach, he teaches classes in Renaissance music and 17th century continuo song at Mannes College of Music in New York, and directs the New York Continuo Collective. He has both created and directed many early music theater shows, including the 17th century "Il Caffe d'Amore", the 15th century "Holly and Ivy: A Midwinter Feast of Fools" and the 14th century "Guillaume de Machaut and the Fountain of Love", and he devotes much of his time to exploring the esoteric unwritten traditions of medieval and early Renaissance music with the group Ex Umbris.

Elizabeth Brown
Elizabeth C. D. Brown is head of the Guitar and Lute program at Pacific Lutheran University and is active throughout the Pacific Northwest as a solo and ensemble performer. In addition to her many solo performances throughout North America, Ms. Brown is a member of La Lira, Baroque Northwest, and the Puget Sound Consort and has appeared with many other ensembles and in operas by Monteverdi, Purcell, Blow, Verdi and Rossini.