What’s Opera to a Bunch of High School Students? Young Voices, “The New Crop”
11/13/24 • 37 min
One of the greatest gifts you can offer a teen is confidence. The other? A process for refining that raw self-assurance into an impressive talent and invaluable life skill. But where to start? At the beginning, of course!
Join Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia as they happily infiltrate Orientation Day for the Young Voices program, one of several prestigious youth-focused initiatives at Santa Fe Opera.
Get to know this year’s cohort as they share their first-day impressions and program goals. Key Change favorites Amy Owens, director of the Young Voices program, and Charles Gamble, director of Community Engagement, also stop by to preview the program's curriculum and performance opportunities culminating in a much anticipated public recital.
"They're coming into a good environment for nurturing," beams Charles as he watches 17 of the 19 high schoolers begin to bond with one another and absorb the creative energy around them. After today, each student will participate in private voice lessons before reuniting for retreats and ensemble work.
Young Voices is an intense program. "So, I've built in some things that make it a little bit easier for them,” Amy assures us. Does she have any advice for this year's cohort? "Whatever is meant to happen––whether you pursue a career in music or something else––that's gonna happen no matter where you go," she offers. "Taking a little bit of pressure off and letting them experience the joy of interacting with their process, with music, is what I hope this program can provide them within a season of stress."
FEATURING
Amy Owens, director of the Young Voices program, Santa Fe Opera
Charles Gamble, director of Community Engagement, Santa Fe Opera
Andrea Klunder, producer, Key Change Podcast
Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera 2024/25: Rylee Baca, Cianna (Gigi) Clay, Kadiah Dragone-Gutierrez, Landen Kessler, William Landahl, Gavin Lopez, Eleanor Lucas, Ava Mitchie, Alexander Nicolas Neas, Alexandra Raskin, Nicolas Taccetti
Young Voices Studio: Petra Archuletta, Iris Butcher, Rose Gubelmann, Brooklyn Moeno, Elsa Dhonau-Egan, Seraphina Goldstein, Ida Shelton, Jade Zeno-Neal
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera
Opera Makes Sense | Santa Fe Opera
RELATED EPISODES
Harmony In Process: The Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera With Amy “Process” Owens
Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion For Kids And Educators Through Opera With Charles Gamble
***
Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia
Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz
Production Support from Alex Riegler
Show Notes by Lisa Widder
Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello
Cover art by Dylan Crouch
This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an Opera America Innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.
To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit SantaFeOpera.org. And for more Key Change, visit SantaFeOpera.org/KeyChange.
One of the greatest gifts you can offer a teen is confidence. The other? A process for refining that raw self-assurance into an impressive talent and invaluable life skill. But where to start? At the beginning, of course!
Join Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia as they happily infiltrate Orientation Day for the Young Voices program, one of several prestigious youth-focused initiatives at Santa Fe Opera.
Get to know this year’s cohort as they share their first-day impressions and program goals. Key Change favorites Amy Owens, director of the Young Voices program, and Charles Gamble, director of Community Engagement, also stop by to preview the program's curriculum and performance opportunities culminating in a much anticipated public recital.
"They're coming into a good environment for nurturing," beams Charles as he watches 17 of the 19 high schoolers begin to bond with one another and absorb the creative energy around them. After today, each student will participate in private voice lessons before reuniting for retreats and ensemble work.
Young Voices is an intense program. "So, I've built in some things that make it a little bit easier for them,” Amy assures us. Does she have any advice for this year's cohort? "Whatever is meant to happen––whether you pursue a career in music or something else––that's gonna happen no matter where you go," she offers. "Taking a little bit of pressure off and letting them experience the joy of interacting with their process, with music, is what I hope this program can provide them within a season of stress."
FEATURING
Amy Owens, director of the Young Voices program, Santa Fe Opera
Charles Gamble, director of Community Engagement, Santa Fe Opera
Andrea Klunder, producer, Key Change Podcast
Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera 2024/25: Rylee Baca, Cianna (Gigi) Clay, Kadiah Dragone-Gutierrez, Landen Kessler, William Landahl, Gavin Lopez, Eleanor Lucas, Ava Mitchie, Alexander Nicolas Neas, Alexandra Raskin, Nicolas Taccetti
Young Voices Studio: Petra Archuletta, Iris Butcher, Rose Gubelmann, Brooklyn Moeno, Elsa Dhonau-Egan, Seraphina Goldstein, Ida Shelton, Jade Zeno-Neal
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera
Opera Makes Sense | Santa Fe Opera
RELATED EPISODES
Harmony In Process: The Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera With Amy “Process” Owens
Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion For Kids And Educators Through Opera With Charles Gamble
***
Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia
Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz
Production Support from Alex Riegler
Show Notes by Lisa Widder
Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello
Cover art by Dylan Crouch
This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an Opera America Innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.
To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit SantaFeOpera.org. And for more Key Change, visit SantaFeOpera.org/KeyChange.
Previous Episode
Points Unknown: Exploring Our Relationship To Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper
To workshop a new opera in front of an audience is a little like agreeing to a trust fall: at some point, you’ve just got to surrender to the unknown and... trust.
Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia return to the orchestral workshop for The Pigeon Keeper, a collaboration between Santa Fe Opera’s Opera For All Voices (OFAV) initiative and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD).
Andrea and Anna introduce folks to Caitlin Lynch, Assistant Professor of Music at U-M, and Jayce Ogren, Director of Contemporary Directions Ensemble at U-M, the visionary duo responsible for bringing The Pigeon Keeper to the campus. Together they go behind the scenes of OperaLab, their new initiative to connect SMTD students with opportunities to workshop and perform contemporary music from living composers.
They also explore how the themes of the opera connect to modern realities with student musicians; learn about community support for refugees, asylum seekers, and others seeking humanitarian protection with Freedom House Detroit; and find out what advice principal artists would give to future cast members.
The episode ends with audience reflections on loss, exclusion, and opera as a catalyst for hard conversation. “The arts,” said one workshop goer, “can facilitate tangible action, dialogue, and change that can come from this emotionally resonating work.” It’s insights like this that keep OFAV commissioning new works and collaborating in inventive ways.
Learn more about Freedom House Detroit at freedomhousedetroit.org.
FEATURING:
Rebecca Clark - Cover for Orsia
Ava Hawkins - Ensemble
Jamiyah Hudson - Ensemble
Tyrese Byrd - Cover for The Pigeon Keeper
Caitlin Lynch - Assistant Professor of Music at U-M
Jayce Ogren - Director of Contemporary Directions Ensemble at U-M
David Hanlon - Composer, The Pigeon Keeper
Daniel Millan - Clarinet
Lulu Nester, Engagement Coordinator, Freedom House Detroit
David Siebert, volunteer, Freedom House Detroit
Nathan Harah - Kosmo
Bernard Holcomb - The Pigeon Keeper, The Widow Grocer, The Schoolteacher
And numerous students and audience members.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Contemporary Directions Ensemble
Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio
The House On Mango Street opera
University Philharmonia Orchestra
THE PIGEON KEEPER CREATIVE TEAM:
Stephanie Fleischmann, Librettist
Kelly Kuo, Music Director And Conductor
RELATED EPISODES:
Season 2 Episode 4 - Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A first look at The Pigeon Keeper
Season 4 Episode 9 - Competing Interest: How Do You Workshop a New Opera?
Season 5 Episode 5 - Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop
***
Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia
Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz
Production Support from Alex Riegler
Show Notes by Lisa Widder
Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, m...
Next Episode
An Opportunity to Encounter Excellence (and Big News!)
We’ve arrived at the end, or the beginning, depending on how you mark time. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia close out this podcast season with an epic career coda and an equally impressive introduction. Join us as we say farewell (but not goodbye) to Andrea and welcome Olga Perez Flora, DMA, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico (UNM), who will assume Key Change co-hosting duties next season. And what would our final episode of the year be without a trip in the trusty Key Change Time Machine? Cue the tears and cheers as we set a course for legacy-defining moments and forward-focused collaborations.
“I have big dreams,” says Olga, the visionary educator and performer excited to “pay it forward” with a collaboration between UNM and Santa Fe Opera. This partnership offers students multiple pathways into performance and other careers in opera. “My dream is for us to build on what has already been happening and give students at UNM just a little bit more room to learn what the professional side of opera is like,” Olga explains.
“We’re gonna work locally toward global impact,” affirms Andrea, who exits Santa Fe Opera after 33 years of championing broader student access to and community engagement with the art form. She leaves behind an enduring legacy that includes Opera For All Voices and this podcast, but not before previewing her exciting new synergies with Santa Fe Opera.
And that’s the curtain call for season five!
FEATURING
Olga Perez Flora, Mezzo-soprano, Voice Area Head, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico
Charles Gamble, Director Of Community Outreach, Santa Fe Opera
Andrea Klunder, producer, Key Change Podcast
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Young Voices Program | Santa Fe Opera
Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera
The University Of New Mexico School Of Music
Florida International University School of Music & Performing Arts
University Of Michigan School Of Music, Theatre, & Dance
RELATED EPISODES
Harmony In Process: The Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera With Amy “Process” Owens
Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion For Kids And Educators Through Opera With Charles Gamble
Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop
Building a Better Society with Florida International University Music Students
The View From 20,000 Feet: An Interview with General Director Charles MacKayConnections Across Time and Space: Opera in the Cosmo
Hometown to the World: Discovering "Postville" with Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed
***
Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia
A...
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