Vocal Performance
and Choral Studies
Solo Voice | Choral | Opera | Oregon Bach Festival

Faculty: Ruth Dobson (soprano), Nicholas Isherwood (opera), Eric Mentzel (tenor), Sharon J. Paul (choral) (chair), Ann Tedards (soprano), Milagro Vargas (mezzo-soprano)

The School of Music and Dance at the University of Oregon is an outstanding place to study vocal music. A gifted, dynamic, and committed faculty, a superb library, and strong performing ensembles combine in a warm and welcoming atmosphere to provide an ideal location for musical life.

The School of Music and Dance has approximately 500 music majors, both graduate and undergraduate, and serves more than 2,000 music students overall. The international student body is a wonderful community of young artists: large enough to provide the resources for excellent performing opportunities, yet small enough so that everyone receives the individual attention necessary for maximum growth.

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SOLO VOICE
The voice faculty of the University of Oregon is uniquely comprised of artists with international performing careers who bring a strong commitment to teaching.

Voice students at the University of Oregon have a number of opportunities to develop their technical skills and to improve their ability to present music in public performance. Each of our professors provides students with individual lessons and a weekly performance class in which students sing for each other in an informal setting, with opportunities for discussion and experimentation. Other performance opportunities include optional recitals of solo and chamber repertoire and required degree recitals.

The Vocal Studies Department is supported by an accompaniment program which offers many opportunities for collaborative work between singers and accompanists.

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CHORAL
The choral program at the University of Oregon is wide-ranging, offering performance opportunities in a number of different ensembles. Students may audition for the University Singers, Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, Repertoire Singers, and Women's Choir. Performance opportunities are also available in Collegium Musicum, and Gospel Ensemble, Gospel Choir, and Gospel Singers.

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OPERA
The University Opera Ensemble is a performance class open to all members of the university community. The class prepares the singing actor by offering training in acting, dance, interpretation, music history, singing roles in foreign languages and related disciplines taught in conjunction with colleagues throughout the university and the Eugene community as well as UO alumni. Class work and rehearsals are focused on the works being performed that year. Our goal is to give students the tools they will need to find a place for themselves in the current world of opera. We are committed to bringing opera and vocal music to all of the members of our community.

Each year, UO Opera students perform in a fully staged opera production as well as smaller projects.  In 2008-2009, singers participated in:
-a production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas conducted by Marc Vanscheeuwijck and assisted by alumna choreographer Alli Bach and Eugene Tarot Scholar Isha Lerner.
-professional engagements at the Berlin Konzerthaus and in Potsdam, performing José Sanchez Verdú’s Nosferatu
-a scenes program entitled “opera in the empty space,” performed in the community
-spirituals sung for homeless people in Eugene

Our program is historically comprehensive and socially concerned. Working with our active Early and Contemporary music programs, director Nicholas Isherwood has organized a three year plan that enables students to perform operas from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary periods. Winter Quarter 2010 will feature Mozart’s Magic Flute conducted by Marc Vanscheeuwijck with choreography and films by dance professor Shannon Mockli. During the Spring Quarter, we will perform scenes from the Magic Flute in retirement centers, schools, prisons and hospitals in the community and region. We will repeat our highly successful "spirituals for the homeless." In collaboration with collegium and the theater department, 2010-2011 will be devoted to the "commedia dell’arte" with performances of renaissance and contemporary madrigal comedies by Adriano Banchieri and Luciano Berio at the University of Oregon and at Renaissance fairs on the West Coast.

In addition to productions organized by UO Opera, students sing small roles in Eugene Opera productions and scenes in their outreach program.  The Portland and Seattle opera companies are close by. Our program is committed to providing a bridge to the professional world in the United States, Europe and beyond to help our students to flourish after they graduate. We actively assist our students in their efforts to participate in international opera apprenticeship programs and competitions and help to organize auditions for artistic directors and agents throughout the world.

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OREGON BACH FESTIVAL
The School of Music and Dance is also the home of the world-famous Oregon Bach Festival, one of the most highly acclaimed summer cultural events in the nation. Helmuth Rilling, artistic director and conductor of the Festival, is one of Europe's foremost conductors and a leading authority on 18th century choral music. The Festival offers a rich variety of choral-orchestral, chamber music, and recital programming, plus performance and master class opportunities for advanced students.

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