Master Class Archives - THE VOICE FOUNDATION

2025 Symposium Masterclass: Renée Fleming

Masterclass with Renée Fleming The Voice Foundation 54th Annual …

Masterclass with Renée Fleming

The Voice Foundation
54th Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice

Singers:
Joshua Klein, baritone
Evgeniya Khomutova, mezzo-soprano
Sara LeMesh, soprano

Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our …time, performing on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree, and winner of five Grammy® awards and the US National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Super Bowl. In 2023, the World Health Organization appointed her as Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, and this year at Davos, she became an inaugural member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Arts and Culture Council.

Renée received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for her album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene. She is currently touring with a concert program inspired by the album, with a special film created for the performance by the National Geographic Society. Last May at the Metropolitan Opera, Renée starred in The Hours, an opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and award-winning film. Her voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings.

Renée’s anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, was published in 2024. A prominent advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience, Renée launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and America’s largest health research institute, the National Institutes of Health. She has created her own program called Music and the Mind, which she has presented in more than 60 cities around the world. She is now a founding advisor for major initiatives in the field, including the Sound Health Network at UC San Francisco and the NeuroArts Blueprint with Johns Hopkins University and The Aspen Institute.

Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera, Renée is also Co-Artistic Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Artist Development Advisor at Wolf Trap Opera. Her other awards include Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, the Polar Music Prize, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, and honorary doctorates from ten leading universities.
http://www.reneefleming.comShow More

2024 Symposium Masterclass: John MacMaster

Master Class by John MacMaster, Metropolitan Opera Tenor Mary Burke …

2023 Symposium Masterclass: Gioacchino (Jack) Lauro Li Vigni

Tenor Gioacchino Lauro Li Vigni, better known as (Jack), a skilled and …

Tenor Gioacchino Lauro Li Vigni, better known as (Jack), a skilled and heartfelt performer, was trained by his father, celebrated tenor Salvatore Li Vigni, and coached by extraordinary singers like …Carlo Bergonzi, Franco Corelli, Arrigo Pola, and most recently – Salvatore Fisichella. Mr. Li Vigni is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts and has performed internationally, including at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Frankfurt Oper, Beijing Opera, and many others.

Jack is a voice instructor for the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Program at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and is also on faculty at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Brooklyn College CUNY. He has endeavored to create a strong platform for the development of young artists with Mediterranean Opera Studio & Festival in Sicily, which he founded and of which he is the General Director. Several of his students are renowned tenors who perform regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House and other celebrated theaters throughout the world. His students have been recent winners and finalists of major competitions like Operalia, Cardiff Singer of the World, and the Francisco Viñas, as well as being part of several prestigious young artists programs.
It is a pleasure to welcome Jack Li Vigni as our Master Class presenter this year.

Participants:
Chris McGee, tenor
Christopher McGee is a 34 year old tenor who has been studying voice formally for less than two years. Chris participated in musical theater at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, where he found a love for singing and theater. Opera was a hobby and a love for many years but it wasn’t until a friend asked him to sing at his wedding that Chris, with the advice of his wife, decided to pursue operatic voice lessons. Chris is truly grateful to be able to tackle the arias he has been listening to since he first fell in love with the art form so many years ago.

Samual Keeler (Washington, D.C.), tenor, has been hailed for his “rich tenor,” (Culpepper Times) “strong vocals and crisp, clear delivery” (DC Theatre Scene). He recently appeared on stage in concert alongside Michael Spyres as part of the Guild Hall/Bel Canto Boot Camp Resident Artist Series and as Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera D’Oro. He keeps a regular performance schedule as a soloist in the greater Philadelphia region. This summer he will be making his debut as Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola as well reprisals of Alfredo in La Traviata, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Ben Pederson, tenor
17 year old student of Lisa Willson DeNolfo and The Juilliard School Pre-College program, Ben will start this year as a full time undergraduate at Juilliard.Show More