Typical Day

The vocal and artistic level of participants is high, and range from professionals working in the industry to talented and devoted student level singers. 

The vocal work is influenced by the philosophy of the great Italian voice teacher, Giovanni Battista Lamperti ("Vocal Wisdom"), and melds an understanding of vocal, physical and acoustic principles with the emotional, intellectual and spiritual responses to music, poetry and drama of the individual artist. 

​A typical day starts with group body awareness, alignment, breathing technique and centering in the morning followed by the masterclass with Neil Semer, work with reknowned coach Margaret Singer and acting coach Jorge Balca.

Rehearsals for the 4 public performances are held in the evening, and consist of repertoire suitable for each singers, voice, temperament, taste and stage of development.

An auditions training workshop is held each week. Industry professionals are invited to hear participants of the workshop (generally agents, conductors or casting representatives).

Some evenings are devoted to watching videos of great historical singers and to discussing their technique and artistry.  

Margaret Singer brings many years of experience to the Institute, and aims to support the work of Neil Semer and Jorge Balça as well as each singer's individual ideas.

Dr Jorge Balça will be teaching acting for singers with a method he developed during his 25 years of professional practice as a stage director, movement director and acting coach, and during his PhD focusing on the dramatic training of opera performers. His Jacques Lecoq-inspired method is physical and precise, offering performers a set of objective tools and techniques designed for the opera and music-theatre stages.
He will start each day with a physical warm-up, laying the foundations for a free and versatile body-voice creative interface, then followed by acting technique exercises and improvisations. This work will be applied to your repertoire in private sessions. You will feel confident in using your body and voice together as creative tools in your performance, aiming for maximum expression and emotional stability when developing and playing your character.