Don Giovanni!

Well, the callbacks went well. I sang much better than the initial audition. They let me sing through Lenski's aria entirely, and Dies Bildniss right after. I have been changing a few things with the forwardness of my vowels a la Fritz Wunderlich. I am continuing to try to brighten past the passagio to give it a more brilliant color - and most importantly, to make it easier.

The results were posted and I will be playing Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart in March and will also be covering for the Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites by Poulenc in November. The lead in that production is Ben Gulley - who if you haven't heard, is amazing!

Don Ottavio is fun for tenors because of two arias Dalla sua pace and Il mio tesoro. I am so excited and honored to get the role and sing with these amazing singers.

And as for the weekly update for KCVI, enrollment has been down since the beginning of school, but we're still going strong on advertising and raising scholarships. For the music buffs out there, you may have heard that I have been talking with composer Eric Whitacre as he is interested in donating to benefit our scholarships. Also, several award winning artists have donated artwork to be auctioned. Marilyn Horne has donated items to be auctioned and most exciting to me is that Indian Conductor Zubin Mehta who was the director of several of the most prestigious orchestras in the world (New York Phil, LA Phil, Bavarian State Orchestra)is donating to help and in addition, he is signing a baton he has used in performance to be auctioned. Our auction will likely be an online auction and we are shooting to begin sometime in November. I am excited for some of our classes beginning in just a few days. Also, several scholarship deadlines are coming up next week as well!

If you haven't checked out all these links, there's some pretty awesome music. Also, this Monday I will post my concert schedule coming up. I would love to see you there.