ELITE ART Club UNESCO in partnership with The National Opera Bucharest and The Romanian Philharmony „George Enescu”

Is announcing the first edition of

The OPERA Center for Excellence – Romania 2011

Bucharest, May 4-10, 2011

- masterclasses dedicated to the young opera singers -

* Working the Voice:  Masterclass (vocal technique and interpretation) with world renowned mezzo-soprano Viorica Cortez

* Role Prep/Acting Masterclass with the american stage director Vincent Liotta.

* Professional preparation session with tenor Marius Budoiu

Completed with 2 public Gala Concerts, on the best classical music venues in the country:

Young Artists for Excellency

Romanian Philharomony Hall „Romanian Atenaeum”, May 9th,  7pm

 - Concert with piano -

Grand Opera Gala Concert

The National Opera Bucharest, May 10th, 7pm

Soloists: the young artists of The OPERA Center for Excellence - Romania 2011,

Next to the guests of honor: VIORICA CORTEZ and MARIUS BUDOIU
The National Opera Bucharest Orchestra

Conductor: Iurie Florea

The program is dedicated to young artists, students and graduates of the Academies of Music and to the young actors and opera stage directors (Masterclass training role / acting) from all over the world.

The classes will take place from 4th to 10^th of May 2011, at the Romanian Athenaeum.

Participation is LIMITED to 15 active participants and 30 passive participants.

Deadline for subscriptions is 29 Aprilie 2011.

SUBSCIPTIONS ONLINE!

http://www.eliteart.org/opera_center_for_excellence.html

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!!!

Materials:

• In the online subscription form, the ACTIVE participant must name the repertoire he wants to study at the masterclasses:

o       3 arias and 2 songs/lieder for the „Working the Voice” Masterclass, one role to discuss for „Role Prep/Acting” Masterclass

o       a list of duets/ensembles from his/her repertoire to work on the „Role Prep/Acting” Masterclass and must be prepared to present those for the final concerts as well.

BOOK A PLACE FOR THE PROGRAM!

http://www.eliteart.org/opera_center_for_excellence.html

REGISTRATION PROCESS: All participants (active and passive) must fill in the online subscription form and pay the registration fee.

ACTIVE participation: only Singers

PASSIVE participation: Singers, Actors, Stage Directors, Conductors, Vocal Coaches, etc.

For any details and concerns, please contact us at:

info@eliteart.org

mihaela.bogdan@eliteart.org

Working the Voice: Masterclass

VIORICA CORTEZ

      The unmistakable voice, theatrical temperament and the vastness of the repertoire of opera and vocal-symphonic are shaping the unique career of the world renowned  mezzo-soprano Viorica Cortez, a career carried on all major stages of the world. Sergio Segalini called her a "diva assoluta" and in the '70s, French music critics are placing  on the front page of newspapers  her ineterpreation of the Carmen role, under the title: "Carmen of the century".

The most important lyrical theaters of the world invited her to perform with the greatest singers of the moment, Viorica Cortez worked with leading directors and conductors of the world.

Along with appearances on the stages of opera, Viorica Cortez has always performed concerts, with a very wide repertoire (lieder, oratorio, vocal-symphonic), presented on the most prestigious halls as: the Albert Hall in London, Scala di Milano, Carnegie Hall in New York, Paris Opera, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, etc..
Viorica Cortez is invited to be part of the juries in prestigious international competitions and master classes all over the world, her true vocation as a teacher being widely acclaimed.

Role Prep/Acting Masterclass

VINCENT LIOTTA

            Vincent Liotta is co-founder of the Utah Festival Opera and a former faculty member of University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Washington in Seattle. He has acted as stage director for productions at Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera, Teatro Colon, Vienna Staatsoper, Santa Fe Opera, and Los Angeles Music Center; for world premieres of Coyote Tales (Mollicone), a new version of Greenwillow (Frank Loesser), and Too Many Sopranos (Penhorwood); and for the American premiere of Dragon of Wantley.

Professor Liotta's recent IU Opera Theater productions include McTeague (Bolcom), The Ghosts of Versailles (Corigliano), Ariadne auf Naxos and Arabella (R. Strauss), Falstaff (Verdi), and The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky). His original works for the musical theatre include a new libretto for Victor Herbert's operetta Naughty Marietta; and Viva Verdi, a biographical evening about the life and work of Giuseppe Verdi.

Artistic Director - Conductor

IURIE FLOREA

Maestro Iurie Florea was a scholar of the State Conservatory "Rimsky-Korsakov" in St. Petersburg in the class of teacher A. Dmitriev. Among his distinctions, he was the winner of the International Conducting Competition Constanta, and the owner of the awards "Ionel Perlea" and "David Ohanesean"

Iurie Florea was the chief conductor and the artistic director of Opera and Ballet Theatre in Chisinau, teacher at the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts in Chisinau, and starting with the 1996, the conductor of The National Opera Bucharest. During 2007-2010 he was the artistic director of The National Opera Bucharest, the main opera in the country.

He collaborated with various orchestras and opera theaters such as Orchestra of Timisoara and Constanta, Philharmonics of Iasi, Brasov, Oradea, Sibiu, Ploiesti, Constanta, Bacau, Botosani, Craiova, Musical Theaters in Kaunas, Klaipeda (Lithuania), Minsk (Belarus) , Mersin (Turkey), Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), the Symphony Orchestras of Saratov, Volgograd (Russia), Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Chernovtsy (Ukraine), the National Opera in Sofia (Bulgaria), etc..

His activity includes collaborations with international personalities of the artistic life such as Renato Bruson, Sergei Larina, Irina Arkhipova, Alexandru Agache, Mario Malagnini, Carlos Almaguer, Andrew Richards, Boris Statsenko Sergei Murzaev Isabelle Kabatu, Silvia Brown, Georgina Lukacs, Carmen Oprisan, Marius Brenciu, Lado Ataneli, Kamen Chanev, Zvetan Mikhailov, Alina Cojocaru, Kaludi Kaludov, Janos Bandi, Maria Slatinaru-Nistor, Silvia Voinea, Pompei Harasteanu, Ionel Voineac, Eduard Tumagean, etc..

He participated in festivals and international projects such as “The New Music Week”, The Lyrical Festival “Sibiu-European Capital”, The International Shakespeare Festival (Bucharest) with the opera “Macbeth” by G. Verdi,  “George Enescu” Festival, The Festival of Lyric Art Sibiu, The National Theatre Festival with “Eugene Onegin” and “Macbeth”.

He made international tours in Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Turkey, Bulgaria, South Korea

Professional preparation session

MARIUS BUDOIU

Marius Vlad Budoiu is one of the most appreciated Romanian tenors. Being an excellent sensitive musician and performer, is noted in any context as a great artist.

                  Among his awards, in 1995 he won the first prize in the competition for tenors “Traian Grozavescu” (Lugoj) and the first prize at the Mozart Competition (Cluj). In 1996 he won the third prize at “R. Schumann” lied contest (Zwickau).

                  He performed on stages in England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Japan.

                  With the role of Bajazet from Handel’s opera Tamerlano, he was very much appreciated in 2002 at the Odeon Theater in Vienna, and it was particularly appreciated in Calaf (Turandot) at the Opera in Györ (Hungary) in 2006, and in Cavaradossi (Tosca), Opera in Schwerin (Germany) in 2007-2008.

                  Marius Vlad Budoiu approached a wide repertoire, from Mozart's creations, the production of some modern writers as Hoinic Bujor, Cornel Ţăranu, Valentin Timaru, from works by Handel to works of the twentieth century composers like Benjamin Britten and Arthur Honegger. In recent years he launched spinto-dramatic repertoire. Thus, he successfully plays Otello (Otello) in the George Enescu Festival 2009, and recently debuted in the role Samson (Samson and Dalila) at the Bucharest National Opera House.

                  On 15 November 2010, during the Musical Performing Arts Awards VIP Gala 2010, MARIUS VLAD BUDOIU was awarded the BEST OPERA SINGER award.