The Future of Opera: Vail Opera Camp
Johnathan McCullough, photo by Daniel Welch.
Welcome back to our 360° of Opera® series The Future of Opera. In this new edition, we are thrilled to speak to previous 360° of Opera® guest, GRAMMY® nominated baritone and director, Johnathan McCullough, about his appointment as Opera Program Director in The National Children’s Chorus new VAIL OPERA CAMP initiative and Opera Vocal Studies program.
The VAIL OPERA CAMP is an all-encompassing program where the next generation of singers, directors, conductors, stage managers, and designers can go to hone their skills with guidance from faculty and guest artists working at opera houses around the world. This season, the NCC is opening enrollment to grade school and high school students across the United States, and is actively looking to recruit young artists interested in opera for summer 2023.
This August, all participants will convene in Vail, Colorado, to mount a fully-staged opera and learn opera history, stage-craft, design, and acting. The opera camp will offer fellowships in directing/stage management and artistic conducting, building a unique opera company for youth where students ages 10-18 will be able to gain practical experience that can be powerful for their futures as they continue studies in higher education.
Rehearsal for Opera Camp. Photo by Matthew Donnelly courtesy of the National Children's Chorus.
1/ As an alumnus, what impact has your NCC education had in your career so far?
The NCC was the first place that I was around kids that had similar interests to me, which was a very instrumental part in my development as an artist. It let me know that I wasn’t the odd one out for having an interest in singing, which in turn gave me the confidence to keep going with classical music. It was also where I started learning to read music, following a conductor, and how to interpret the nuances of a piece. In addition to these educational aspects, the NCC gave me the chance to perform at really cool places like the Tonight Show and the Hollywood Bowl where we sang the live premiere of The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers film soundtrack.
2/ You are a multi-hyphenate artist. How do you balance your singing career, directing projects and now this leadership position?
It can certainly get a bit strenuous sometimes, but my Google Calendar really helps a lot. I make sure to stay organized and break my day up into NCC duties, practicing singing, and putting together pitch decks for new productions. It can be a bit of a balancing act, but I think as artists we have an innate ability to balance multiple things on our plates successfully, it is just a matter of which hours of the day are devoted to what project. It is especially important to make sure you spend time with loved ones and avoid burn out as it starts to creep in.
3/ What excites you most about being involved in such an ambitious educational project?
What excites me most is seeing students have that lightbulb go off of “Maybe I CAN do this!” The thing is, education programs like this go beyond just interest in music. They promote team building, drive, and creative thinking, and problem solving, all things that can be valuable in any industry. The educational aspect of it starts as soon as they audition. For many students, it is their first time auditioning for anything which is a great learning opportunity! It can set a foundation teaching them on how to prepare for things such as high school, college, and job interviews. I’m a big advocate of the “Learn by doing” way of educating students. That is how I was taught at Curtis. Three months into my Freshman year, I was put on stage in a leading role and the only option was to go for it. Of course I had plenty of guidance and support, which made it possible, but that is the same kind of environment I hope to create with this program. I think the next generation of singers, conductors, stage managers, directors, learn best by doing and that is the atmosphere we will be creating at Vail Opera Camp with the support of a fantastic staff that has years of experience at opera houses around the world. When I was at opera camp 16 years ago, I was told for the first time that I could go to school for singing and have a career doing it. It completely changed my life.
4/ Can you give us some insight on what participants will get out of this program, which might not be available to them elsewhere?
Vail Opera Camp is unique in that students will learn what goes on behind the scenes in order to make an opera happen. In addition to the process of staging rehearsals, our educational programs during the camp include acting seminars, opera history, Italian diction, insights on the music business and entrepreneurship, as well as design classes where they learn how props and set pieces are created.
We will also be offering fellowships in two new areas. One of which is where students may choose to focus on opera conducting. Here they will work with our conducting staff and get podium time during rehearsal and in a conducting class where they conduct the staff on selected excerpts. Our Directing/Stage Management Fellowship will teach students what goes into the planning of a production; involvement in production meetings, score preparation, pitching productions to companies, and how to run rehearsals. To top it all off, they get to put everything they learn in the weeks leading up to the camp and at the camp into practice in a fully staged opera at a beautiful theater with a back drop of the Colorado Rockies.
Staging rehearsals in Vail Colorado. Photo by Matthew Donnelly courtesy of the National Children's Chorus.
5/ What are your goals for this inaugural year of the program, and your hopes for its future development?
This year, we hope to establish a strong foundation that will set the stage for growth in the years to come. In time, we expect for Vail Opera Camp and what we offer to become a global resource for aspiring young artists. We hope to see the program grow and ideally lead to the commissions of new children’s opera to strengthen the cannon of works that are geared toward getting students interested in the arts.
6/ The question about the future of opera is always lurking in our industry. This seems to be a project that aims to offer an answer to that very issue. Do you think education is the key to the longevity of our industry? What other issues and solutions do you think should be considered as well?
I think about this question often. In Germany, families go to the opera as part of their upbringing. They also have government funded arts, and affordable tickets which certainly helps. They have children’s operas that are produced at the same level of the full productions, again thanks heavily to government funding making that possible. When children attend a children’s opera or regular operas/ theater as a normal part of life, it often becomes a core memory and something that they hold onto as part of childhood. A student going to Komische Oper Berlin enters the building and is in awe of the beautiful theater, sees a show that is geared toward them, laughs, is moved, all of which become part of their memory, even down to leaving the theater and being given a chocolate upon exiting (which Komische does for every show). That child then fondly remembers their time as a kid visiting the theater and grows up continuing to be a supporter of the arts or possibly an artist themselves. When they leave the theatre opening that chocolate, they are brought back instantly with the senses that are so strongly associated with memory; taste and smell. In that case, taste. You might think, “where is he going with this?”, but stick with me.
I think the idea of creating these core memories is vital to this process. I still remember the taste of the cherry cough drops at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seeing shows at LA Opera over a decade later. I remember that tasting a cherry cough drop meant that we were about to see a show--which was super exciting. I remember being excited about seeing the larger than life shows, which led to me wanting to be involved because I got such joy out of seeing the spectacle that was (is) live theater. That interest led to me doing opera camp there, which got me even more hooked on the arts because of the experience I had not only watching, but also being involved. Opera camp led to me applying to Curtis and so on and so forth.
How does the core memory of sense recollection translate into education? To me it is the same answer, but a different equation used to get there. We can use the experiences at these educational programs to create those core memories. Instead of taste, it is an experience. The experience of being around students with similar interests, exploring characters on stage, learning how to produce a show, and that sense of teamwork and accomplishment that comes from creating a show together. We get the same feeling putting on shows as adults. That cast camaraderie and the feeling of building something great together is what I think makes people want to continue singing.
I think that the way we can work toward higher audience acquisition in the American system is by starting early. It will take a while to work, but I believe it will work toward the most sustainable situation for the arts in America. My hope is that through programs such as Vail Opera Camp and the NCC as a whole, we can train the next generation of not only artists, conductors, directors, stage managers, agents, set designers, etc, but also introduce students to the arts who then grow up with an appreciation for them and stick with it as audience members for their lifetime introducing their children to it as well.
In short, I think if we as educators can provide core memories to students through the arts we have done our jobs and hopefully changed lives for the better. Worst case scenario, a student grows up to be someone who likes going to the opera, which is not too bad at all.
Budgets are always tough especially when we rely fully on donors in America, but I feel that education programs are something that we can’t afford NOT to invest in if we want to see the arts thrive in future generations. When students are given the opportunity to perform and learn by doing, they are empowered with confidence which then leads to them taking the torch and becoming the next generation of leaders in the arts.
Tl;dr:
Creating core memories for students by giving them the opportunities to perform and providing music education is crucial to the classical music industry growing in the future. This process will take a while, but will promote generational change for the better, increase audience attendance and promote the growth of the next generation of great performers and leaders in the arts.
Johnathan McCullough, photo by Daniel Welch.
In addition to directing NCC’s VAIL OPERA CAMP, Johnathan McCullough will hold courses throughout the year for NCC members, covering a variety of topics including opera history, acting, performance, and audition techniques.
The opera presented for summer 2023 will be “The Tinker of Tivoli”, an original opera pastiche drawn from the works of Gioachino Rossini, including “The Barber of Seville” and “Cinderella”. The storyline is adapted from the Grimm Brothers’ tale “The Gallant Tailor”, by Michael Jacobsen.
The performance will be presented at the AVON Performance Pavilion at the base of the Rocky Mountains on the evening of August 11th. The event is free and open to the general public. It will be directed by Johnathan McCullough and conducted by Maestro Allan Laiño.
For more information about VAIL OPERA CAMP and to set up an audition, please visit https://nationalchildrenschorus.com/opera-camp/ . Scholarship opportunities are available for all families who qualify. Enrollment is open through April 1, 2023.
- interview by Eugenia Forteza