National Opera Association - 2014 New York City

Opera and Musical Theatre in the 21st Century 2014 NYC

The 59th annual National Opera Association convention, held January 9th through 12th, 2014 at the Roosevelt Hotel, was a resounding success!

Opera and Musical Theatre in the 21st Century: Tradition and Innovation Converge

With
The National Opera Association
The National Association of Teachers of Singing
And
Opera America

View the full 2014 Convention program.

NYC Convention Highlights

Keynote Speaker: Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano

Ms. Blythe presented the keynote address at the opening luncheon on Thursday, January 9 and presented a Career Q&A session at 4:30 pm the same day.

New Triad For Collaborative Arts

Members of the New Triad will again presented masterclass sessions at this year's convention, including Steven Gross (pictured, right): "Crossing Over" coaching session on crossover repertoire, and Nic Muni: "Acting Essentials" acting session.

Stephen Wadsworth

Lecture/demonstration of the acting training offered at the Juilliard Opera/Met Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program, on Saturday morning, January 11.

Featured NATS Presenters

Andrew Lippa is a renowned composer/lyricist whose awards include a Tony nomination, Grammy nomination, the Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla Theater Foundation Award and ASCAP’s Richard Rodgers/New Horizons Award. Lippa wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Big Fish that is currently running on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre. Other notable works include The Addams Family, The Farnsworth Invention and The Wild Party.

Victoria Clark maintains one of the most diverse performing careers of any artist living today, equally at home in plays, musicals, film, television, and the concert stage. Clark received a Tony Award for her performance in A Light in the Piazza. Clark studied acting with renowned acting teacher Michael Howard, his protégé, Rebecca Taylor, and continues her vocal training with Edward Sayegh. She has an active teaching career, helping many aspiring actors train their voices for Broadway roles.

Ted Sperling is one of today’s leading theater artists. He is a director, music director, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, singer, pianist and violinist. Sperling received the 2006 Ted Shen Family Foundation Award for leadership in the musical theater and is the Director of the Music Theater Initiative at the Public Theater. He won a Tony Award for orchestrations of A Light in the Piazza.

Kathryn LaBouff holds BM, MM, and DMA degrees in voice performance from the University of Michigan and an attendance certificate from the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. LaBouff has taught English diction and English vocal literature at the Juilliard School of Music since 1986, the Manhattan School of Music since 1984, and has coached productions at the Curtis Institute of Music since 1998. She is the author of Singing and Communicating in English - A Singer’s Guide to English Diction.

Stephanie Samaras is a world-renowned lecturer on teaching pop singers. She has been a pioneer in applying healthy classical technique to the training of voices in the pop field. Samaras teaches both privately in New York City, at The CUNY-Doctoral program, and at Montclair State University. Her studio is constantly represented on and off Broadway, on national tours and on recordings.