Opera Composition – Fall 2022
The International Brazilian Opera Institute is offering a contemporary opera composition course.
The class will focus on:
- Polyharmonic and polycultural writing.
- From small to large: thematic writing and structuring large-scale compositions.
- Opera and collaboration.
- The opera composer as a cultural force.
- Strategies to think, demo, workshop, and premiere productions.
Students should develop skills in melodic writing, text editing for voice, harmonic development, rhythmic frame, large and expansive form, notation standards, software strategies for organization of large scores, techniques for remote recording and electronic demo, virtual orchestra, tempo map, and self-criticism.
Selected works will be recorded by IBOC Ensemble.
Fee: U$800.00
The classes will take place online from September 13th to December 6th, 2022.
14 Online Sessions: Mondays 6-8 PM EST
Application Deadline: Tuesday, September 5th, 2022.
Questions: contact@brazilianopera.com
International Applications are welcome
Application Form: https://forms.gle/ndjT5kX7YdetSRQ38
João MacDowell – IBOC Artistic Director – I will be teaching the course.
Noted by the Swedish press as “a new thinker in the genre” (Johanna Paulsson, Dagens Nyheter), the Brazilian composer has a career that spans from punk to opera. João MacDowell had his first Symphony premiered by the National Orchestra of Brasilia and is the author of five operas, including Tamanduá (Boston Metropolitan Opera Award), Plastic Flowers, and The Seventh Seal with libretto by the late Ingmar Bergman. The composer was awarded two times with Ingmar Bergman Estate Foundation residencies at the home of the director and performed as the closing act for the opening ceremony for the Bergman Centennial in the Fårö church, in 2018. The Seventh Seal opera premiered in the same year, in Stockholm’s Modern Art Museum (Moderna) and in Sao Paulo, with the orchestra and chorus of the Tatuí Conservatory. Other works by the composer include chamber music, soundtrack, and song.
Néviton Barros – IBOC First Conductor
Dr. Néviton Barros (he/him/his) serves as an Adjunct Professor of Choral Studies and Director of the College Choir at Muhlenberg College, beginning Fall 2021. Dr. Barros holds a degree in Voice Performance from the Escola de Música de Brasília, where he sang with Madrigal de Brasília. He holds a BM degree with a specialization in Conducting from the Universidade de Brasília. He holds an MA from Hunter College (CUNY/NYC) with a specialization in Conducting, and a DMA in Choral Studies, with a minor in Vocal Pedagogy from Louisiana State University. Dr. Barros has worked as an Assistant Director of Coro Sinfônico Comunitário UnB in Brasília, Brazil, and Coro Nacional del Perú in Lima, Peru. He has worked as Musical Director for the International Brazilian Opera Company in New York City and for Grace Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn. Dr. Barros also served as Artistic Director of and sang with AdHoc, a vocal group in New York City. In addition to teaching and conducting, Dr. Barros also is an arranger, collaborative pianist, vocal coach and singer.
Tomomi Sato – Music Director IBOC Chamber Ensemble
Master of Music in Collaborative piano, the Juilliard School of Music. DMA Candidate, USC Thornton School of Music. Prizewinner of Seattle International Piano Competition. Winner, MTNA Senior Yamaha Piano California State Competition. Vocal Piano Fellow, Tanglewood Music Center. Ms. Sato is currently engaged in preparing to record the complete first set of Preludes and Fugues by João MacDowell, in celebration of the 300-year anniversary of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Johan Sebastian Bach.
Roberta Prada – Vocal Director IBOC
Roberta Prada, contralto, has sung in Europe, the UK, South and North America in leading roles in opera, concert, and recital. Roberta Prada graduated from Wellesley College; trained in Neurolinguistic Programming, and in the work of Dr. Tomatis, Audio-Psycho-Phonology (APP). Prada lives in New York and is president of Vocalimages, Inc., a 501 C (3) entity. She is the author, with Francis Keeping and Pierre Sollier, of the English adaptation of The Ear and The Voice by Alfred A. Tomatis, Scarecrow Press, 2004, and translator, with Francis Keeping, of the expanded English version of J. Faure’s The Voice and Singing. In 2008, she co-authored the first volume of Opera and its Characters published by Vox Mentor. In 2009, launched the iMozart™. In 2010, launched an Audio/Visual training CD-ROM in conjunction with Jozef Vervoort, director of the Atlantis Center in Belgium. She now teaches an amalgam with bel canto technique that is geared towards speakers, actors, and singers. Her Tomatis practice is organized for gifted adults and includes accelerated foreign language study and excellence training. Roberta Prada is a member of NATS – The National Association of Teachers of Singing, AGMA – The American Guild of Musical Artists, and a board member of Icarus – The International Center for American Music.
Works by composers from 2021:
Application Form: https://forms.gle/ndjT5kX7YdetSRQ38
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