Zoom screen at the beginning of the Voices of the Future 2021 Finalists Master Class with Sharon Sweet.
The fourth annual master class for finalists in the Bucks County Choral Society’s Voices of the Future contest proceeded without a hitch this year in spite of the coronavirus pandemic, with the help of the modern livestreaming platforms Zoom and Youtube.
Voice teachers and students have become accustomed to having lessons over Zoom and other platforms, and master teacher and Metropolitan Opera soprano Sharon Sweet is no exception.
The students each sang from their homes with pre-recorded accompaniment playing on their computers, while the medium allowed Ms. Sweet to coach them on the fine points of tone and diction as well as the larger goals of interpretation and communication.
This year’s winner is Cody Lewandowski, a senior at Neshaminy High School and voice student of Terry Greenland. The other finalists were:
Samantha Breiner, senior at William Tennant High School, Jessica Beebe, teacher
Laney Humble, junior at Central Bucks High School South, Anne Odland, teacher
Ellie Kuhnle, junior at Central Bucks High School West, Anne Odland, teacher
The first place winner is awared a $1,000 scholarship and the other finalists each receive a $500 award. These scholarships have been made possible through the generous donation of Choral Society Board Member Bob Vernon and wife, Alice.
Finalists are also eligible to be invited as soloists with the Choral Society the following season. (2020 winner Sierra Safran and finalist Grant Nalty were featured in the Choral Society’s recent film for WHYY-PBS Christmas Together in a time of Isolation.)
This year’s competition was organized by Assistant Conductor Susan Johnson. Artistic Director Thomas Lloyd served as timekeeper and Zoom-master for the event using skills he has acquired during the pandemic through his work as director of music for the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral.
An edited video of the complete master class is now available on the Choral Society’s Youtube channel.
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Dramatic soprano Sharon Sweet’s international career has taken her throughout Europe and North America, where she sang in opera houses and on concert stages, from the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Paris Opera and Covent Garden to the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She is well known for her interpretations of Leonora in Il Trovatore, Elisabeth in Tannhauser, and as the lead in Aida. She has sung under Zubin Mehta with the Israel Philharmonic, and was heard in concert performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in the Cincinnati May Festival with Maestro James Conlon. Her repertoire has ranged from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Verdi’s Requiem to the Four Last Songs of Strauss and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder.
Ms. Sweet’s discography includes complete recordings of Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Lohengrin, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 to name a few. She has also recorded on the Philips, BMG, Sony and Chandos labels.
In 1999 Sharon Sweet joined the faculty at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where she is a professor of voice. She is in frequent demand to lead master classes and to judge international competitions. She recently taught and gave Master Classes at the Intermezzo Opera Festival and New Jersey Opera Theater. Ms. Sweet’s students have won a number of competitions, including the Marion Anderson Competition, the Mario Lanza Competition and the Bel Canto Competition. The Bucks County Choral Society is thrilled to have her lead the Master Class for the Voices of the Future Competition (underwritten by the Presser Foundation) on February 23, 2019 at The Conservatory in Doylestown.