The winter term in Ann Arbor is over! If you head over to the University of Michigan Opera Facebook page, you can see some of the places our Wolverines are heading for the summer. First stop on my itinerary is Washington DC, which feels like home. I’m so happy to be back coaching the WNO young artists. And as a bonus, I can catch a few dress rehearsals of Francesca Zambello’s spectacular Ring cycle, with a cast of old friends. It is wonderful to reunite with Alan Held, Gordon Hawkins, Eric Halfvarson, and so many people who sang in Rings I assisted on. Even more special is watching the next generation of artists take their places in this monumental work. Jamie Barton, Catherine Martin, Stephanie Rhodes, Solomon Howard, Jacqui Echols – this is just the beginning of a long list of artists in the DC Ring who have come up through American training programs and are coming into their own, in these pieces and many others, in theaters all over the world. It is a joy to be part of this never-ending cycle.
pianist, opera coach, conductor, writer