June 22, 2003 @ 10am-5pm
The Lamplighter’s Rehearsal Hall, 469 Bryant Street, San Francisco
$200 Per Person
This one-day workshop is limited to 6 singers
Enhance Your Audition Success
Since 1997, the Singer’s Gym has trained over 700 singers to be more present, spontaneous and vital in their singing. This has led to more successful auditions and on-stage roles. If you want to up your advantage at auditions, this workshop is for you.
The workshop will be conducted by Singer’s Gym founder Ben Bernstein and Mark Morash, vocal coach and opera conductor. As the director of education for the San Francisco Opera Center for twenty years Mark coached Merola singers and Adler Fellows who have gone on to highly successful professional careers.
In this one-day intensive workshop 6 singers will each work on two audition pieces. Mark will meet with each singer before the workshop to select the best pieces to show the singer to her/his best advantage.
Meet your instructors
Ben Bernstein
Coach, Director
Ben Bernstein, PhD is an acting teacher for singers, a stage director, an opera composer and a performance psychologist. Trained by Viola Spolin, he was Gian Carlo Menotti’s assistant at the American Opera Center in New York. Ben has staged premiere productions of new operas and has coached singers throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has conducted master classes and directed at the Sundance Institute, the San Francisco Opera, the Juilliard School, the American Opera Center, and has been a presenter at conferences worldwide. He speaks nationally on the subject of stress and performance. As a composer, he received commissioning grants for his one act opera, The Man in the Mirror, which had a successful premiere at the American Handel Festival in Seattle. His award-winning settings for The Song of Songs have been performed around the U.S. His three books, Crush Your Test Anxiety, A Teen’s Guide to Success, and Stressed Out! for Parents have received international attention. His ongoing blog, “Be Your Best,” on the Psychology Today website regularly receives thousands of hits.
Mark Morash
Coach, Accompanist
Mark Morash is currently serving as Head of Music and Chorus Master for Calgary Opera in Calgary, Canada. Prior to that, he was Director of Musical Studies for the Opera Center of San Francisco Opera for over two decades. There, he conducted for the Merola Opera Program, the Adler Fellow Showcase and Western Opera Theater. He also led performances of A Streetcar Named Desire, La Serva Padrona and Trouble in Tahiti for Opera Santa Barbara, Rigoletto for Opera Colorado, and Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw for the Lincoln Theater in Yountville, CA. As a collaborative pianist, Morash’s performances have taken him throughout Canada, the USA, as well as to Japan and Russia. Artists with whom Morash has appeared include Leah Crocetto, Melody Moore, Elza van den Heever, Quinn Kelsey and Michael Schade. He has accompanied numerous emerging singers in San Francisco Opera’s esteemed Schwabacher Debut recitals, and has done master coach residencies for Pacific Opera Victoria, Hawaii Opera, and for the Kia Ora and Malvina Major Foundations in New Zealand.