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The voice program focuses on the singer's diction, body alignment, breathing techniques, and vocal development, as well as musical and stylistic considerations. Vocalists receive four 45-minute private lessons during the two week session. They also participate in a chamber choir (made up of only voice students) and in the Institute Singers, which includes all SMI participants. Scott Plate, Assistant Professor of Music Theatre and Program Coordinator of B-W's Music Theatre Program, will lead a workshop class in music theatre for all voice students.
Students who are Juniors in High School may also submit a separate audition for Victoria Bussert's Music Theatre Intensive, which takes place the week following SMI. Fifteen high school juniors will be accepted for 5 days of one-on-one coaching with B-W's Music Theatre Faculty.
Artist Faculty
Sophie Ginn-Paster, Professor of Voice. M.S., B.S., Juilliard School of Music. Voice study with Edith Piper, Eleanor Steber, Jennie Tourel, and William Vennard. Advanced studies in Opera and Stage Directing in Graz and Vienna Austria; she coached with Pierre Bernac, Hermann Schmidt, Norman Shetler, Sergius Kagen, Charles Wadsworth and Povla Frijsh. She made her New York City debut at Town Hall and was a member of the New York City Opera, Oakdale (CT) Musical Theatre, Lake Erie Opera (Cleveland Orchestra) as well as soloist with the Meadowbrook Festival under Robert Shaw, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and B-W Bach and Focus Festivals. She has concertized nationally and in Austria, performed thirteen major operatic roles, and affiliated with many composers including Marc Blitzstein, William Schumann, Witold Lutoslawski, Lukas Foss, Lee Goldstein, Warren Benson, Frederick Koch and Hall Overton. Ms. Ginn-Paster was awarded doctoral equivalency and two faculty development grants from B-W; is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Vice-President of the NATS Foundation, former President of the Ohio Buckeye Chapter, Ohio State Governor and Regional Governor. She also taught at Bowling Green State University and North Texas State University. Ms. Ginn-Paster has received many honors and awards with listings in International Who's Who in Music and Who's Who of American Women. In 2001, Ms. Ginn-Paster was named honoree by the Vocal Arts Network Resource as an outstanding educator in Ohio, with citations from Governor Bob Taft and the Ohio House of Representatives. Ginn has been selected for the 59th edition of Who’s Who in America, the chronicle of American achievement listing individuals who are of current national reference interest and inquiry either because of meritorious achievement or because of the positions they hold. She received a Teacher Recognition certificate from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts in appreciation for encouraging and supporting students who have been recognized for their exceptional artistic achievements in the 2005-2006 Arts Recognition and Talent Search. Her former students have sung with major opera companies, on Broadway and National TV as well as holding teaching positions in colleges and public schools.
Timothy Scott Mussard, Professor of Voice. D.M.A., M.M. University of Washington, Seattle; B.S. in History, California Polytechnic University. Dr. Mussard recently retired from the University of California Los Angeles where he had been Professor of Voice since 1985 and Vice-Chair of the Department of Music since 1993. Dr. Mussard is one of America's most distinguished Heldentenors with a career which has taken him all over the world in roles such as Herold in Salome, Eric in Der Fliegender Hollander, Floestan in Fidelio, Radames in Aida, Siegfried in Der Ring Des Nibelungen, and numerous other roles. He has also taught master classes at the University of Denver, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the National University of Korea at Inchon and Pusan. Some of Dr. Mussard's students' successes include principal roles in the NY, LA, and Toronto productions of Phantom of the Opera, Lyric Soprano with NYC Opera, Tenor with Staatsoper Berlin and La Scala, NYC Richard Tucker Award, Marilyn Horne Award, and numerous other honors and placements.
Cynthia O'Connell, Lecturer in Voice. M.M., B.M. West Chester University, Pennsylvania. Member of National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Guild of Musical Artists, Music Teachers National Association, and The California Association of Professional Music Teachers. Ms. O'Connell has performed with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Mississippi Opera Festival Apprenticeship program, and The Pennsylvania Opera Theater. She is currently a soprano soloist with Trinity Episcopal Church in Cleveland.
Scott Plate is an award-winning free-lance performing artist and director whose work is featured frequently on Northeast Ohio's stages. He is currently a member of Great Lakes Theater Festival's classical repertory company, and his directing and acting work has been seen regionally in Atlanta at the Alliance Theatre, at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise, ID, and on North Carolina's Outer Banks in The Lost Colony. During his thirteen-year residency in Cleveland he has worked on over sixty productions, at such venues as Severance Hall, The Cleveland Play House, Cain Park, Porthouse Theatre, Dobama Theatre, the Halle Theatre at JCC, and Cleveland Public Theatre. Some of the productions in which has appeared include Hamlet, A Christmas Carol, Angels in America, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Homebody/Kabul, Cherry Docs, Batboy: The Musical, and The Last Five Years. He appeared as a guest artist in a B-W production of Equus, directed by Victoria Bussert, and he directed the North American premiere of a new translation of Sophocles' Antigone by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. He will direct Arthur Miller's The Crucible in spring i2007 1n the John Patrick Theatre at B-W. He has directed productions of Eleemosynary for the Cleveland Women's Theatre Project, Closer for Dobama, The Aias for CSU's Factory Theatre, and Mrs. Warren's Profession for the Beck Center. He was a directing fellow under Kenny Leon at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, where he assisted with the Southeastern premiere of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and the world premiere of Pearl Cleage's Flyin' West, and where he directed productions of La Ronde and The Imaginary Cuckold for its theatre school. He has over one hundred on-camera and voice-over recording credits in local, national and international commercials and industrial films, as well as a featured role in the HBO pictures release "Proximity." He holds an MFA in Theatre from Florida State University.
Marc Weagraff, Lecturer in Voice. D.M.A., The University of Michigan; M.M., B.M., The Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. Weagraff has studied voice with Lorna Haywood and George Vassos and choral conducting under Theo Morrison. Dr. Weagraff's opera credits include roles with Michigan Opera Works, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Concert Opera, The Utah Opera Company, The University of Michigan, The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as numerous performances in musical theater programs. Several of his performances were heard in live broadcast over WCLV (Cleveland) and KBYU (Provo, UT) radio. Equally at home with oratorio repertoire, he has performed as soloist with the internationally renowned University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, the Utah Symphony educational series, The Ashtabula County Choral Society, and the Medina County Choral Union. As a recitalist he has been heard throughout the region including various church concert series and as a guest artist at Cleveland State University. A versatile vocal instructor, he offers workshops in vocal and choral techniques and maintains an active private studio. He is currently the Director of Music Ministries at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills, OH.
275 Eastland Rd.