Future Opera Singers Thrive at Summer Camp

Mariela Palencia, who is 14, has a modest goal: “I want to be the youngest singer ever to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.” She has some time: The youngest star singer, Patricia Munsel, was 17 in 1943.

“I fell in love with opera when I was 6 and saw Don Giovanni,” she says. Palencia is going to attend the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in the fall and would love to get into the Julliard School of Music.

Palencia is one of the young people aged 13 through 20 who took part in a week-long Opera NOVA Summer Institute for young singers July 22-28, co-sponsored by Opera NOVA and the Woman’s Club of Arlington, with a grant from the Mars Foundation.

For a week, while it was baking outside, these they were being taught acting, diction, auditioning, ear training/theory, music history, voice lessons and movement from top-notch faculty at the woman's club.

Most of the participants aspire to singing careers. “I want to sing in musicals,” said Aarti Sabharwal,, 14, whose grandparents sang Indian music and who sings some of it herself. She’d love to appear at the Kennedy Center some day and sing at the Met, too. She has already sung in a number of Washington National Opera Children’s Chorus performances. Isabelle Schweiter, 13, would like to sing on Broadway, inspired by Ben Platt in “Dear Evan Hansen.” She sings the national anthem at various school events in Stafford, VA

These young people heard talks about how to audition, how to sing and how to move on stage and then were coached individually by opera singers Jose Sacin, Cara Gonzales, Eduardo Castro and Alex Alburqueque and coached on movement by Danny Chung, and accompanied on piano by Zsolt Balogh

At a dress rehearsal on Jan. 27, each performer sang an opera number, often in Italian, or a piece from a Broadway show. If the singer got off track, sometimes a coach would voice the correct notes and words to help. Several were told to be sure to bow afterward.

After their dress rehearsal in advance of a performance July 28, they were given coaching notes by Chung and others. “It’s OK to touch the piano while you sing,” he said. Other comments: “Put your head up to signal when you want the pianist to start.” “With your e-vowels especially, your jaw needs to be relaxed.” “Keep your body aligned: Don’t hunch over if your character is forceful,” “Make sure your face is portraying the person you are trying to be.”

Even during breaks, the building was filled with singing as the enthusiastic vocalists pursued their dream. Other singers in the camp were Ricardo Avalos, Katherine Kailey, Dawn Henderson and Lydia Sutton

At the concert on Sunday, the room exploded into cheers, applause and tears. Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends who came to hear the singers gave high-fives and hugs to the kids who had worked so hard all week.