Just last March, Caramoor produced the third annual session of Vocal Rising Stars (VRS). Caramoor’s newest mentoring program, designed for young singers at the beginning of their careers, focuses on a specific theme in the non-operatic vocal repertoire. In 2011, Spanish song was the theme, and Spanish works sung in all of Spain’s languages (Catalan, Sephardic, Basque) was the subject. Working with the New York Festival of Song’s Artistic Director, Steven Blier, yours truly lending fingers and ears, and three separate guest coaches, the four young vocalists had a very full schedule.

Living at Caramoor, there are few distractions. Cell phones don’t get much of a signal, so the omnipresent phones which seem attached to young people, became cameras for our week together. There was wi-fi available in the evenings, but I observed our singers primarily posting the daily webisodes, created by Caramoor’s Social Media Coordinator Alison Shearer, to their Facebook pages to let their friends know what the day’s progress had been.

And progress there was. Each day seemed to have several revelations. Personal breakthroughs occurred with each of our singers in the understanding of the poetry, vocal technique, ensemble singing, and physicalizing (in some cases, staging) a song. While it is assumed that everyone begins the first rehearsal fully prepared, it’s the last 10 or 15 percent of refinement that makes the difference between an acceptable student performance and a fully artistic one.

Our four artists certainly acquired that artistic level. Soprano Corinne Winters, mezzo Wallis Giunta, tenor Andrew Owens, and baritone Carlton Ford gave three performances at an incredibly high level of artistic achievement.

Nearly every opera company has a young artist program. The Met, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, and even Caramoor’s Bel Canto Opera companies all have intensive programs for young professionals to learn and grow in a protected environment. The study of song, however, is a mostly overlooked part of the vocal arts. Caramoor has begun to address this deficit with the establishment of the Vocal Rising Stars program. Credit goes to Eileen Schwab, a Caramoor trustee, and her family for creating the program in memory of their husband and father, Terry Schwab. Stay tuned for next year’s program. The subject? Paris and New York.