24 November 2010

VOCAL SCHOLARSHIP FINALIST ANNOUNCED


The Jud
ges Have Announced
the Competition Finalists!

Palm Springs Opera Guilds
27th Annual Vocal Scholarship Competition
Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
Annenberg Theatre at the Palms Springs Art Museum
Box Office: 760.325.4490


The judges for the audition portion of the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Scholarship Competition which took place in both Los Angeles and Palm Springs have made a very difficult decision and based on the very close ratings of the audition applicants selected the finalist. The following finalist will move on to the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Scholarship Competition final event on December 5, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. at the Annenberg Theatre in the Palm Springs Art Museum at 101 North Museum Drive in Palm Springs.

This exciting annual event is open to the public and the Guild cordially invites you to join us for the final competition and cash scholarship awards presentation. Tickets are available at the Annenberg Box Office at 760.325.4490. Seats are $40. PSOG Members receive seats at a member discount rate of $35.

Palm Springs Opera Guild
Vocal Scholarship Competition Finalist for 2010


1. Yujooong Kim: Lyric Tenor
2. Alexey Sayapin: Lyric Tenor
3. Jacquelynne Fontaine: Soprano
4. Marina Harris: Soprano
5. Joshua Guerrero: Lyric dramatic tenor
6. Melissa Batalles: Soprano
7. Rachael Hirsch: Mezzo soprano
8. Karen Vuong: Soprano
9. Douglas Carpenter: Baritone
10. Valerie Vinzant: Soprano

Special Award: Anna Schubert: Soprano

21 November 2010

SAVE THE DATE: DECEMBER 5, 2010


The Palm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert
Cordially invites you to

AN EVENING IN THE ATRIUM


A Post Vocal Scholarship
Competition Benefit Dinner


Exciting Silent Auction
Passed Canapés and Wine
No-host bar
Dinner with Wine
Entrée selections from the Hyatt’s new Chef

(1.) Vegetable Burrata en Croute
(2.) Rib Eye with Cabernet Reduction
(3.) Pan Seared Salmon with Lemon Caper Beurre

Dessert, Coffee, Tea

Replete with operatic interlude by Vocal Scholarship Winners


Sunday, December 5, 2010

6:00 P.M.

Hyatt Regency Suites Palm Springs Atrium


$125.00 per person donation
($65.00 tax-deductible)

Kindly RSVP to the Guild with details
760.325.6107

Host Sponsor: Hyatt Regency Suites

18 November 2010

PALM SPRING LIFE FEATURES PSOG & VALERY RYVKIN

Excerpts from the December issue of Palm Springs Life feature article "THE THREE MAESTROS" by Linda Mears Hardie.

A NEW OUTING

"For all of the impressive notches in his opera-conducting belt, Valéry Ryvkin is a realist when it comes to the popular appeal of the genre.

He recognizes that some scores engage audiences more than others — such as Mozart’s "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute"), which he conducted for the first time recently in Greensboro, N.C., as artistic director of the city’s opera company. “I have to say I adored it,” Ryvkin says. “It was refreshing.”

Another refreshing experience awaits him when he raises the baton for the daylong Opera in the Park on March 27, 2011, spotlighting some of the Southwest’s brightest new talent. It will mark the second year Ryvkin has lent his skills to Palm Springs Opera Guild’s popular event, now in its 13th year. “It is so important for young, would-be performers to experience the audition process for the Palm Springs opera competition,” he says.

“One of the deciding factors in who performs at Opera in the Park — part of a prize for that competition — is career potential, because if they succeed at this level, it means financial help and more opportunities to perform elsewhere.”

While Ryvkin may find it hard to believe the desert has 5,000 die-hard opera fans who would clamor to attend, for example, "The Maid of Orleans" (the Russian production with which he made his European debut last year in Germany), he sees potential in the informal ambiance of Sunrise Park attracting those whose musical tastes lie elsewhere. “They might say, ‘Hey, this is not that scary; we should try opera sometime.’”

And they would be among the converts making opera the fastest-growing performance art in the country, enjoying a 35 percent increase in its audience in the past decade, according to The New York Times.

If Ryvkin could make an opera sound like Broadway by putting a big orchestra and big voices behind it (as in "Séance on a Wet Afternoon"), then further decoding it with a series of youthful vocals under blue skies and sunshine is all to the greater good of the art."

Click here to read the entire article at PalmSpringsLife.com and if you are not a current subscriber, look for the December Palm Springs Life issue at your favorite news stand or outlet now.