Glyndebourne Academy has been offering guidance to young singers who might not otherwise get the chance, as Tom Stewart finds out…
Glyndebourne Academy
In a bright and airy studio at the University of Chichester, a coach is helping a group of young singers get to grips with an Italian tongue twister. As the students repeat the phrase ‘sotto la panca, la capra crepa’, the coach shows them how to use their teeth and tongues to produce the ‘energised’ consonants needed for a convincingly Italian performance. Unlike most (English-speaking) instrumentalists, who can get by with a smattering of musical terms from other languages, opera singers require a detailed understanding of at least Italian, German and French, perhaps adding in some Russian along the way. Then there’s breathing, posture and movement – and that’s before you consider the music itself.
It’s a big ask, says Mary King, a singer who set up the Glyndebourne Academy in 2012 to help people who have faced barriers to receiving the expert guidance required to embark on a successful operatic career. Originally a biennial project, the scheme now brings together around ten singers aged between 16 and 26 each August for an intensive week of mentoring and vocal training followed by a further weekend of coaching and a chance to sing on Glyndebourne’s main stage in the autumn. Places on the scheme, which already has a strong record of helping young people win places at music college and on prestigious young artists programmes, are provided completely free of charge. Many alumni have now embarked on successful careers of their own. ‘We knew that people were coming up against obstacles that stopped them realising their talent,’ says King. ‘It’s the same things: socio-economic disadvantage; mental or physical ill health; being the only child at school interested in classical music; coming from a part of the country nowhere near any of the access schemes. They know they want to sing but they’re not ready for the next step, which is where we come in.’
After the Italian class, I join a group of three students going through repertoire with vocal coach Yolanda Grant-Thompson and répétiteur Caroline Jaya-Ratnam. Oscar Bowen-Hill, 22, has brought a song from Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation and his performance of it fills the room with a bright and beautiful tenor voice. Grant-Thompson is impressed. The foundations are definitely there, she says, suggesting ways he could enunciate more clearly ‘without sabotaging the vocal line’. Another m
