Soprano Deborah Voigt announces new Vero Beach Opera competition

DEBORAH VOIGT/ VBO FOUNDATION BEGINS SEARCH FOR PROTÉGÉ

Vero Beach (FL) Opera announces the chartering of the Deborah Voigt/Vero Beach Opera Foundation. Among the foundation's trustees are Chairperson Deborah Voigt, Dr. Joan Ortega-Cowan and Román Ortega-Cowan (wife of the Vero company's artistic director, Roman Ortega-Cowan).

The main focus of the Foundation will be the PROTÉGÉ/MENTORING PROGRAM through which Deborah Voigt will personally select a Protégé, specifically a young soprano, each year who will then spend about six weeks with her during rehearsals and performances at a selected U.S. Opera house where she will be performing. The Protégé will enjoy extended contact with Voigt while gaining personal experience of artistry at the highest level.

The Deborah Voigt/Vero Beach Opera Foundation is extending an invitation to selected conservatories, colleges, universities and opera companies with outstanding operatic training programs for young artists to submit letters of recommendation for a full lyric or young dramatic soprano between the ages of 22 years and 30 years of age. The Protégé will be selected in April 2009.

During the 2009-2010 opera season, the Protégé will spend six weeks with Voigt at the Chicago Lyric Opera during rehearsals and performances of TOSCA from Sept. 7 – Oct. 15, 2009. The Foundation will provide housing, voice lessons, coaching and some personal needs. The Protégé will perform for Vero Beach Opera during its 2009-2010 opera season.

For more information, contact Vero Beach Opera office at P. O. Box 6912, Vero Beach, Florida, 43961 (phone 772-569-6993 or visit www.verobeachopera.org.)