{"id":48463,"date":"2017-10-21T18:04:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T22:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=48463"},"modified":"2017-10-31T16:20:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T20:20:58","slug":"interview-ann-summers-dossena-refuses-to-let-your-music-career-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/10\/21\/interview-ann-summers-dossena-refuses-to-let-your-music-career-down\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Why Ann Summers Dossena Refuses To Let Your Music Career Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Ann Summers Dossena<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s hard to find someone with more knowledge about making it in the classical music business than Ann Summers Dossena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re out of school and starting a career, is when you need help the most,\u201d imparts Dossena, a former artists\u2019 manager and concert presenter, as well as the founder of the International Resource Centre for the Performing Arts (IRCPA<\/a>). \u201cThat\u2019s why we started [the IRCPA] long ago now. Next year will be our 35th year.\u201d<\/p>\n

On November 6th<\/a>, the IRCPA will present the second annual instalment of Singing Stars: The Next Generation. Named for a previously famed series on the CBC in the 1940s and 1950s, the Singing Stars program invites young singers from around Canada to take part in a day-long Encounter with various esteemed singers, as well as to perform a concert of the arias they have worked on. After the Encounter and Concert, one or two singers are chosen for the Career Blueprint Award, where that singer is invited to the Opera America Centre in New York City for three days of professional development workshops.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Encounter\u2019s teaching artist, Brett Polegato, echoes Dossena\u2019s sentiments about the difficulties of being a young singer in between young artist life and professional life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people vying to give you their opinions \u2014 trust me, I know,\u201d he said in a feedback session with this year\u2019s Encounter participants. \u201cThe hardest time for a young singer is when you\u2019re not in a young artist program, or just out of one. But I believe in the benefit of these Encounters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the singers who have participated in these Encounters are in the midst of burgeoning careers as solo artists. The Encounters present an opportunity to work with someone with years of experience in the business, working on style, technique, acting and presentation in preparation for auditions and productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to keep your skills sharpened,\u201d Dossena elaborates. \u201cI\u2019ve listened to people who are very good in here, and they still make wrong notes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ann Summers Dossena founded the IRCPA in 1983, after experiences in Italy, Israel, and New York City, along with help from the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s prompter, Joan Dornemann, conductor Edoardo M\u00fcller and famed singer, translator of libretti and dialect coach, Nico Castel. Over the years, the IRCPA has helped singers including Isabel Bayrakdarian, Measha Brueggergosman, Adrianne Piezoncka and Colin Ainsworth, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\"Encounter
(Photo: courtesy of the IRCPA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ever forward-looking, the IRCPA now strives to develop a community hub, similar to the Opera America Center and the Di Menna Center for Classical Music, both in New York City. The IRCPA is currently working towards a building of their own in Toronto, complete with audition, rehearsal and performance venues, shared office space and equipment, a library, practise rooms, a cafe, a retail shop, and exhibits honouring Canadian musicians of the past and present.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our mandate is to honour our Canadian heritage,\u201d Dossena explains of the centre\u2019s need for a heritage centre. Each scholarship offered to young singers is named for a famed Canadian operatic professional, such as Stuart Hamilton, Jon Vickers, and Canadian-American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, who presented last year\u2019s Encounter. \u00a0\u201cMany of the singers will not know who the scholarships are named for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dossena also hopes to offer mentoring, feedback sessions and workshops for young Canadian instrumentalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to be able financially to do [Encounters] for instrumentalists and especially for ensembles,\u201d she cites of the scope of the centre. \u201cWe also help conductors learn opera scores. Nobody can hire an orchestra, so Joan [Dornemann, of the Metropolitan Opera] will spend a day with conductors. Joan explains where the action is or where somebody is on a high note and needs a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Encounters like the one being undergone with Brett Polegato are just the first step in Dossena\u2019s plan for the IRCPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re all very talented. I hope what we worked on today will help make you even more talented,\u201d Brett Polegato jokingly imparted at the end of his day of sessions with the singers.<\/p>\n

In such a competitive field, the generosity and vision of people like Ann Summers Dossena are certainly appreciated by young artists. Let\u2019s hope the IRCPA community hub dream comes to fruition soon!<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

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\u201cWhen you\u2019re out of school and starting a career, is when you need help the most.\u201d Ann Summers Dossena dishes on the importance of supporting your career with a community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":23135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,14,29,4557,63],"tags":[12586,12585,6422],"yst_prominent_words":[11905,11902,8337,7034,6715,12581,12449,11939,12463,7059,10959,12579,7134,11933,11906,12580,10960,12584,12583,12582],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/11\/member_dossena.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-cBF","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48463"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48787,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48463\/revisions\/48787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48463"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}