Power Performance for Singers: Body, Mind, Spirit

Master classes and performances to inspire the artist within.

Based in New York City, Chuck Hudson has directed opera productions at major international companies including Cape Town Opera (South Africa), Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Cleveland, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera Center, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Caramoor Opera, Berkshire Opera, Piedmont Opera, Connecticut Opera, and Shreveport Opera among others. He has directed award winning theatre productions in New York and regionally, including The Pearl Theatre, The Chester Theater, Cape May Stage, The Children’s Theatre Festival of Houston, New City Theatre, and Chicago’s Fox Valley Shakespeare Festival. Chuck’s work as a director was mentioned in the January 2011 Edition of American Theatre Magazine.

In addition to directing professional artists, Chuck continues to focus on his work with artists in training. He was a co-creator of Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program where he directed productions as well as created and instructed specialized classes on Acting and Movement for singers. Chuck has directed productions at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program, Florida Grand Opera’s Resident Artist Program, IU Opera Theatre, CCM Opera Theatre, AVA Opera Theater, BU Opera Institute, USC-Thornton Opera, Music Academy of the West, Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts, and Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater. He was guest professor of Advanced Acting at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, professor at the University of Houston School of Theatre, at Cornish College of the Arts, and was an annual Adjunct Faculty Artist at North Carolina School of the Arts Theatre Department and Fletcher Opera Institute, and at Westminster Choir College. Chuck was a Schmidbauer Guest Artist–Stage Director this season at Stephen F Austin University’s Theater Department. Chuck also uses his enormous experience as a performer, director, and coach in his many Master Classes and private coachings at various Professional Artist Training Programs for singers and actors. He is also in great demand as a private audition coach in New York City, coaching both opera and musical theater performers.

For 7 years Chuck was Artistic Director of The Immediate Theatre in Seattle: a physically based company committed to the creation of visually exciting dramatic works. Chuck’s specialty in movement comes from a background in gymnastics as well as being one of three Americans to have received a diploma from the Marcel Marceau International School of Mimedrama in Paris. He is the only American to be appointed to teach at Marceau’s School, and he performed with Marceau on his 1991 European Tour and in Klaus Kinski’s film Paganini. Chuck also studied at the Paris School for Theatrical Fencing and was awarded an Honorary Diploma from the French Academy of Arms.

Acting roles include Orsino in Twelfth Night, Brutus in Julius Caesar, and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew with the Seattle Shakespeare Festival, and Caliban in The Tempest with his own Immediate Theatre. He has also served as Movement & Combat Director at the Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet, Intiman Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Opera, Group Theatre, and Seattle Shakespeare Festival.

Dr. Diana Allan is a soprano who has appeared in operatic and concert performances throughout the Mid- and Southwest.  She has also performed in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Brazil.  Dr. Allan has sung such leading operatic roles as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, Rosalinda in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Despina in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Leatitia in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief and has extensive oratorio experience.  In addition to operatic and oratorio performances, Dr. Allan created the role of Eeba Streeba, a character in the children’s television program, Cat Paws in Motion, which has aired on Public Broadcasting Stations throughout the United States.

In addition to her own public performing, Dr. Allan has over 20 years university level teaching experience and currently teaches on the faculty of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her current research interests include mindfulness, mindful learning, cognitive strategies for performers and incorporating the teaching of those strategies in applied music instruction.

With over two decades of teaching experience Dr. Allan has worked with performers of all ages and all performance levels who have achieved success, however, many have struggled with performance issues such as confidence, trust, limiting beliefs, focus, motivation, fear and anxiety.   In her experience, it became increasingly apparent that technical skill was not the only kind of skill development that was necessary for performers to enjoy strong and successful performances.  The development of effective mental skills was an area that musicians were not as familiar with.  This motivated Dr. Allan to study counseling, cognitive-behavioral strategies, sport psychology, and to eventually become a certified Mental Game Coaching Professional (MGCP).

Using her MGCP training, Dr. Allan, Performance Coach, works with musicians to help them identify and assess their performance strengths and challenges, to formulate customized mental game plans, and to learn and improve effective mental skills that can lead to peak performances.

Dr. Kristine Hurst-Wajszczuk, B.M. and M.M. - Westminster Choir College and D.M.A. - University of Colorado-Boulder, is Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera. Especially interested in early music, her solo CD of Dowland lute songs was released in 2008 by Centaur. She has performed and lectured on the socio-political background of the songs internationally. In 2010, she was a participant in Early Music Vancouver’s Baroque Vocal Programme, “The Compleat Singer.”

Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk debuted with the Boulder Bach Festival in 2004. Her solo oratorio repertoire ranges from Bach to Barber and beyond; operatic roles from Monteverdi to Stravinsky. She participated in composer Bill Mayer’s 70th birthday celebration concert in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, in the role of Madeline in the composer’s The Eve of St. Agnes. In 2002, she was a regional finalist in the NATSAA competition; in 2006, she appeared on Wisconsin Public’s Radio’s broadcast of Live from the Chazen Museum.

An active recitalist dedicated to performing works by living composers, Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk recently appeared with the Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) in a premiere of songs by Craig Biondi. Additional American premieres include theatre songs by composer Zeke Hecker, songs by Steven Mercurio, and performances and recordings of music by David Hogg.

A four-year veteran of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston and Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk performed with the Westminster Choir under the batons of Bernstein, Muti, Mehta, Levine, Flummerfelt, Macal, Wolff, and Masur. As a member of the New York Choral Arts Society and the National Chorale, Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk’s performances included regular appearances at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Educational outreach is an important part of Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk’s mission. As an apprentice with Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, she performed for over 40,000 schoolchildren throughout Arkansas and eastern Texas. At the University of Colorado, she won a Music Entrepreneurship grant to present “Introduction to Opera” workshops at elementary schools in her native Vermont, as well as in New Hampshire and Maine. She is available for master classes, pre-competition screening, and workshops on coping with stage fright.

An avid student of several languages, Dr. Hurst-Wajszczuk received grants for the German for Singers immersion program at Middlebury College, and for intensive study in Vienna, Austria. She is a member of NATS, College Music Society, Opera America, National Opera Association, and Early Music America. Her students have regularly placed in Wisconsin, Alabama, and regional NATS competitions as well as the Alabama Federation of Music Clubs. Recent student successes include acceptance into programs such as the Aspen Music Festival and the Bach Society of Saint Louis.

Bonus Session Presenter Biographies:

I. Dalcroze and the Singer, Dr. David Frego, Music Department Chair, University of Texas-San Antonio

David Frego, Roland K. Blumberg Endowed professor in music, received a B.M. from Brandon University in Canada, a Master of Music in choral performance, a Master of Music Education, and a Ph.D. from Florida State University. He joined the faculty at UTSA in July of 2008. Areas of specialty include elementary general music education and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Frego is past-president and a member of the advisory board of the Dalcroze Society of America.

As an instructor in Dalcroze Eurhythmics he regularly presents workshops throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 1998, Frego established the Dalcroze Research Center in the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University. His research in movement-based music education and therapy is published in music education journals and medical journals for arts medicine. Other teaching and research areas include dance philosophy and the application of Dalcroze Eurhythmics as palliative care for terminally ill adults.

II. Tai Chi for the Singer, Dr. Bill McCrary, Lyric Theatre and Opera, University of Texas-San Antonio

Dr. William McCrary is the Director of Lyric Theatre at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He holds degrees in Voice Performance from the University of Montana (BM), San Francisco State University (MM), The University of Northern Colorado (DA) and has directed and performed in musicals and operas for over 30 years. Dr. McCrary holds a third degree black belt in Tai Kwan Do and is a certified instructor of Qigong and Tai Chi from the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi.