This program is amazing. If you are a young singer looking to turn the corner from hitting the cattle calls into earning paying contracts, The CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster is for you.

The CoOPERAtive Program is a very supportive and collaborative environment, featuring the country’s top talent. Not only do Laura Brooks Rice and Dr. Christopher Arneson bring in some of the most seasoned and passionate faculty, but they also make sure you spend ample time with each. Check out this faculty list including coaches, teachers, and conductors from the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music.

The list includes such names as Susan Shiplett Ashbaker, Thomas Bagwell, Daniel Beckwith, Sandra Bernhard, Deborah Birnbaum, William Hobbs, Chuck Hudson, Gina Lapinski, Anthony Manoli, Mark Moliterno, Buck Ross, Debra Scurto-Davis, Ted Taylor, Marc Verzatt, Mark Moliterno, Nova Thomas, Lydia Brown, William Burden, Steven Crawford, Kathleen Kelly, Yelena Kurdina and and Brian Zeger.

How much value do you get? Well, they have taken the time to measure it so you can be sure you are getting your money’s worth. Singers typically receive over twenty six (26) coachings over the three weeks of the program. Yep, that’s more than one a day. One singer told me that she had nine (9) coachings the week before my seminar. And that is just coachings! That doesn’t include seminars, yoga, concerts, workshops and masterclasses. Read more about a Typical Day at the CoOPERAtive Program.

The Seminar and Individual Sessions

This seminar was certainly one of the best. We had a perfect room and the group was energized and well-prepared. Several of the singers had already printed the workbook sample and taken the questionnaire online. That is the kind of proactive skill that pays off huge in our entrepreneurial business.

We had a great discussion and the singers were very willing to share and contribute their creative ideas. I was flattered to read their comments (below).

The directors of the program also made sure to block out time for individual follow-up sessions with many of the singers. We met in fifteen-minute time slots throughout the afternoon discussing web sites, resumes, headshots and brainstorming marketing and product positioning.

We were able to make some major leaps forward with many resumes. In many cases, we condensed and refined the content. In many others we found small errors and discussed some basic graphic design formatting principles: less is more, readable should be the highest priority, white space is golden.

Please Email Us your resume if you would like some free feedback! We are happy to help in any way we can.

We chatted about the trade-offs of creating your own website from scratch using a WordPress blog engine, hiring a website designer such as Vox Page1, using a Flash based template such as Dynamod Web Portals, or building/hosting your website through Classical Singer or YAP Tracker.

I was also able to help singers refine their product positioning and strategize their market development. Most specifically, several singers had interest in creating a recital series. We helped them move from having a unique idea toward putting it into action: picking some deadlines on the calendar, deciding on a name for the series, targeting the right market, creating a fee structure and budgeting for print materials.

This was a fantastic session and I look forward to revisiting Westminster in the fall!