Opera Audition Preparation Masterclass with Prof. Gerd Uecker

It is your goal to have a position in a German-speaking opera house? Then this intensive and innovative master class for young professional singers is just right for you! This high-level course with Prof. Gerd Uecker will prepare young professional opera singers particularly for auditioning but also cover other important aspects of theatre life.

Please note that we charge a registration fee in an amount of 120,- € which is not reimbursable if you withdrawal from the course.

Special application requirements: In addition to the normal application please send us a recent digital audio or video recording (e.g. MP3-File, YouTube or Soundcloud Link) of your work to summer-courses[at]udk-berlin.de.

For a third year running, a truly exceptional and experienced Team in the field of Opera, are again working together. They have expanded their vision of the courses even further; Offering yet more in 2016, it will be possible to do a full 14days course, or just the 2 separate Modules.

September 24 - 30th: Session with Prof. Cheryl Studer
October 1st - 7th: Session with Prof. Gerd Uecker

For a third year running, a truly exceptional and experienced Team in the field of Opera, are again working together. They have expanded their vision of the courses even further; Offering yet more in 2016, it will be possible to do a full 14days course, or just the 2 separate Modules.

A rare opportunity to work with a really Great Team - the internationally renowned soprano, Kammer Sängerin Professor Cheryl Studer,(HfM,Würzburg) Professor Gerd Uecker, former Director of the Semper Opera House, Dresden, and author of „ Opernsanger-Traum Beruf“(„Opera singer, your dream profession“), Professor Jonathan Alder, pianist (former Deutsche Oper Berlin and Berlin Philharmonic,UdK, accompanist of Christa Ludwig and Cheryl Studer), together with his wife Janice Alford, Mezzo-Soprano( former Vienna State Opera and now an established Voice teacher in Berlin) make up the main Team and also guest lecturers.

Course Outline Details:

• September 24 - 30th: Session with Prof. Cheryl Studer
• October 1st - 7th: Session with Prof. Gerd Uecker

• Final Concerts as audition presentation with a small selective jury eg. Berlin Agents (Tact4Art, Boris Orlob, Opera Connection, Cicada), Head of the Komische Opera Studio Peter Tomek and Conductors Stanely Dodds, Adam Benzwi and Stefan Tast.. and Public.
• Prizes offered again from Walther Kaminsky Foundation and Komische Oper Berlin
• Intensive Interpretation and technical work with Cheryl Studer
• Interpretation & Coaching with Gerd Uecker
• Coaching sessions Jonathan Alder - New
• Stage Craft/ Movement - New
• Individual specific technical issues – Janice Alder- Alford - New
• Movement / Fitness / Breath control extended
• Audition Training with Jonathan & Janice Alder
• Brain Training - Psyching you up! Positive preparation techniques
• Great facilities on the UdK Berlin premises
• Personality Training Janice Alder-Alford
• Teaching in: English, German & French as required

What some singers have already achieved

• Cheryl Studer Course 2014 - Kirstin Sharpin – Jugendlich Dramatische Soprano, New Zealand - 1st Prize Wagner Competition in Karlsruhe, 2015. Singing at the Wexford Festival Leonora – Beethoven, 2016.
• Cheryl Studer Course 2015 - Jessica Veronique Miller – Mezzo, DE – Won the BSUA Komische Oper Vorsingen Preis 2015. Tact4Art Agency, on the Jury, have chosen her to be presented at a meeting of 25 Directors of Deutsche Theatern, in Berlin
• Cheryl Studer Course 2015 – Lisa Sparovec – Lyric coloratura Soprano - won the Kaminsky Foundation Prize 2015. She is finishing her BA in Graz.
• Gerd Uecker Course 2015 - Avigail HavTur – Coloratura Soprano, Israel – the Boris Orlob Agency, on the Jury at the final concert arranged for her to be presented for Queen of the Night for Opera Studio Production - La Scala Milan.
• Gerd Uecker Course 2015 – Kristin Ebner – Dramatic Soprano DE – Chosen to participate at the Bayreuth Festival Masterclass, working on Isolde with Michelle Breedt, this was for only 5 Singers and presented to Eva Pasquier- Wagner in a final concert. She won the audition to sing the 4Letzte Lieder. R.Strauss ECO prize winning Detmolder Orchestra 2015, performed last November in Hannover.
• Gerd Uecker Course 2014 - Natalia Salom – Lyric Soprano, Spain. - engaged by the Teatro la Palma, Majorca 2014/15 and now 2016, she won the Wagner 1st Prize in Madrid in 2015, and a recital for “Friends of the Opera”, Madrid, 2016.

Prof. Gerd Uecker, born in 1946 in Munich. Musical studies at the Academy of Music in Munich: Piano, musical pedagogics, conducting. 1969 Music Coach at the opera house Cologne. 1970 Teaching profession at the "Rheinisches Musikkonservatorium Köln" concerning the subject; 1973 Musical Director and head of the opera department at the "Südostbayerisches Städtetheater" in Passau; 1979 Director of the musical department at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; 1982 Head of the office of the General Director at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; 1988/89 Artistic Director and representative of the General Director at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; 1993 Interim artistic head of the Bavarian State Opera; Sept. 1993 Opera Director of the Bavarian State Opera; 2000 Nominated as General Director of the "Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden", Semperoper; 2003 – 2010 General Director of the "Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden", Semperoper; 2005 – 2010 Chairman of the "Deutschsprachige Opernkonferenz"; Since 2007 Chairman of the board of the academy of the "Musikhochschule Lübeck"; 2010 Awarding of the "Dänisches Ritterkreuz des Danneborgordens"; 2011 Honorary president of the "Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin".