Meet the Featured Alumni Artists for our Virtual Celebration

We are proud to announce our Featured Alumni Artists for the Virtual Launch of CLA’s first programs in the US. Mezzo-Soprano Briana Hunter (Italy ‘10, ‘11; France ‘13) and Bass William Guanbo Su (Italy ‘15; France ‘17) will join us on June 3 at 7pm to share their musical gifts, as well as insights into their CLA experiences.

Click here to watch the Facebook Live event, RSVP, and join the discussion!

Briana Hunter

http://www.brianaelysehunter.com/

Briana Hunter has been hailed by Opera News as “a mesmerizing mezzo-soprano with a fiery theatrical presence and dynamic vocalism”. Ms. Hunter began her 2019-2020 season in performances of Augusta Read Thomas’ Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun with the Santa Fe Opera. Following her acclaimed performances creating the role of Mother in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue at the Glimmerglass Festival, she reprised the role for her debut at the Washington National Opera. Ms. Hunter also recently debuted under the auspices of New York City Opera and American Opera Projects as Hannah Before in Laura Kaminsky’s As One at the Kaufman Music Center in New York. Additional recent performances include creating the role of Dee Dee Reyes in Hillard and Boresi’sThe Last American Hammer with UrbanArias in Washington, D.C.; Annie and Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess at the Glimmerglass Festival; and Giovanna in Rigoletto and Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 at Michigan Opera Theatre, for which she won the EncoreMichigan award for Best Performance in an Opera. At the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, she performed the role of Flora in La Traviata for Patricia Racette’s directorial debut, as well as Pvt. Stanton in the world premiere of An American Soldier. She made her Lincoln Center Theater debut in a gala performance of Camelot starring Lin Manuel Miranda, and a few months prior joined LCT for a workshop of Intimate Apparel by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage, directed by Bartlett Sher.

William Guanbo Su

https://www.sempreartists.com/william-guanbo-su

Heralded by the New York Times for “musical taste, honest execution of Handelian ornaments and bel canto filigree, and a solid voice,” William Guanbo Su is a 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals winner.  

A member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Mr. Su made his mainstage debut as the Usher in Rigoletto last season before his performances of Sparafucile in outdoor performances of Rigoletto, Second Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, as were this season’s engagements of Zuniga in Carmen, Second Knight in Parsifal, and the Sadistic Sailor in Breaking the Waves. In the 2020-21 season, he performed excerpts of Enrico in Anna Bolena and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni in the Studio Showcase and later presented Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39; both programs are presented on HGO Live/Marquee TV.  He will return for a third season at Houston Grand Opera for a number of roles on the company’s mainstage after making his debut with Austin Opera as Angelotti in Tosca and returning to the Aspen Music Festival as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and Garibaldo in Rodelinda: all role debuts.

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Alumni Interview Series - Dorothy Gal

To kick off our alumni interview series, Daniela Magura spoke with CLA alumna Dorothy Gal.  Today, Dorothy can be heard on the stage of the Houston Grand Opera as a member of the HGO Studio, a renowned young artist program. 

Dorothy met Glenn Morton, artistic director of Classic Lyric Arts, during her first year of undergraduate studies at Mannes college.  She shared with us that shortly after meeting Glenn, she thought to herself “I have to follow you around the world now”.  In particular, she was drawn to his “insistence on purifying vowels and treating every note like it has its own world of colors”.  

Dorothy followed her instincts and attended CLA Italy in the summer of 2013.  For Dorothy, CLA Italy was a revelation in vocal technique.  She fondly recalls her transformative work with faculty member and soprano Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi.

“Donata came at the perfect point in my development.  She reevaluated her own technique midway through her career.  Then, she had to take time to figure out the mechanics of singing and the relationship she had with her body.  Singing is such a balance of freedom and physical strength. I’m always thinking about the things she said. It was about finding the deepest, innermost connection that you could make.  It was eye-opening.”

Dorothy was bit by the CLA bug and decided to attend CLA France the following year.  While Italy offered a foundation of vocal technique, Dorothy’s experiences in France expanded her expressive potential.  She felt especially grateful to have worked with the late Michel Sénéchal, a renowned French tenor and co-director of CLA France.

Glenn and Dorothy in France

“It gives me goosebumps to think that I had the chance to learn from Michel Sénéchal.  The way he viewed delivering text was the springboard for my love and passion of French song.”

She shared with us that, while preparing for an upcoming recital with Opera America, she has been recalling important lessons from her time in France.

“Sometimes you get so caught up in the primary colors that you forget you can start mixing things.  The palette can be expanded in such a way when the space is intimate.  You can do other vocalisms besides the most optimal production of sound.  That’s what Michel was getting at.  ‘I want you to explore more, I want you to go further, I want you to take your pianissimi to the brink of extinction’.”

Reflecting on her operatic trajectory, Dorothy expressed that CLA had a substantial impact on her early vocal experiences.

“Italy was profoundly important to my development of technique. It was really important for later on when I had more teachers to show me the way.  In Italy, I heard for the first time, really, that you need to use your body to sing.”  

“I was definitely a very changed singer leaving France.  CLA France pushed me to think more deeply about what it is I’m saying and how I’m going to deliver that.  Sometimes the way to have the most profound impact isn’t the way you would imagine.  It’s like going through a second language, to figure out how you really want people to feel.” 

Dorothy concluded the conversation by offering some heartfelt advice to young singers and future CLA participants.

“One of the most important things that has impacted my own life is to stay in your lane.  Don’t view other people’s successes as your failures.  Instead, spend your time practicing and learning: it is a better use of your time.” 

“Listen to your instincts.  I have had a long journey of knowing my voice. Every time I make a discovery in a voice lesson or coaching, I feel like I’m leveling up.  Back away from labelling yourself, and just sing.  Sing what you love, and your voice will reveal itself to you.”