| The prototypical undergraduate ensemble experience is choir. Singing in a choir requires blending. Chamber singing usually means early music, which requires less vibrato for stylistic reasons. An opera school may only accept undergrads to keep NASM spectrum of degrees and to populate the opera choruses, with rare exceptions. Young singers should not be singing heavy roles or long roles. Scenes and cameo roles are more appropriate. For singers to be comfortable with this discipline-imposed conflict, there needs to be lots of trust and communication with the teacher, and through the studio mates an awareness of the hierarchy of age and development. Those seem to be the missing ingrediants here. |