Bel Canto Bella Voce

 Bel Canto Bella Voce Masterclass

Rusali­na Mochuko­va, sopra­no
Chan­da Van­der­Hart, piano

Sopra­no Rusali­na Mochuko­va, schol­ar­ship stu­dent of Mirella Freni and Bel Can­to tech­nique expert, and pianist Chan­da Van­der­Hart offer a unique mas­ter­class series in Vien­na for singers of every lev­el and age to learn and grow in an infor­mal envi­ron­ment.

Offered in 5-day blocks, this ate­lier-style pro­gram gives clas­si­cal singers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to refine audi­tion arias, pol­ish or learn new roles, or sim­ply focus on Ital­ian dic­tion and Bel Can­to tech­nique.

From June 2010 till Octo­ber 2013, Chan­da and Rusali­na have orga­nized 14 mas­ter­class in Vien­na to over a hun­dred par­tic­i­pants.

Video courtesy of Maximilian van London (www.maximilianvanlondon.com)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5cSjz3zS6Fg%3Frel%3D0

The stu­dio is equipped with pro­fes­sion­al record­ing equip­ment, should par­tic­i­pants want to extend their stay to record, a Mas­ter­class spe­cial rate is offered, please con­tact Chan­da for details or to book your ses­sion.

What they say about the masterclass

I took part in my first Bel Can­to Bel­la Voce mas­ter­class in Octo­ber 2012, after a friend rec­om­mend­ed the course to me. I’d nev­er been to Aus­tria before, I spoke very lit­tle Ger­man, and I had no idea how to get around or what there was to do in the city. How­ev­er, Vien­na is such a friend­ly city, and so easy to nav­i­gate, that I soon found my feet and felt con­fi­dent order­ing my apple strudel and buy­ing my tick­ets to the opera in a strange lan­guage. Chan­da was instant­ly wel­com­ing and made me feel right at home, sug­gest­ing the best places to eat, drink and hear live music.

 

As a singer at the begin­ning of my career, I was look­ing for­ward to the chance to spend some time immers­ing myself in tech­nique, refin­ing my Ital­ian and try­ing out some new music. I had spent the past five years train­ing as a dra­mat­ic mez­zo, but I had recent­ly changed teach­ers and was weigh­ing up the ques­tion of whether I might in fact be a sopra­no. With­in the first twen­ty min­utes of work­ing with Rusali­na, she not only con­vinced me that I am a lyric sopra­no, but also explained why my voice is built like a soprano’s - which was enor­mous­ly help­ful as it meant I had some con­crete evi­dence to back up this feel­ing of where my voice want­ed to go.
Chang­ing voice type is quite an emo­tion­al expe­ri­ence — around half way through the week, I felt as though I was going right back to square one and knew noth­ing about singing or music. But Rusali­na and Chan­da were very sup­port­ive, and encour­aged me to chal­lenge myself and push my own bound­aries, whilst remain­ing sen­si­tive to how I was feel­ing. By the end of the week, I had worked on three new arias which per­fect­ly suit my voice and I was inspired and excit­ed about the new reper­toire I could start to sing. I felt like I had much more con­trol over my voice, and that I could real­ly own the sound I was mak­ing. I’m going to spend the next three months work­ing hard on my Ital­ian and explor­ing new sopra­no roles, before head­ing back to Vien­na in Jan­u­ary for anoth­er mas­ter­class, and to record a few of these new arias with Chan­da.

 

I would rec­om­mend Bel Can­to Bel­la Voce to any singer who wants to focus inten­sive­ly on tech­nique, lan­guage and inter­pre­ta­tion or sim­ply pol­ish some arias for audi­tion, per­for­mance or record­ing. The expe­ri­ence of study­ing in anoth­er coun­try has inspired me to ‘think big­ger’ about the world of music, to chal­lenge myself to learn new lan­guages and embrace new cul­tures — all of which will make my own musi­cal jour­ney more of an adven­ture.

 

Car­o­line Chal­lis, Sopra­no (UK)