The international symposium Singing. Pedagogy and Didactics, organized in collaboration with the Korea National Opera, will commence on July 7 in Seoul with a tightly scheduled three-day programme.

Programme:
Singing. Pedagogy and Didactics

International conference in cooperation with the Korea National Opera

July, 7-9, 2025, Seoul, South Korea

The Korea National Opera (www.nationalopera.org) and the European Academy of Music Theatre  are jointly organizing an international symposium with renowned speakers from Korea, Europe and the US, focusing on the interplay of practice and theory, and the intercultural exchange of competence and perspectives on vocal pedagogy, serving as a platform for sharing experiences.

Young singers from South Korea continue to impress at international competitions. The conference will center on questions regarding methods and curricula in vocal training. In addition, topics such as operatic voice types and the European “Fach system”, the exploration, translation and application of academic findings for vocal didactics, competitions, and opera studios will be considered. Further topics of discussion include the varying standards at educational institutions and the shortage of young male voices as well as the teaching of fundamental vocal techniques for conductors. Interdisciplinary aspects such as vocal physiology and vocal health will also be addressed. Additionally, there will be masterclasses for students in the areas of singing, acting, and career planning.

With contributions by: Nikolay Borchev (Nuremberg University of Music and Leipzig Academy of Music and Theatre),  Aviel Cahn (Grand Théâtre de Genève), Yin-Sung Chang (Seoul National University), Sangho Choi (Korea National Opera und Korea National University of Arts), Simone Di Crescenzo (University of Bologna), Peter Edelmann (University  of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), Titus Engel (conductor), Nicolò Umberto Foron (conductor), Arnold Jacobshagen (Cologne University of Music and Dance), Peter Heilker (Theater an der Wien), Vesselina Kasarova (Seoul National University of Music), Michael Kraus (Vienna State Opera), Peter Konwitschny (stage director), Francesco Lanzillotta (conductor), So-Young Lee (Korea National Opera), Alexander Mayr (University  of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), Marie McLaughlin (National Opera Studio, London), Andrew Moravcsik (Princeton University), Dirk Mürbe (Charité – University Hospital Berlin), MeeAe Nam (Eastern Michigan University), Sebastian Schwarz (Opera Europa), Min-Kyu Song (Seoul National University), Sebastian Stauss (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich), Kwangchul Youn (Opera singer).

More than twenty years after EMA‘s conference Kinderoper: Ästhetische Herausforderung und pädagogische Verpflichtung, this art form is now being re-evaluated from a multidisciplinary perspective to assess its current position, reflect on developments, and address challenges.

Programme:
Spielräume der Fantasie

International conference in cooperation with the MusikTheater an der Wien

December 11- 13, 2024

„Well-made theater for children is always also theater for parents, and, in my opinion, ‚opera for adults‘ is suitable for children and young people. The key is taking the audience seriously and challenging their capacity for reception, rather than catering to clichés.” In 2004, Gerhard Schedl implicitly identified a fundamental characteristic of children’s opera with his demands for it, a trait that is generally also constitutive of children’s literature and proves to be a hallmark of children’s opera as well: the dual address.
From a multidisciplinary perspective, both researchers and practitioners examine developments, productions, contemporary formats for the big stage, and small narrative forms in their aesthetic diversity, and discuss frameworks, challenges, and experiences.

https://www.theater-wien.at/de/spielplan/saison2024-25/1485/Spielraeume-der-Fantasie

July 30-31, 2023, Fondazione Paolo Grassi, Martina Franca, Italy

European Academy of Music Theatre in cooperation with the Festival della Valle d’Itria (https://www.festivaldellavalleditria.it).

The symposium will discuss the current situation of the genre from various different viewpoints, rooted both in theory and in practice, with international renowned speakers. Neither portraits of creators nor individual productions are in the focus of the conference. It will comprise topics such as the fundamental question of the contemporary relevance of operetta, the staging between considering the genre a historical phenomenon and new inventive ways, creative attempts at renewal of the genre, the situation of specific training for the singers and challenges for the performers, and will conclude in an overview of the international reception.

Speakers: Micaela Baranello, Lotte de Beer, Jan Henric Bogen, Kevin Clarke, Peter Edelmann, Ladislav Elgr, Stefan Frey, Roland Geyer, Ignacio Jassa Haro, Daniel Hirschel, Alexander Joel, Peter Konwitschny, Josef E. Köpplinger, Theresa Kronthaler, Marco Ladd, Peter Lund, Fabio Luisi, Giorgio Madia, Marc Minkowski, Elena Oliva, Daniel Prohaska, Ildikó Raimondi, Sebastian Schwarz, Emanuele Senici, Michele Spotti, Alessandro Talevi, Susanne Vill.

Programming: Isolde Schmid-Reiter, Sebastian Schwarz

European Academy of Music Theatre in cooperation with the Grand Théâtre de Genève

December 16th, 2022

Starting from a fundamental exploration of the differentiation of the term “Belcanto” and a discussion of its historical scope, this conference complements the already considered singers’ educational program and its technical and aesthetic aspects mainly by focusing on the question how artists today recreate this complex phenomenon and reinterpret the particularities of historical sound ideals. How can performers reconcile historical aspects of vocal artistry and the conventions of modern singing as well as the requirements set for voices in the current opera business? How can virtuosity and credibility on stage be combined? Given the multi-perspective nature of music theatre, the conference additionally addresses the staging of the musical language of Belcanto, and reflects on the current practice of today’s performances, in particular with respect to the role of the prima donna.

Speakers: Daniela Barcellona, Peter Berné, Aviel Cahn, Guy Cherqui, Mariame Clément, Elsa Dreisig, Peter Heilker, Arnold Jacobshagen, Moshe Leiser, Damiano Michieletto, Ernesto Palacio, Andrea Sanguineti, Emanuele Senici, Thomas Seedorf, Robert Toft, Claudio Vellutini, Susanne Vill

Programming: Isolde Schmid-Reiter, Aviel Cahn

The conference on contemporary opera, ZEITGENÖSSISCHE OPER. POSITIONEN. TENDENZEN. PERSPEKTIVEN, scheduled for June 24 and 25 in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera, will be postponed due to the governmental restrictions on events, which have been installed to curb the spread of SARS-CoV19.Stay tuned for further information on a new date.

16 & 17 November 2018, Opera GhentOpera Vlaanderen (Ghent/Antwerp, www.operaballet.be) and the European Academy of Music Theatre are organizing the international conference Music Theatre in Motion
. Reflections on Dance in Opera on 16 and 17 November 2018 in Ghent on the occasion of the first night of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s direction and choreography of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha.Although Opera and Dance have a rich joint history, the operatic landscape nowadays offers new forms of artistic interchange between both genres. Due to the more intensive collaboration between directors and choreographers, new perspectives of the interpretation and conceptualisation of dance have reached opera.
 The goal of this symposium is to create a dialogue between internationally renowned researchers and new themes and findings on the one hand, and the vision of artists on the other hand. Both from historical examples as well as from contemporary productions, artistic tendencies will be analysed and discussed. In addition, artistic, conceptual as well as organisational aspects will be covered and the innovative character of new synergies between opera and dance will be pointed out. 
The conference is held in English.1 MBMusic Theatre in Motion – Programme

April 10 & 11, 2017, Vienna State OperaThe conference aims to reflect the art of Wagnerian singing, in the basic questions as well as in details, from a scientific perspective as well as from practical experience. Are the criteria for singing Wagner different from those for the operatic singing in general? If so, what is the specific challenge of singing Wagner? How is a “Wagner voice” defined, and what fundamental characteristics determine a so-called “big voice”, which is necessary for Wagner and whose absence has always been and continues to be brought about?Wagner’s own ideas and ideals are again questioned in this context: the “Worttonmelodie der menschlichen Stimme”— which Wagner writes about in Oper und Drama—as a symbiosis of “Wortsprache” and “Tonsprache”, his notion of “Gesangswohllaut” and “vaterländischer Belcanto”, and the question of the “singing actor” in the Heldenfach are presented amongst others in contributions from international researchers and internationally renowned Wagner interpreters from a historical as well as a contemporary perspective

.A masterclass with Deborah Polaski concludes the conference, bringing together theory and practice—a fundamental aim of the Academy’s symposia.

Speakers and discussion participants

Piotr Beczala, Aviel Cahn (Opera Vlaanderen), John Deathridge (King’s College London), Angela Denoke, Tatjana Gürbaca, Kasper Holten, Clemens Hellsberg (Wiener Philharmoniker), Germinal Hilbert (Hilbert Artists Management), Tomasz Konieczny, Thomas Lausmann (Wiener Staatsoper), Marjana Lipovšek, Laurenz Lütteken (Universität Zürich), Christoph Ulrich Meier (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien), Dominique Meyer, Andrew Moravcsik (Princeton University), Stephan Mösch (Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe), Dirk Mürbe (Universitätsklinikum Dresden), Deborah Polaski, Thomas Seedorf (Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe), David Trippett (University of Cambridge), Susanne Vill (Universität Bayreuth), Christopher Ventris, Simone Young; Deborah Polaski’s masterclass will involve students from Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien.656 kBProgramme „Worttonmelodie der menschlichen Stimme“. Die Herausforderung, Wagner zu singen