When a guest artist comes to town, that artist usually flies in, *maybe* gets a bit of rest, rehearses once or — luxury — twice, performs for a couple of hours max, and then leaves town.
SOLI Chamber Ensemble doesn't like that. So they invited the award-winning super-mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor to San Antonio for ten days: visiting young students and college students, doing master classes, and performing, culminating in a concert this Tuesday the 20th at Trinity University, a concert that'll include two world premieres.
They dropped by our studio to perform and talk about this ten days of collaboration and creativity. Says O'Connor, "We're working with the students; sometimes they want to sing a song for me and then I do a master class with them, or we have workshops where the chorus maybe sings for me and we warm up together and we work on how they can have great stamina and sing in a healthy way in both choir and a soloist."
Her favorite part is the Q-and-A. "It's really important for these kids to get the info from the horse's mouth about what's really going on out there. I'm a working musician; I'm out there now, and I actually came up in a rather non-traditional way. And so I think it's good for them to hear that there's not one road to success and that there are many different versions of success."
Ten days of visiting, encouraging, performing, and having some good tacos: a welcome change for a harried classical performer in today's world.
Tuesday's concert is free and open to the public.
7:30 pm, Trinity University, Tuesday Jan 20th
solichamberensemble.com
