Shepherdsville Soprano Kelly Ballou Sings at Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar

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Kelly Ballou, a soprano from Shepherdsville, KY, will be featured in the 2013 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.

POTSDAM, NY (04/30/2013)(readMedia)-- Kelly Ballou, a soprano from Shepherdsville, Ky., is among only nine rising musicians chosen from a national search to take part in the 2013 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar.

Now in its second season, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar will feature the local artist in masterclasses and concerts from May 20 to May 26, at The Crane School of Music at The State University of New York at Potsdam. Audiences will be able to take in world-class recital performances throughout the week.

Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe '92 co-founded the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, along with Executive Director Dr. Carleen Graham, a professor of opera at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. The unique program, which is in residence at the College, is a venue for emerging singers and pianists to cultivate their artistry through contemporary American art song.

Six singers and three pianists (ages 23 to 35) were selected from a competitive national audition to work with Blythe and Music Director Dr. Alan Smith, a noted pianist, vocal coach and composer.

The 2013 Fall Island participants include:

• Kelly Ballou, a soprano from Shepherdsville, Ky.
• Bretton Brown, a pianist from Murray, Ky.
• Andrew Fuchs, a tenor from Kansas City, Mo.
• Bradley King, a baritone from Denton, Texas
• Laura Mercado-Wright, a mezzo-soprano from Austin, Texas
• Diana Newman, a soprano from Malibu, Calif.
• Yi Kai Sim, a pianist from Singapore
• Peter Walsh, a pianist from San Diego, Calif.
• Jennifer Youngs, a soprano from Overland Parks, Kan.

The nine emerging artists will take part in an immersive series of coaching sessions, masterclasses, lectures and recitals. The Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar is aimed at reinvigorating individual artistry through American art song, by energizing emerging artists of unique and promising ability.

Blythe and her frequent collaborator Craig Terry will present "We'll Meet Again: The Songs of Kate Smith" at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music on Tuesday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m, in a special performance to benefit the seminar. The recital was featured on a recent PBS broadcast of "Live from Lincoln Center."

Tickets for "We'll Meet Again" are $25 for the general public and $20 for SUNY Potsdam faculty, staff and students. All proceeds will benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. Contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277 or visit www.cpspotsdam.org to purchase tickets.

There will be two public masterclasses featuring Blythe and Smith working with the Fall Island participants, on Thursday, May 23 and Friday, May 24. The public masterclasses will both be held from 10 a.m. to noon in Snell Theater.

"The Music of Alan Louis Smith," a lecture-recital featuring the composer and the seminar participants, will be offered on Thursday, May 23 at 7 p.m. in the Ralph Wakefield Recital Hall.

A culminating recital featuring the seminar participants will be held on Saturday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Snell Theater. These events are free, educational and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

About the musician:

Soprano Kelly Ballou is equally versed in operatic and concert repertoire and is an engaging recitalist. As an up-and-coming concert soloist, Ballou has performed such masterpieces as J.S. Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" and "Weihnachts-Oratorium," Orff's "Carmina Burana," Mozart's "Requiem," Poulenc's "Gloria," Handel's "Messiah," Monteverdi's "Vespers of 1610," Boccherini's "Stabat Mater" and Vivaldi's "Gloria." She is contracted regularly by the period ensemble Bourbon Baroque, and is developing a reputation as a rising star in the early music community. Her operatic credits include Susanna in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," Yum Yum in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado," Constance in Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites," La Paix in Charpentier's "Les Arts Florissants," Gretel in Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel," Belinda in Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas," and Amahl in Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors." In 2013, Ballou also makes her Kennedy Center debut, as Arthèbuze in Charpentier's "Actéon" with Opera Lafayette. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where she earned the Emilie Dieterle Award, under the tutelage of Karen Lykes. She has been a part of numerous young artist programs, including the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble, Opera Lafayette, the Amherst Early Music Festival Baroque Academy, the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College, and the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien, Austria. Ballou is a three-time winner of regional National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions, was a Rossini Award recipient at the 2008 Orpheus Vocal Competition, and was a finalist in both the 2010 Bethlehem Bach Competition and the 2013 FAVA Grand Concours de Chant.

About the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar:

Now in its second season, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar provides a venue for emerging professional singers and collaborative pianists to hone their love of art song and the collaborative experience. Led by Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe as Artistic Director, and Music Director Alan Smith, along with Executive Director Carleen Graham and Associate Director Audrey Saccone, the seminar has invited six singers and three pianists to Potsdam, N.Y., for a week of intimate and intensive study. All music performed will feature an American composer.

To learn more about the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.fallisland.org.

About The Crane School of Music:

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

For more information about The Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

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