TEN THINGS WE LEARNED...

AT THE AMALFI COAST MUSIC FESTIVAL
--Barbara Jacksier and Everett Chasen --

We recently attended the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts festival along with several other Friends of Music, including our Chair, Alice Heyer.

(Patricia Miller checks a score while Alice Heyer chats with Katelyn Sexton and Mia Rojas)

The festival, now in its fourteenth year, brings together teachers and students from throughout the United States and elsewhere to rehearse and perform classical music together, with an emphasis on instrumental music and piano (for the first two weeks of the festival) and voice (for the last two weeks.)

(Adrianna Sgarlata rehearsing for her role as Susanna in Figaro Night 2)

Nine George Mason vocal students (the largest contingent from any school) took part in the vocal program, led by Professor Patricia Miller. The festival culminated in three rapturously received performances of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, with many Mason students taking leading roles in each performance.

(Cast of Figaro Night#1-Stepahnie Edewaard, Darrick Speller and Jessica Buckman)

Here are some (slightly tongue-in-cheek) lessons we learned while attending the festival--

(Alia Waheed as Desdemona)

1. The difference in singing quality between a talented graduate student and a professional singer is virtually indistinguishable to the average listener.

(Virginia Opera's Joe Walsh and students)

2. Performing a Mozart opera is a team sport. No prima donnas need apply.

(Lakme duet - Stephanie Edewaard and Sun Yong Hong)

3. If you land in the airport in Rome, your bags will take forever to show up. If you land in Naples, your bags may never show up at all.

(Katelyn Sexton as Zerlina)

4. Letting the owner order for you in an Italian restaurant can result in some of the greatest meals of your life. It can also bankrupt you---but it will be worth it!

(Stephanie Edewaard with one of Campania's famous lemons)

5. Even twentysomethings need encouragement from adults. They also need regular servings of gelato.

(Donizetti duet - Jessica Buckman and Wayne Jennings)

6. Classical music is not dead: it’s alive and well and living in Northern Virginia and Julliard and Texas Tech and Queens College and Cal Poly Pomona and in dozens of other schools and colleges around the nation.

(Stephanie Edewaard -left- and Darrick Speller-center)

7. Master classes are the modern equivalent of trial by ordeal—interesting to watch but difficult to survive.

(Pre-performance dinner in Naples)

8. Never play “La Valse” for someone who once studied with the composer (Maurice Ravel) himself.

(Piano legend Aldo Ciccolini with master class student)

9. The Italian language has no word for “bedtime,” especially when it comes to small children.

(Mia Rojas as one of the Mikado's Three Little Maids)

10. George Mason’s music students are equal to, if not better than, students of any other music school in America. They are true international sensations. And they deserve our encouragement and support!

(Everett, Barbara, Wayne, Patricia and Darrick)