MASTERCLASSES
This technique is about feeling; the physical body from the pelvic floor to the head, emotions, indeed everything that impacts your body. More than anything it is about feeling the breath. If you are an Opera or Oratorio singer, you will learn this and also be coached on your acting, and basic language in Italian, German, French, Greek, Spanish or Czech. Young singers will be given invaluable information on how to audition for young artists programs and for houses in Europe; everything from your repertoire to your clothes, to how to conduct yourself on your first contract. You will be able to do ongoing scene work with other singers in class. High school seniors will be prepared for their college auditions at performing arts universities and conservatories (see below).
If you are a Broadway singer, you will learn crystal clear diction and have the vocal stamina to sing circles around your colleagues, with a healthy belt that is never strained. You will have many tools to choose from through vocalise, physical exercises, and equipment, which will allow you to access your body and breath with ease. Ms. Bolshoi has a program to prepare graduating seniors for college auditions. See below.
THE BOLSHOI STUDIO has singers of every genre of music, beginner to advanced; Opera, Oratorio, Jazz, Country, Blues, Broadway, Liturgical, Rock and Pop. Ms. Bolshoi also shares her vast online music library of hundreds of full Opera scores and arias, Italian art songs and German lieder, full Broadway scores, thousands of songs in Pop, Rock and Blues, with all BOLSHOI STUDIO clients.
Ms. Bolshoi teaches masterclasses weekly, along with four voice teachers who she personally trained in her technique: Kate DiFonzo, Erin Pach, Kevin Patrick and Mathew Tartza. She espoused Friedelind Wagner’s philosophy that singers absorb technique with their eyes and not their ears, by feeling instead of listening. Watching other singers’ bodies as they work is invaluable. Technique cannot be intellectualized; singers will never improve that way. Watching other singers, who know how to breathe properly or who are learning to do so, creates the deepest learning experience. Even watching someone whose body wakes up to something you already know will teach you something about your body.
Classes run all year, in three 12-15 week sessions, January-April, May-August, September-December. The last class of every session is a concert, which is imperative for both the teacher and the singer. The concert enables us to see how much technique the singer was able to bring from the studio into performance. Then Ms. Bolshoi and the singer are in agreement on what needs to be focused on in the next session.
Classes are three hours on weeknights for adults and two hours on afternoons for teens/children. The structure of the class: The first half hour is vocalise and physical exercises, followed by individual work with each singer. The class participates with hands-on work to help the person singing solo pieces, or actively looks on.
PREPARATION FOR COLLEGE AUDITIONS
Ms. Bolshoi has personally prepared many singers for college auditions and has a 100% success rate! It is a grueling and expensive process, with the need for work with coaches as well as having private lessons. In 2022, Maya Watters was accepted to Eastman School of Music for Opera performance, Abigail Zellner was accepted to Berklee Conservatory for Musical Theatre, Peter Kunzelman was accepted to Marymount Manhattan for Musical Theatre, and Andrew Merkle was accepted to Rutgers for Musical Theatre. All four received scholarships, some of them staggering. Ms. Bolshoi has connections at several universities who are eager to accept more of her singers. She understands what colleges are looking for and goes beyond that, with singers who are more prepared than their peers.
PRIVATE LESSONS
There is a lot of bodywork to move through at the beginning of the journey to building a proper and healthy technique. Private lessons enable Ms. Bolshoi to zero in for a longer period on particular issues with the body and breath of a singer. The more she knows about what’s going on with you, the more she can help your body and breath move. Private lessons may be scheduled to supplement and enhance the singer’s experience in class. They are not meant to be ongoing, except for high level Opera and Broadway singers in the studio.
BOLSHOI STUDIO PIANISTS
Gabriel Lukijaniuk has been accompanying THE BOLSHOI STUDIO classes in NYC, Glen Ridge and Blairstown since 2018. He has been studying piano privately for 15 years. Additionally, he recently finished the voice performance program at Rutgers University where he studied under Eduardo Chama. At Rutgers, he sang with the Glee Club and Kirkpatrick Choir where he was featured as a soloist in Joseph Haydn’s Creation Mass. He also performed with the Opera Theatre at Rutgers in their productions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Pastore IV) and Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Snug). In 2017, Gabriel was selected to be in the high school honor choir at the ACDA National Conference in Minneapolis which was workshopped and conducted by Eric Whitacre. He is currently a member of the Philadelphia Symphonic Chorus led by Joe Miller and performs alongside the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In addition, Gabriel is the Baritone Emerging Young Artist at the Ars Musica chorale based in Ridgewood.