Performances + Events
Voice and Opera
Apply your skills by participating in the many performance opportunities for vocalists at NEC, including opera productions, opera scene programs, workshops of new operas, Liederabend Song Series performances, and choral concerts, including major works with orchestra and student soloists.
Undergraduate Opera Studio
The Undergraduate Opera Studio (UGOS) is a specialized undergraduate-only program unique to NEC. It offers an introduction to performance skills in opera and lyric theater and the discipline of being a professional singer by providing practical opera performance opportunities chosen for each individual and cultivated in a supportive and accepting professional learning environment. UGOS is an annually auditioned ensemble open to undergraduate voice students who have passed their first-year promotional exam. Students who are admitted to the performance ensemble of UGOS will have musical coachings and stagings with world-class faculty, culminating in a scenes program in the first semester and a complete one-act or full opera in the second semester. Recent productions include Hansel und Gretel, Die Fledermaus, Così fan tutte, and L’Elisir d’Amore.
Graduate Opera Studies
The Graduate Opera Department at NEC is a unique, exciting program dedicated to helping each singer reach their full performance potential. Our world-class faculty is committed to working with each student individually, addressing their specific needs as a developing young singer. The curriculum includes movement and acting classes, a performance skills class (Opera Workshop), regular coaching with our extraordinary faculty, and many performance opportunities.
These include fully designed and produced opera productions, semi-staged productions, scenes and aria programs, outreach productions, workshopping new works in development, and more. The repertoire is designed to help students acquire the skills necessary to deliver honest and imaginative performances. Our repertoire is drawn from the full cannon, and we expose singers to various styles and languages. Recent repertoire has included La Calisto (Cavalli), Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), An American Dream (Perla), L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Ravel), La bohème (Puccini), Svadba (Sokolovic), The Turn of the Screw (Britten) and L’Arbore di Diana (Soler).
Song and Verse
Inaugurated in the fall of 2020, the Song and Verse recital series provides a platform for undergraduate singers at NEC to experience the unique and invigorating process of song preparation and performance — creating interpretations, building performance skills, and forging intellectual and musical connections with a wide literature.
Working closely with vocal arts faculty members, students will engage with rich traditions of song composition from around the globe.
Committed to diversity, our programs will feature established and emerging composers and poets from many cultures and traditions. This series creates new opportunities for students to participate in the singular type of storytelling unique to song.
Liederabend
The Liederabend — literally, “evening of song” — dates back to the 1800s, when musicians and lovers of music would gather at someone’s home and one or more singers and a pianist would perform the songs of composers of the day. In the field of classical music, these songs are referred to as “art songs,” and the German art songs are called “Lieder.” In Germany, the great age of song came in the 19th century. German and Austrian composers had written music for voice with keyboard before this time, but it was with the flowering of German literature in the Classical and Romantic eras that composers found high inspiration in great poetry, sparking the genre known as the “Lied.”
The tradition of the art song composition continues today, with composers from all corners of the world setting poetry in many languages, scored for voice and piano. The NEC Liederabend series presents songs in a variety of languages — not only German — dating from the 19th century to the present day.
Symphonic Choir
NEC’s Symphonic Choir allows students to perform music from all styles and periods of choral literature, extending beyond traditional Western masterpieces to the music of non-European cultures, from Native American chant to works from Asia and the Middle East. Each year, the Symphonic Choir gives several concerts, performing a cappella and with orchestra.
Chamber Singers
NEC Chamber Singers is an auditioned ensemble of 26-32 singers performing challenging works from all style periods, including a cappella and with instruments. This select choir performs several times a year on campus in NEC’s famed Jordan Hall and off campus at various venues in Boston. In recent years, the Chamber Singers have performed the works of many NEC faculty and student composers. All students, regardless of major and year, are welcome to audition at the start of the fall semester.
First and Second Year Undergraduate Voice Showcases
Each semester, first- and second-year undergraduate voice majors prepare and perform a variety of song repertoires at public showcase events. In addition to growing their skills in music and interpretive preparation, students learn to practice the skills of public speaking to engage with the audience through personal introductions and by sharing an overview of the context and story of the repertoire before sharing their performances. This practice-to-performance model will help build the necessary skill sets to excel in degree recitals, professional audition settings, and community outreach opportunities.
