“We’ve got students coming from all over the country, even from Canada,” said McCorvey. “And we hope to begin bringing even more students from Europe and other places. I think the word about the program has gotten out.” is year, UK gained even more recruiting appeal when it lured renowned lyric soprano Cynthia Lawrence to join the faculty as the Endowed Chair for Vocal Performance. Lawrence, known as one of America’s best “singing actresses,” has shared the stage with opera luminaries Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo and she stars oen in principal roles, including acclaimed appearances as Lady MacBeth, Madame Butterfly, and Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera and other revered companies throughout the world. It was a visit to UK’s campus in late 2008 that convinced Lawrence to make the leap from full-time professional performance career to academia. “When I worked with the students, I found such amazing talent here — and voices — and eagerness to learn,” said Lawrence, who teaches at UK while continuing to perform actively. Lawrence has a full teaching load of 30 students this semester, as she picks up students from McCorvey’s studio, while he takes time off to prepare the opening and
UK celebrated the opening of the Schmidt Vocal Arts Center rehearsal hall on Rose Street.
closing ceremonies for the upcoming 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, and from Lugo’s studio, while she’s on sabbatical leave completing work through a Fulbright Grant in Brazil.
Photo: Tate Carlson
district level winners including UK doctoral candidate Eric Brown, who won at the most recent district competition held annually at Memorial Hall; four regional winners; and one national winner, tenor Gregory Turay, who graduated from UK in 1996 and has gone on to a world-class career, including 10 consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. While Turay’s star shines the brightest, several other former UK students have launched impressive performance careers in their own right: Brandy Lynn Hawkins is now performing with the Washington National Opera’s young artist program; Corey Crider is at the Chicago Lyric Opera; Patricia Andress is a regular performer at Oper Bremen in Germany; Judd Perry is at the Hessisches Staatshtheater in Wiesbaden, Germany; Norman Reinhardt is in Leipzig, Germany; and Reshma Shetty stared in the first Broadway tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bombay Dreams” in 2006 and now has a leading role in the USA Network television series “Royal Pains.” In addition, the program’s Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition, which awards free tuition and over $300,000 in prize money and stipends annually to graduate and undergraduate winners, allows it to annually attract the nation’s best singers to Kentucky.
Cynthia Lawrence
Lawrence will be busy. But that’s how she likes it. “I like the intensity of the collective mind, of everybody sharing and working together and getting their mojo feedback from everybody,” she said. “It’s a very active thing, teaching and learning how to sing.” And while balancing her demanding dual-role as a teacher and performer, Lawrence plans to do her part to spread the word about UK Opera. “e reputation is out there,” she said. “If I have anything to do with it, people will have nowhere else in the world to think about going but UK.”