A Mountain View High junior is fast becoming the voice of her generation — at least when it comes to opera singing.
Laura Wise was chosen earlier this summer to attend the Washington National Opera Institute for Young Singers, a selective and prestigious program designed to train young voices for professional work in opera.
Wise, now 16, has been singing since she was 11 and doing classical voice work since she was 13. She was selected from well over a hundred singers who auditioned nationally. This year, only 28 students made it into the three-week program.
At the institute’s most recent program, which ran in June and July at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Wise and other students studied operatic classics and took classes in singing, drama and movement. For the aspiring singers, it was a chance to be coached and mentored by vocal instructors of the highest caliber, and to meet other students who share their passion for opera.
Wise said she auditioned on a lark, sending in a tape her father had made at one of her recitals.
“I didn’t have any expectations,” she said. “I knew that there were a lot of people auditioning, many older and more experienced. When I did get that letter, I was entirely surprised. … I hadn’t wanted to get my hopes up.”
Wise has performed with the Cantabile Youth Singers and the children’s chorus for Opera San Jose. She said she’s always liked music, but that opera particularly resonates with her. The first night she sang with Opera San Jose, she was dumbstruck by the sound as she waited backstage.
“Opera caught and held my attention because it expresses emotions in such a beautiful way,” she said.
Wise, a soprano with a broad vocal range, has studied art songs but has not yet attempted arias. With their breathless runs of sixteenth notes, arias require a certain level of stamina that can be taxing on a young voice. Art songs, often simpler and less demanding, serve as a good preparation for the kind of vocal acrobatics that arias require.
In fact, the audition guidelines for the institute explicitly state that students are not to perform arias. Wise gladly paid heed, showcasing a selection of Italian and Russian art songs she’d performed at her recital. She had a particular affinity for the Russian piece, she said.
Wise was exuberant about her time at the institute. She was thrilled to have met such a cross-section of people who, like her, have devoted their lives to the art form.
It’s funny, she said, that while some people “had had a lot of recital experience, others had never even seen an opera.” She thought she fell somewhere in the middle.
Now that her stint at the institute is up, Wise is unsure whether she will pursue a career in opera.
“I’m testing it out right now,” she said. “It’s such a demanding career and you have to develop yourself so much. It takes a lot of confidence and such a powerful voice; I don’t know yet if I could work my voice to that point.”
E-mail Melody Dye at mdye@mv-voice.com
