Training

Methodology: Feedback sessions and workshops, Make-up and styling, Resilience, Mental preparation, Body awareness, Dummy auditions with recordings (Opera + Contemporary ensemble)

Period of the EOA module in 2024 – 2025: 

5 May 2025 to 9 May 2025

Open for:

Maximum 8 vocal students

Deadline for applications:

• 30 November 2024

Description of the module:

A. Group feedback sessions with teachers and professionals 

Staff members of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and professionals in the field will listen to your auditions, record them and give individual feedback. The material will be available for you to add to your portfolio. 

• Dummy audition internal + feedback of the jury (Roberta Alexander, Susanne Schmidt, etc.)
• Spatial awareness, movement coaching by choreographer Darren Ross
• Make-up hair, outfit, … instruction workshop (Lieven Baert)
• Lecture about the psychology of music performance (Bert De Kuyper)
• Audition at OBV (Opera Ballet Flanders) + feedback and video recording
• Audition with Hyoid (contemporary vocal music ensemble)
• Feedback session 
• Preparing the paperwork for an audition (CV, motivation letter, …)

Name of the professors of this module: Sabrina Avantario, Anne Cambier, Michèle Losier, Gary Jankowski, Luc Anthonis, Roberta Alexander, Susanne Schmidt, Darren Ross, Lieven Baert, Bert De Kuyper, Fabienne Seveillac, Els Mondelaers

B. Workshop resilient artist, performance psychology 

Nowadays, you will find very few top athletes who are not surrounded by a team of experts such as coaches, (para)medics, nutritionists and sports psychologists. In the music world, however, this remains largely an oddity, even though professional musicians have very strong similarities with professional athletes. They too are in a stress-sensitive profession that requires hard work and discipline in addition to talent. Being mentally strong – in thinking, feeling and doing – is as important for professional musicians as it is for top athletes. In his book and workshop ‘Making music is top-sport’, Bert De Cuyper provides essential frames of reference from (sports) psychology that can help musicians at all levels to increase their self-knowledge and strengthen their self-management. These handles cover the whole alphabet, from a to z, from fear to self-confidence. Stage fright, mental resilience, perfectionism, overtraining, developing and monitoring stress-recovery balance, … it’s all covered. 

Name of the professor of this module: Bert de Cuyper (TBC): Prof. Em. KU Leuven – Performance Psychology at LUCA School of Arts

C. Walk like an artist, stand like an artist. 

Darren Ross studied at the Laban Centre for Mouvement and Dance in London. In 1988, he moved to France where he joined the ‘Compagnie de Brigitte Farges’ and from 1992 he danced in the ‘Compagnie Larsen’. It was with this dance company that he came into contact with opera. In 1998, he signed his first opera choreography for La traviata. This was also the starting shot for a long-standing collaboration with director Jean-Claude Berutti. Together they signed for La Bague magique (Giovanna Marini), Faust, Rusalka, La bohème, Wiener Blut, Otello and Tannhaüser. They also regularly worked together for spoken theatre. For Marguerite Borie, he designed the choreography of Salome for the opera houses of Monte Carlo, Liège and Vienna. In Belgium, he is a regular guest at De Munt Brussels, among others, where he signed for the choreography of Weisse Rose/Zimmermann and of The Golden Vanity/Benjamin Britten, both directed by Caroline Petrick. Together with Benjamin Van Torhout, he worked on Raisonnez and Het geslacht Borgia, performed in Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Bruges. For Compagnie Arsenic and Axel De Boosere, he choreographed Le dragon and Le Géant de Kaillass. In 2006, he directed Mozart unfinished/Mozart inachevé for Pantalone & de Munt/La Monnaie Brussels and Dschungel Vienna. He also choreographed Joachim Brackx’s Requiem for the Gods. This creation was a co-production of Nabla muziektheater & Concertgebouw Brugge. In Budapest, New York and Berlin, Le nozze di Figaro was performed under the musical direction of Iván Fischer and with choreography by Darren Ross.

Darren will provide feedback to participants on their posture and movements on stage.

Names of the professors of this module:

• Darren Ross 

D. How you present yourself in front of a panel

Instruction workshop regarding make-up, hair, outfit, … instruction workshop 

Names of the professors of this module:

• Lieven Baert

Lieven Baert is a professional choreographer, dance teacher, performer and theatre director. During his 30-year career he has danced, choreographed and directed period dance productions in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States. He has been a visiting professor at Stockholm University, Stanford University in the United States and has taught historical dance at the University of Madrid Re Juan Carlos since 2003. Since 1997 he has been the choreographer of the Landshuter Hochzeit 1475, Germany’s largest historical festival. Since 2003 he has also been the permanent director of the Brussels Operetta Theater. He also works on awareness and youth programs for the Royal Ballet School of Belgium and the Royal Opera of Flanders.

Number of teaching/production hours of the EOA module

2-5 hours of individual tuition & 45 hours of group work

Number of ECTS within master accreditation

3 ECTS 

ATTENTION! If students want to do this within an Erasmus+ Short Blended Mobility, they must contact their local International Coordinator and Charlotte.saelemakers@ap.be as soon as possible. 

Entrance examination

Motivation letter and video 

Description of the final examination

Evaluation based on daily participation in workshops and dummy auditions

Teaching language

English – level 3

• This module is also available within Erasmus short blended mobility exchange during the academic year 2024/25, depending on the grants offered by the home institution.
• Students must provide their own accommodation, meals and travelling cost