Savannah VOICE Festival Serves Community With Partnerships And Free Events During Their Twelfth Season This August

For its 12th “Homecoming” season, the Savannah VOICE Festival (SVF) is serving the community by collaborating with community partners and making the vocal arts accessible to once again through outreach and free events. The season includes festival venue partnerships with nonprofit organizations including Yamacraw Performing Arts Center, The Davenport House Museum, and The Demere Center for Living/Hospice Savannah. 

Free events include “VOICES in Sacred Song” at First Baptist Church, 223 Bull Street on Wednesday, August 14 at 6:30 p.m. Timothy L. Hall and the Festival artists offer with afternoon of musical inspiration and comfort in the beautiful sanctuary of Savannah's First Baptist Church. SVF's mission is serving the community through outreach events in area schools, community centers, and for local charities. Free educational events and master classes are a way to provide training for aspiring young artists and foster new audiences for the vocal arts. 

“We always give back to the community as a vital part of our mission and are pleased to be continuing our long-standing community partnerships during this year's Festival,” said Chad Sonka, Education and Outreach Director of SVF. “It is important to us that we continue to show our appreciation to the city and residents that welcomed us over 12 years ago.”

2024's free “Masters in VOICE” series will be held at the Demere Center for Living, which is located at 6000 Business Center Dr. These master classes give audiences an inside look at the preparation and performance of the operatic style of singing by renowned operatic professionals. Each of the master classes listed below will be held at 1 p.m. 

• Tuesday, Aug. 6 at the Demere Center for Living:

A pre-festival/Studio event hosted by Maria Zouves, President and Co-Founder of the Sherrill Milnes VOICE Programs, VOICExperience Foundation, and the Savannah VOICE Festival. 

• Friday, Aug. 9 at the Demere Center for Living:

Renowned stage director Fabrizio Melano, along with psychotherapist Laura Melano Flanagan, share their unmatched expertise with a new generation of artists, taking the dramatic aspects of music to another level for the audience to enjoy.

• Thursday, Aug. 15 at the Demere Center for Living: 

Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor, Yale Presidential scholar, renowned pianist, and vocal coach Howard Watkins works with our studio artists as part of this educational series.

“When Sherrill and I founded the Milnes VOICE Programs, we wanted education and outreach to be the focal point in every initiative we started. Now, it is the very foundation of our programs and we have found such joy in partnering with the local community and serving the young artists in it,” said Maria Zouves, Co-Founder and President of the Milnes VOICE programs. 

Savannah VOICE Festival is a 501(c) 3 tax exempt nonprofit arts organization in the state of Georgia. The Festival brings classical vocal excellence to the Savannah area through a two-week celebration of concerts, events, and educational presentations during the month of August and throughout the year. Focusing on arts awareness and audience development in the performing arts, it offers music from opera, musical theatre, and popular song. The Savannah VOICE Festival is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly. GCA is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Donations are tax-deductible.

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