Miami Music Festival Launches Second Season of Miami Wagner Institute

Miami Music Festival (MMF) is proud to announce the second season of their prestigious Miami Wagner Institute, welcoming Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Brewer and returning bass-baritone Alan Held to MMF's team of internationally acclaimed faculty, to teach and perform with eight rising dramatic stars. The Institute, which runs July 3-22, will culminate in a concert July 22 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. In a continuation of last year's program, the concert features Die Walküre Act I in its entirety and the Act III finale, with Brewer as Brünnhilde and Held reprising his role as Wotan, alongside Wagner Institute singers and the MMF Symphony Orchestra conducted by MMF Artistic Director Michael Rossi.

After a rigorous international audition tour fielding unprecedented applicant interest, MMF selected eight outstanding talents for this year's Institute. Featured artists for the 2017 season include tenor Dominic Armstrong as Siegmund (2013 George London Foundation Winner), soprano Elizabeth Baldwin as Sieglinde (Chautauqua, Merola), bass Soloman Howard as Hunding (Metropolitan Opera, Domingo-Cafritz), contralto Julia Benzinger (Deutsch Oper Berlin), soprano Megan Nielson, mezzo sopranos Kristine Dandavino and Rehanna Thelwell, and tenor Matthew Arnold (Castleton, North Carolina Opera, Chautauqua).

Last summer's debut season of the Wagner Institute premiered to rave reviews, with a final performance heralded as "the high point of MMF's third season... the parade of young Wagnerian singers trained to perfection" (KNIGHT ARTS FOUNDATION), "words fall short to praise this representation," (EL NUEVO HERALD) and "much to be welcomed and celebrated," (Palm Beach ARTS POST).

The Miami Wagner Institute is an elite tuition-free program for young professional dramatic singers with the aim to provide training and professional-level performance opportunities for the unique demands of the dramatic singer. At the same time, the Institute serves Miami audiences by filling a unique programming niche and bringing Wagner's music and his unique concept of the operatic art form to Miami after a long absence. During this three-week intensive program, participants prepare and rehearse a staged and costumed Wagnerian production with orchestra, while undertaking a curriculum of voice instruction, coachings, public seminars, and masterclasses led by a faculty of the world's most in-demand Wagnerian singers and specialists from leading operatic institutions including Brewer, Held, and Peter Grunberg, among other distinguished professionals. An extension of the MMF Opera Institute's Professional Division, the Wagner Institute is a groundbreaking initiative in the classical community, giving the next generation of Wagnerian singers a place to hone their craft while providing South Florida audiences the rare opportunity to experience Wagner's music through live performances, classes, and lectures.

Through their continuous and generous partnerships, Miami Music Festival is proud to call Barry University its home campus and The Betsy-South Beach it's official hotel, with major concerts performed at both venues, as well as the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Miami Music Festival is made possible through partial grant funding and sponsorship including assistance from Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, Culture Builds Florida, The Miami Foundation, The Plutzik Goldwasser Family Foundation, and Steinway Piano Gallery, Coral Gables.

Miami Wagner Institute is made possible through sponsorships from the Pohanka Family Auto Group, Firestone Family Foundation, and Miami Salon Group.

For a complete listing of artists, concerts and performance dates and locations visit the Festival's website at www.miamimusicfestival.com.

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