Brent Michael Smith, AVA Class of 2020, Performs from Home

As quarantine wears on, we become more sadly aware of the costs on our beloved performing arts. But hard is it has been on the Met and opera stars, imagine for a moment what this all means for young emerging classical musicians.

The Academy of Vocal Arts Class of 2020 includes seven highly gifted singers, already with professional credits, who were engaged in polishing their work at the highest level, and ready to ramp up their careers.

The reality of our dormant spring offers them little professional opportunity. Even the in-person farewell recital that they—and the significant fan base they built here during their Philadelphia residencies—deserve cannot be held due to social distancing guidelines.

But all is not lost. AVA met the challenge with a delightful, if necessarily truncated, video recital that allowed each singer to participate in the now-familiar Zoom platform…

Read the full post at Parterre Box.