Behind the Screen with Bel Canto Boot Camp: The Singer’s Process; The Big Debut with Megan Esther Grey

Rachelle Jonck received her musical training at the Conservatory of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. In her native country she was awarded a FNB/Vita award for her contribution to opera in South Africa and the Nederburg Opera Prize – South Africa’s premier opera award.

Rachelle moved to New York City as Head Vocal Coach and Assistant Conductor of Bel Canto at Caramoor. Her private coaching studio includes established professionals whose careers take them to the largest opera houses of the world, and younger singers still on the verge of a professional career. Her master class topics, while related to her main study field of bel canto, explore the wider application of the bel canto way of singing. rachellejonck.com

Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

Derrick Goff is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and has returned as member of the MET music staff. He has enjoyed many years of collaboration at Teatro Nuovo, a continuation of the young artist program of Bel Canto at Caramoor, where he is resident as a coach, chorusmaster, and Italian teacher. In addition to his work as a pianist, coach, and conductor, Derrick holds degrees in organ and voice from Westminster Choir College, and is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Photo: Jiyang Chen

Missouri-born tenor Steven Tharp’s operatic credits include performances with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Netherlands Opera, among many other houses. Handel and Mozart are well represented in Mr. Tharp’s repertoire of more than 60 operatic parts, and his keen interest in 18th- and early 19th-century opera has led to many roles in operas of Gluck, Haydn, Scarlatti, Conti, and others. In concert, Mr. Tharp has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra, among others. His concert repertoire includes the Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Haydn masterpieces of the 18th and 19th century and extends to Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder, the Verdi Requiem, and Britten’s War Requiem. A dedicated song recitalist, Mr. Tharp has appeared at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, venues in Europe, Japan, and South America. His interest in musical theater and cabaret led to his appearance in 3 Tenors in Search of an Act in a sold-out run at Don’t Tell Mama in New York. Steven has recorded for Decca, Delos, Newport, Albany and Naxos, earning a Grammy Award nomination. He has also served as stage director for the Manhattan School of Music and for Caramoor. He lives in Columbia, Missouri with his adorable Westie, Hector, and is Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Missouri. 

A recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mezzo Soprano Megan Esther Grey hails from Iowa and is quickly becoming gaining attention in roles large and small across the United States. The 2019-2020 season marked large milestones for Megan, including her Metropolitan Opera debut as Kate Pinkerton in the Anthony Minghella production of Madama Butterfly and appearances as 2nd Lady in Julie Taymor’s Magic Flute. In February she made her recital debut in the prestigious Park Armory Recital Series singing Mahler’s Rückert Lieder and selections from Dominick Argento’s From the Diary of Virginia Woolf.  

Summer 2020 brings Megan’s return to Wolf Trap Opera. While her appearance as Carolina in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers was canceled due to COVID-19, her involvement with the opera company during this time is filled with the important work of pioneering ways for artists to safely perform during the Coronavirus pandemic. Megan can be seen in the “Into the Woods” project as Fricka in Die Walküre and as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, which will make their online debuts during Fall of 2020. 

Megan’s summer of 2019 saw rave reviews for her debuts at Wolf Trap Opera as The Drummer in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Hippocratine in Gluck’s L’Île de Merlin. Having sung “impressively and with notable flexibility” (Anne Midgette, Washington Post), she was also praised while she “demonstrated remarkable calm while projecting power as the island’s doctor… and she showed some good moves coming down the slide” (Opera Gene). Of her appearance as Der Trommler, Opera News remarked, “…Grey sounded like a Wagnerian-in-waiting, her tone steely and secure.”  

Megan has also made a mark on the West Coast as a participant in the prestigious Merola Opera Program in summer of 2018. Her voice described as “potent and precise” (SFChronicle), she was also lauded for her performances in the Schwabacher Summer Series, especially as her portrayal of Erika from Samuel Barber’s Vanessa. “The rich-toned mezzo-soprano Megan (Esther) Grey had already shown her merits in the opening scene of Barber’s ‘Vanessa,’ shaping the aria ‘Must the winter come so soon’ with a tender expressivity that would have been harder to come by in isolation” (SFGate.) “Then, against all the preceding histrionics, Grey created a hush in the hall with a sensitive, affecting performance of the aria ‘Must the winter come so soon?’” (San Francisco Chronicle.) 

Distinguished in competition, Megan was a Grand Finalist in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions of 2018, a winner of Opera Index’s Walter’s Award in 2018, 2nd place winner in The Classical Singer competition, 2016 Presser Scholarship recipient, and 2015 winner of the St. Paul Schubert Club’s annual scholarship Competition.  

Originally from Cedar Falls, Iowa, Megan completed both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the University of Northern Iowa. She began her vocal studies at the age of 16 under the mentorship of Dr. Jean McDonald, who she studied with for both of her degrees at UNI. Originally a cellist, Megan spent most of her undergraduate degree performing in symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as the university’s vocal ensembles. An avid educator, Megan was a graduate teaching assistant in voice during her final year of her MM and is also a registered Suzuki cello instructor for Pretwinkle and cello book one students.