Students, from left, are Serafina Belletini, Julia Janowski, Augustine Ahn and Georgia Thomas. (Provided photo — Naj Wikoff)

When attending an opera or a Broadway show, the chances are good that a Seagle Festival graduate will be singing their heart out on the big stage. They didn’t get there by accident or luck; for many, critical was learning how to sell themselves at Seagle’s “finishing school.”

When I graduated from Pratt, I had no idea how to launch a career as an artist. Graduates of performing schools like Julliard, medical schools and many other professions face a similar dilemma: how to get a job or launch a career. While the Seagle Festival didn’t provide those services when it was founded, it has become the leading institution for teaching singers how to get work.

Seagle’s focus is training opera singers, but the skills they impart are equally valid for a singer whose heart is set on Broadway. As opera houses expanded their repertoire to feature more work by contemporary composers, the chops desired by Broadway and opera houses are closely aligned.

“The performances the students participate in and the public enjoys throughout our summer season is the tip of the iceberg,” said Darren Woods, artistic director. “We have financial planners and lawyers come to talk with them about contacts, what to look for in contracts with opera companies, how opera companies can get out of paying them or not. We provide classes in sustainability and relationships and how to maintain a relationship if you are successful in this career. You might be gone from home 11 months in a year. What does that mean if you want children and a family?”

Seagle’s goal is to teach their students how to establish themselves as professional singers upon completion of their schooling. Seagle wants them to think of themselves as the CEO of their corporation who knows when and how to hire a coach, a teacher or a business manager and how to use social media, market themselves and generate investment income when they start. Further, Seagle brings in costume designers to teach them how to dress. Thus, mornings at Seagle are on the business of singing and afternoons around rehearsals.

The Seagle Festival’s faculty jurists, from left, are Voice Teacher Stephen Lusmann, Artistic Director Darren Woods, Stage Director Meaghan Deiter and General Director Tony Kostecki. (Provided photo — Naj Wikoff)

A key element of developing their young talents is teaching them how to do well in an audition. As getting accepted into the Seagle Festival program is very competitive, all the singers are highly skilled and a fair number attend for not just one but two seasons.

The auditions are structured to reflect the approach used by most professional companies. The students arrive with an opening song and then offer an array of music from which the judges can select. Similar to when singers audition for a part with an opera company, there is no applause following the student’s presentation. Instead, they get feedback from four leading professionals, each focusing on a different performance aspect: acting, presentation, stage presence and vocalization.

The setup is that four singers, all dressed as if they are attending a New York audition, are invited one by one on stage. Each is given a chance to share two pieces. Following the last performance, each student is invited back on stage in the order they sang, where they receive a detailed analysis from the four teachers. The entire student body attends the presentation to benefit from watching their classmates perform and hearing the comments they receive.

“I look at their performance from a producer’s standpoint,” said Woods. “Tony comes at it from the vocalists’ point of view so that he may talk about vowel placement, the voice teachers will talk about technique and the stage director will discuss movement and gesture. The students each go through this experience three times over the summer, and they learn from watching each other and participating in the audition. We hope they become audition machines because auditioning is the job interview for an opera singer.”

“I come from a dramatic point of view, where others may come with a vocal point of view,” said Stage Director Meghan Deiter. “I try to give the singers a few things that aren’t overwhelming, but they say, ‘Ah, I can do that’ and take action on it taking their songs to the next level. Their singing is already great, but what’s the next step? What they do is very difficult and makes them vulnerable; hopefully, they will listen and understand their next step.”

None of the performers are belittled or hit with sarcasm. What they get, framed in positive language, are nuanced insights on how they can do better, as the pros’ goals are to help the students succeed. These insights are especially critical because Seagle and the caliber of its graduates are so high that a growing number of leading companies like Glimmerglass, the Metropolitan Opera and others send representatives to attend rehearsals in person or by Zoom later in the season.

Byron Jones’s role is to support the students as singers. His focus is on their vocal technique and vocal health. He also teaches them how to apply the physical act of singing to the interpretation of the roles they have to perform and fine-tune their physical approach to singing.

“Breathing is the most important part of all,” said Jones. “Breathing is more important than singing. My job is to connect a vibrant, energized breath to our resonating chambers. That’s what we do, because we sing acoustically for the most part, not with amplification, so that the sound has a presence. Instead of the singing voice, I urge my students to think of it as the singing body. There is an athleticism to singing correctly.”

Sarafina Belletini, who received her bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University and master’s degree from Temple, came to the audition session desiring to try some new repertoire that she had been working on.

“It’s so hard for we as artists to feel that we belong in this industry,” said Belletini. “Seagle provides a loving and caring community. They have helped me believe that I belong and given me the tools to go forward. It’s provided me a big stepping stone in the most loving way possible.”

“I learned that stage presence and being chill is good, but I still need to find that balance,” said Augustine Ahn. “I need to be calm in my singing but more alive in my presence.”

“What they said about the moment before these songs, putting yourself in the world and the character before the music starts, is so important,” said Georgia Thomas. “That’s something I need to keep working on, but I felt from their notes I’ve made good progress today. That felt very validating.”

Seagle’s 2014 season concludes with Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-winning musical “Sweeney Todd” at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 14, 15 and 17 and 2 p.m. Aug. 16 in the Oscar Seagle Memorial Theater, 999 Charley Hill Road, Schroon Lake. Learn more at seaglefestival.org.

(Naj Wikoff lives in Keene Valley. He has been covering events for the Lake Placid News for more than 15 years.)