Blog thy neighbor...

Unless you live on another planet you know that the biggest things to hit the internet are personal blogs, just like mine. I limit mine to information on the AVA family, but below are some other blogs you should take a peek at. They are written by wonderful friends of opera, and extol what AVA stands for.

Operavision Blog
Metropolitan Opera soprano Aprile Millo has made no bones about liking the singers from AVA. She has been a huge supporter of the alumni and resident artists, and has even been found in the audience, as she was on Saturday night’s production of La Traviata in Bucks County.  Ms. Millo’s history with AVA goes back a few years, and she was the honored guest artist at the 70th anniversary concert in 2005 at Verizon Hall. Shortly after that concert she returned to Philadelphia for a solo recital, and during that time gave a master class for the resident artists. I spoke to Takesha Kizart at the end of class to ask her how she enjoyed Ms. Millo.  She replied to me that she was the most giving singer and the information and comments were very helpful, and she would always remember the class (even opera singers are groupies.)

Yankeediva Blog
A quiet blog, but also wonderful is that of AVA alumna mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. Most of the blog is about her travels and opera impressions, but well worth reading.

Neil Funkhouser Management Blog
Lastly is the blog of artist manager Neil Funkhouser, which is written by Mr. Funkhouser and his associate Alex Fletcher. Mr. Funkhouser represents many of the resident artists and alumni of AVA including Markus Beam, Stephen Costello, Bryan Hymel, Ailyn Perez, and Ben Wager. All the information on the Funkhouser blog is related to his artists, but there are plenty of AVA singers to choose from.