On April 13, 2008, Vienna Opera coach and conductor David Aronson and his wife, soprano Sylvia Greenberg (bios below), gave a remarkable master class for UCLA voice majors. Sylvia and David were in Los Angeles for a LACMA Bing Theater recital the night before, and were able to fit the class in before heading back to Vienna that afternoon. Here are some comments from participants:

“It was an incredible experience to work with both David Aronson and Sylvia Greenberg. These are two people who have had enormous careers in the European operatic world; to receive hands-on advice and constructive criticism from two professionals of that stature is an experience I will never forget. [They also had a lot of] fantastic advice at the end of the master class on how to get your foot in the doorway of the European music scene. I would love to have both of them come back and do an extended week of masterclasses for the voice department. I think even the most advanced singer would learn something of extreme value.”

- Lisa Hendrickson, senior

Sulvia Greenberg with student Lisa Hendrickson

“It was a unique opportunity to work with a world-renowned singer and an extremely accomplished conductor at the same time. They were such a great team, and I felt as though we all got the best of both worlds, musical and technical.”

- Rebecca Sjowall, MM candidate

David Aronson with student Heather Henderson. Stephen Karr is accompanying.

“Both Mr. Aronson and Mrs. Greenberg were very professional and helpful during the master class. They showcased their incredible knowledge of the repertoire and of the voice itself. Mr. Aronson was especially helpful with me in all the artistic, musical and linguistic aspects of the music. He made realize all the little tidbits that I had missed when working on it by myself.”

- Julian Arsenault, sophomore

SYLVIA GREENBERG, Soprano

The Israeli soprano made her vocal debut in a concert with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. During the years as a member of the Zurich Opera House and of the Deutsche Oper Berlin she sang many coloratura roles, such as Zerbinetta, Blonde, Oscar and Sophie. However, Mozart’s Queen of the Night became the artist’s hallmark at virtually all of the major European opera houses. Guest engagements have led her to the festivals in Salzburg, Bayreuth and Aix en Provence as well to the Teatro alla Scala in Milan where she sang the title role in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”. She appeared in world premieres of operas by Manzoni and Berio in Milan and in Salzburg.

During the early 1990’s, Konstanze in Mozart’s “Abduction from the Seraglio” became a major role of her repertoire, and she has sung this at the Vienna State Opera, as well as in Bonn, Toulouse, Ludwigsburg, and Wuerzburg . Since then the artist has moved to the more lyric repertoire, first as Pamina, then as Micaëla and Donna Elvira. She sang Donna Anna for the first time in Munich in 2001.

The artist is as established in the concert world as she is on the opera stage. She made her highly acclaimed U.S. debut singing Haydn’s “The Creation” under George Solti in Chicago, and her New York debut in Carl Orff’s “Carmina burana” under Zubin Mehta. Sylvia Greenberg has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Abbado, Bertini, Blomstedt, Chailly, Dohnanyi, Flor, Frühbeck de Burgos, Harnoncourt, Lopez-Cobos, Luisi, Maazel, Muti, Nagano, Norrington, Rilling, Roshdestvensky, Sawallisch, Tilson Thomas and Varviso. She appears frequently with the great orchestras of Europe and abroad. Her wide concert repertoire includes Bach’s passions, Mahler’s symphonies, Dvorák’s, Szymanowski’s and Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, and virtually all of Mozart’s sacred works. Furthermore she has sung world premieres of music by Krzysztof Penderecki and Gil Shohat.

Sylvia Greenberg can be heard on numerous recordings which include Mozart’s “Abduction”, Haydn’s “Creation” and “L’anima del filosofo”, Gluck’s “Paride ed Elena”, sacred music by Poulenc and Bizet as well as Orff’s “Carmina burana” and Berio’s “Un re in ascolto”. The artist’s most recent releases are concerning Mahler’s 8th Symphony under Kent Nagano with Sylvia Greenberg singing the 1st soprano as well as the newly rediscovered cantata “Crudel tiranno amor” by George Friedrich Haendel (recorded 2006). Her schedule includes frequent recitals, and she is also highly respected as a teacher, holding classes primarily in Munich and Vienna.

DAVID ARONSON, conductor and pianist

A native of New York, the conductor and pianist David Aronson holds degrees from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam (New York) and Manhattan School of Music.

He began his career as a freelance vocal coach and accompanist in New York City, followed by engagements as assistant conductor with the opera companies of Kansas City, Lake George and Miami. He moved to Zurich in 1978, where he rapidly rose from coach at the International Opera Studio to assistant chorus-master and conductor at the Zurich Opera House. In 1982 Mr. Aronson began a nine-year appointment as Kapellmeister of the Municipal Theater of Lucerne, where he conducted over forty operas, operettas, and ballets. In addition to appearing as guest conductor in Darmstadt, Stuttgart, and Aix-en-Provence, he assisted Herbert von Karajan in his production of CARMEN at the Salzburg Festival. Mr. Aronson was a guest conductor of the Schönbrunner Schlossorchester in Vienna and made his conducting debut with the Vienna State Opera in November, 2000. As a member of that opera company’s music staff since 1991, he has also performed at the keyboard both in Vienna and on tour in Tokyo, Jerusalem, and Ravenna. A sought-after opera coach, Mr. Aronson has worked with many of the world’s leading singers, including Walter Berry, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming, and Anna Netrebko, to name a few. He has assisted many of the world’s foremost conductors including Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti and Seiji Ozawa. For over five years, he was the pianist for Riccardo Muti’s acclaimed productions of the Mozart-da Ponte operas and in this capacity participated in two Asian tours with Seiji Ozawa.

A faculty member at the Vienna Conservatory Private University, Mr. Aronson has given master classes for over ten years at the University of Miami’s summer music program in Salzburg. His master classes are increasingly in demand, with invitations from the Musica Mallorca Festival, the University of Michigan, Crane School of Music in Potsdam and Manhattan School of Music. An accompanist of international stature, Mr. Aronson has performed numerous recitals in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Cyprus and the United States.