Shannon McBane, 16, is one of 40 Bay Area teens selected to
perform in the prestigious Peninsula Teen Opera
Shannon McBane may be just 16, well below the age when most
opera singers turn professional in their mid-20s to early 30s, but
she will get her first experience performing the classical music on
stage with the Peninsula Teen Opera on Jan. 15 and 16.
Shannon McBane, 16, is one of 40 Bay Area teens selected to perform in the prestigious Peninsula Teen Opera
Shannon McBane may be just 16, well below the age when most opera singers turn professional in their mid-20s to early 30s, but she will get her first experience performing the classical music on stage with the Peninsula Teen Opera on Jan. 15 and 16.
McBane, of Hollister, is one of about 40 students from around the greater Bay Area who was selected to be part of the Peninsula Teen Opera (PTO) fall program, which lasts 12 weeks. She first learned of the Teen Opera when she competed in a National Association of Teachers of Singing competition, and was selected to audition.
“I did a seminar at the competition for auditioning and they mentioned PTO,” McBane said. “I auditioned because it sounded like a good experience.”
Though McBane had tried out – and performed in – other plays and musicals put on by local theater companies, she said this audition was different. She had to call to schedule the one-on-one audition, and select two songs in foreign languages.
“They request that you sing two songs, a ballad, which is a slow song and an up-tempo song,” she said. “It is different because they ask you to sign in a foreign language. For musicals or plays, I always had to sing Broadway or show tunes.”
McBane, a junior at Monte Vista High School in Watsonville, is active in choir, sports and other extra-curricular activities at her school. She said it has been a challenge to make it to the weekly Saturday workshops in Redwood City for the PTO program. She had to find time to learn the songs she will be performing in “Dido and Aeneas” and in the other pieces she will be involved in on her own.
“You have to learn the music on your own,” she said. “You have a deadline and you have to come to rehearsal knowing it. That was hard to find the time to do that and practice.”
Like McBane, Joanna Strunk, of Gilroy, applied for the PTO program as a high school student. Strunk was already a member of the chamber choir at Gilroy High School, but said she liked the opportunity to learn more about the culture of opera.
“In choir it is more about being a part of the group and helping each other,” she said. “In PTO, it is more about standing out and being the main person on stage.”
She noted the competitive atmosphere in the program. Strunk, who is a freshman at California State University, Long Beach, continues to study vocal performance there and has plans to audition for the opera program as an upperclassman. She keeps in touch with some of the people she met through PTO.
McBane, too, said she has enjoyed hanging out with other people who share an interest in opera, and learning from professionals who have worked in the field. The staff at PTO, including founders Allen and Hilprud Cathcart, have all worked in opera.
“I’ve never been in an opera,” McBane said. “Most teens don’t get the opportunity and [the teachers] treat it like a professional opera company to help prepare [us.] Most of the kids are planning to do this as a career. It is helping me get insight now to my future because this is what I am going to do.”
McBane’s thoughts on her experience echo the Cathcarts’ reasons for starting the program 13 years ago.
Cathcart and his wife have lived in Morgan Hill for the past seven years, but they started the program in Redwood City more than a dozen years ago.
“We are both retired professional opera singers and we decided we are actually going to do this without pay and we’ve been doing it for years,” he said. “Our coaches are from the San Francisco Opera and Opera San Jose, international companies. They are very top-notch opera people.”
Cathcart was inspired to start Peninsula Teen Opera when he was working with boys from chorus whose voices had changed and who were not interested in singing in school musicals.
“They wanted something more classical,” he said, adding that the students selected “have to have a certain amount of vocal talent and discipline to be in the group.” There are some scholarships available and a summer session is offered when funding is available, Cathcart said.
The students this year include kids from Marin to Santa Cruz counties, and of course, McBane from San Benito.
Though Cathcart said most opera singers don’t start professional careers until they are 25 to 30 years old, when their voices have fully matured, he said the program offers a taste of a real opera company.
“They really learn to sing ensemble and the discipline,” he said. “They learn what it is like to be a professional opera singer, to handle all things like a professional.”
He added that because the teens’ voices are not fully mature, they do select opera pieces that they will be able to handle, and they limit the amount of time the students rehearse or perform.
“We don’t push our singers,” he said. “We have what is called double-casting. They don’t rehearse so much they hurt their voices.”
McBane agreed.
“I’m kind of a late bloomer,” she said. “My voice is not really developed yet. It’s still growing. Some bodies mature faster than others and it’s like that with my voice. It will be a while.”
Though her performance with PTO in “Dido and Aeneas,” as well as the other pieces in which she will be involved, are still a week off, McBane already has her sights set further ahead. She said she plans to audition for the PTO program again next year and to study opera in college.
“I will probably go to graduate school after that, at a competitive East coast school,” she said. “I am aiming for Julliard, and the MET (Metropolitan Opera in New York), they have a competition every year. That is pretty far from now, though.”
Peninsula Teen Opera performs
McBane and the other students from the Peninsula Teen Opera will be performing in scenes from several operas as well as a full-length performance of “Dido and Aeneas,” Jan. 15 and 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the Eagle Theater, Los Altos High School, 201 Almond Ave., Los Altos. For tickets or more information call 408-842-0994 or e-mail te**************@ya***.com or visit www.teenopera.org.
