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Weyburn singer Chelsea Woodard will be singing her way to Los Angeles on the May long weekend to take part in a classical voice competition, and to attend a convention for classical music performers.
The daughter of Jennifer and Darren Woodard, the Grade 11 student had initially submitted two songs on-line for the preliminary round in mid-March, one in Italian and one in English. The on-line submissions were taken along with regional competitions held in a number of U.S. cities, and enabled Canadian performers like Chelsea to take part in the competition.
She received notice that she was accepted out of the preliminary round, and will now take part in the secondary round in Los Angeles, to be held at the Westin LAX Hotel on May 20-22.
The performers will register on the Friday and will sing on Saturday, with 35 then selected to move on to the semi-finals, and out of that group five to 10 will be selected for the finals on Sunday.
In the competition there are different age categories, including high school, undergraduate, graduate and professional levels.
Chelsea noted the event is also a Classical Singer convention, and schools from throughout the U.S. that specialize in training in classical singing will be available, providing scholarship opportunities as well as information about their programs.
After the performers sing on Saturday, there will be a number of master classes and seminars held, and Chelsea will have a wide variety of topics and techniques to choose from.
"What I'm looking forward to is all the schools will have information and representatives there," she said.
Jennifer, her mother, added that some of these schools may well offer her scholarships once they've seen her perform.
"It's not just about winning; it's about being seen," said Chelsea.
Among the numbers she will be preparing is "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide, Mozart's Alleluia, and Adele's Laughing Song from the operetta "Die Fliedermaus" (or "The Bat").
Another aspect she is looking forward to is being able to see friends that she made last summer in Boston, when she attended a special summer camp on classical singing that included a trip to Italy.
"Being able to see all the different universities will help me out in the next year when I will be planning to submit applications," said Chelsea, adding this will be an amazing opportunity rather than just trying to find out about schools through their websites.
She and her mom will largely be spending their time at this convention, and so they have added one extra day to stay and see some of the sights in L.A. after the convention is over.
