Please Join Us for a Wonderful Voice Competition in 2008

  The Bloomington Chapter is looking forward with great anticipation to serving as hosts for the 2008 National Convention and Voice Competition. We have planned events so as to give visitors and the competitors not only a very successful competition but a good feel for what Indiana University and Bloomington have to offer in the way of cultural and entertainment activities and facilities.

Indiana University’s Musical Arts Center will serve as the venue for the competition. This building has the second largest stage in the United States—only slightly smaller than that of the Metropolitan Opera. It should provide a good setting for our competitors to perform.

The Master Class will be in Auer Hall of the Indiana University Jacob School of Music. There will be plenty of room in this recital hall for all who wish to attend the event to have seats.

Attendees of the convention and competition will be housed in the Indiana Memorial Union, which is the largest student union building in the United States. The various business meetings will take place here as well, and the Career Awards Reception and Banquet will be in the Union Building’s Alumni Hall.

Other formal convention events will be held at various other places on the Indiana University campus. For the President’s Reception, we will go to Wells House, the former home of Herman Wells, Indiana University’s long-time president and chancellor and a patron of our Bloomington Chapter. The Presidents’ Lunch will be in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center. After the competition, there will be a dinner in the lobby of the Musical Arts Center and then a performance in the MAC’s auditorium.

We have also scheduled some optional events to allow visitors to relax and enjoy special things in the Bloomington area and at Indiana University. On Wednesday night after the President’s Reception, they may go to one of several top Bloomington restaurants with members of our chapter as guides and hosts. Everyone will order and pay for whatever he or she wishes to eat. On Thursday night after the business meeting and the six-year planning meeting, there will be a free wine-tasting, a cash wine bar, and a dinner at the Oliver Winery. This is the largest winery in Indiana and one with a national reputation. In addition, those who wish can have dinner on their own and attend a performance of "Work," the 2008 winner of the National Reva Shiner Playwriting Contest, at the Bloomington Playwright’s Project. After the Master Class, some of our leading members will conduct tours of the Musical Arts Center, the Lilly Rare Book Library, the Indiana University Arts Museum, and the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center, and the venues in the Bloomington Arts District in the center of town will be open for those who wish to see them.

In sum, this year’s convention and competition should be a gala affair, and we hope to see a large number of you here.

Breaking news: May 15 there will be a live webcast from the convention. info...