Founded in 1978 by Andy Anselmo and John Albert Harris, Singers Forum was envisioned as a training center for the vocal arts. Combining training in the bel canto method with performance training in various singing styles, Singers Forum was unique in that it offered private voice lessons, classes and workshops, and a place where students could develop performance skills in a wide variety of vocal and performing styles ranging from opera to cabaret, and musical theatre.
Within a very short time this unique approach to training was attracting a talented and varied student body ranging from beginners and avocational singers, to established stars like Geraldine Fitzgerald, Maureen O’ Sullivan, Joanne Woodward, Alec Baldwin, Jean Kraft, Eartha Kitt, Mandy Patinkin, Mariette Hartley, Saundra Santiago, and Brooke Shields.
Established as a not-for-profit foundation, Singers Forum emphasized community service as part of its program, providing free performances at senior centers, hospitals, and nursing homes, as part of a Senior Outreach Program.
By its fifteenth anniversary, in new quarters and supported by an active Board of Directors, the Youth Outreach Scholarship program was established. Free classes and lessons were offered to dozens of deserving children and, with the support of the city of New York, free after-school programs were held by Singers Forum faculty in several New York City public schools. Within five years, similar programs were established in Brocton, NY, and Princeton, New Jersey.
With the establishment of the Andy Anselmo Achievement Awards, rising professional talent was encouraged and acknowledged. The annual benefit gala helps support the scholarship programs, and has featured appearances by Alec Baldwin, Rue McClanahan, Julie Wilson, Billy Stritch, and John Leguizamo.
The Tradition of Bel Canto
Bel canto (literally “beautiful singing”) is a method of vocal training based on scientific principles of breathing, support and vocal placement. Developed and perfected by the Italian maestri of the 18th century and codified into vocal exercises and treatises, it formed the basis of singing technique for the next two centuries. Almost every great singer of the past studied and used the bel canto method to produce beautiful, expressive singing.
The great bel canto singing teachers were not only expert in the scientific principles of vocal production, but they were also guardians of the style and performance traditions of three hundred years of classical singing, since they were closely associated with the great composers and singers of the day
Typically these training methods and traditions were handed down form one generation of teachers to the next. At Singers Forum, one can trace the training back at least six generations -- to Maestro Romano, who trained singers for opera productions of Rossini (conducted by the composer himself) to Luigi Vannuccini, who conducted the Italian premiere of Faust, supervised by Gounod and worked with Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi.
Vannuccini won world fame as a master teacher and for seven years taught his method to the famous bass Myron Whitney, and his son William L. Whitney. The younger Whitney achieved fame as a concert singer, studied Brahms lieder with the composer, and performed with Franz Liszt. He began teaching the method in his own singing schools in New York, Florence, Paris, and Boston, teaching a generation of great singers, including the American contralto Louise Homer. He later taught at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he trained the soprano Eleanor Steber, and Andy Anselmo, who in turn passed on his teaching to the next two generations of voice faculty at Singers Forum.
The great teachers of the past taught their students the traditional bel canto technique, as well as the performance skills and the styles of their present day and recent past. Singers Forum continues this tradition -- imparting the bel canto method, while teaching today and tomorrow’s singers the best of recent performing styles, and the latest skills performers need in the 21st century.
These skills include microphone technique, recording studio skills, cabaret and jazz styling, arranging, piano, music theory, and every skill needed for today’s singer, whether professional or avocational. Student performances are complete with professional lighting and sound systems, recording and video technology, accompaniment by outstanding professional musicians, and direction from teachers with extensive experience in the professional arena.
Singers Forum is unique in its successful effort to continue the tradition of bel canto into the twenty-first century.
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