The Civic Music Association of Milwaukee's Vocal Coaching Program is beginning its eighth season of providing world-class vocal coaching to Milwaukee area singers, thanks to a partnership between Supporters of Opera Singers and CMA.

Through the Vocal Coaching Program, five young artists will work with Dr. Dana Brown, Assistant Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, over a period of six months to refine their performance techniques. The monthly coaching sessions focus on operatic repertoire and culminate in a joint recital on Sunday, April 11, 2010, 2:00 p.m., at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield.

Last year, pianist and vocal coach Dana Brown played and musically directed four of the one-act operas featured in CCPA Operafest ’08. The previous season, he conducted Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco and musically directed Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Other musical direction credits at Roosevelt include The Beggar’s Opera, The Coronation of Poppea, L’Amico Fritz, Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Ronald Perera’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Mozart’s The Impresario. He also teaches Graduate Diction and Topics for the Professional Singer, in addition to coaching graduate and undergraduate students in the voice programs.

As a coach, he has been on the faculty of Northwestern University, the Intermezzo Young Artist Programs, the Music and Opera Festival of Lucca, Italy, and most recently, the Taos Opera Institute. As a pianist, he has been heard at the Ravinia Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” and on WFMT Radio, both as a soloist and as a collaborator. A frequent accompanist to many of the finest singers in Chicago, he also has performed frequently with Chicago Opera Theater, L’Opera Piccola and Light Opera Works of Evanston, in addition to many concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center.

He holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Piano Chamber Music and Accompanying from the University of Michigan, where he studied with renowned accompanist Martin Katz.

The Vocal Coaching Program was founded by Patricia Crump, a former member of the CMA Board of Directors and president of Supporters of Opera Singers, an organization established to administer funds donated to assist young Milwaukee area singers. She is also Co-Director of the Wisconsin District Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera National Council.