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Opera Star Returns To SUNY Potsdam

Story Published: May 25, 2012 at 3:37 PM EDT

Story Updated: May 25, 2012 at 9:33 PM EDT

It has been 20 years since professional opera singer Stephanie Blythe was at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music learning to perfect her vocal abilities.
 
This week the the Crane alum and Metropolitan Opera mezzo soprano is back on the Potsdam campus with master pianist-composer Alan Smith as part of an inaugural vocal arts seminar for emerging musical artists.
 
"If I create a situation where people have a memory and connect them to that poem and to that song, that's when it creates a lifelong recital-goer. That is going to create a lifelong lover of song, of opera," said Blythe.
 
It's a long way from the SUNY Potsdam campus to the professional stages where Blythe has captured the hearts and ears of opera-goers to become one of the industry's most respected performers.

She hopes to be able to give back some of that same enthusiasm through a series of master classes, recitals and lectures on the Crane campus - all with a theme of songs by American composers.
 
The intensive week of music immersion will give 10 up-and-coming young musicians a taste of what it means to be a professional performing artist.

"The voice is different that any other instrument. A voice cannot mature as fast as let's say a nine year old playing a violin or a flute or a piano," said Blythe.
 
Blythe says her time as a student on the SUNY Potsdam campus more than two decades ago put her on a road to what she describes as "self-discovery as an artist and a person" and, maybe more importantly, the courage to follow her dreams.

It's something she wants to share now with a new generation of musical artists.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
, Watertown, NY

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