ABOUT
"I have personally seen young artists undergo dramatic transformations in their thinking as performers in just a few sessions with Ann."
PRITI GANDHI, Assoc Director-Laffont Competition @ Metropolitan Opera
"The techniques she has developed are remarkably effective...singers make progress that is close to miraculous."
WENDY HILLHOUSE Stanford University, Metropolitan Opera
"A truly inventive, precise and cutting-edge educator."
JULIE MAKEROV Lyric Opera Chicago, LA Opera
"Ann's approach always encourages the singer to explore their own strengths and weaknesses and take responsibility for their own development."
GREGORY BUCHALTER, cover conductor Metropolitan Opera
"I want to give that gift to all my students as they come out of their 'academic boxes.'"
LEANN OVERTON, vocal coach Manhattan School of Music,
Montclair State University; founder Respiro NYC.
Ann Baltz is recognized as one of the leading performance educators in America today. Inspired by her work with visionary director Wesley Balk at the Merola Opera Program and as music director of his Minnesota Opera Institute, Baltz's revolutionary holistic approach to singer training became OperaWorks™, a vanguard of performer education, the first of its kind to incorporate the cross-disciplinary education vital to singers. Founded in 1987, OperaWorks boasts an impressive list of over 2,000 alumni worldwide, pedagogical training for teachers and coaches, and the documented success of Baltz's teaching methods in the International Journal of Music Education.
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Ms. Baltz teaches residencies, master classes, and workshops nationwide. She is a frequent speaker at national conventions including National Association of Teachers of Singing, National Opera Association, and Classical Singer. While on the steering committee of OPERA America’s Singer Training Forum, she served as a panelist for their national seminars Building a Career: Strategies for Success.
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As a creator-director Baltz combines her artistry and social conscience to conceive pastiche operas on current issues such as immigration, homelessness, and disinformation. Live productions at institutions include Bowling Green State University, Ithaca College, and California State University Northridge, and in 2020-2021 pastiche opera movies at Peabody Institute of Music and University of the Pacific.
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She is a vocal advocate of musical improvisation as a tool for freeing musicians' innate musical and dramatic capabilities. As a collaborative pianist, Baltz continues to perform live improvised concerts and operas throughout the country. In 2015 she created OperaWorks’ Arts for Social Awareness Project (ASAP) to produce original, musically improvised opera/theater performance pieces that put a human face on social issues in society. She was nominated by the NAACP Theatre Awards as Best Music Director for ASAP’s first production, The Discord Altar, addressing homelessness, and she is the recipient of a Red Carpet Award from “Women In Theatre” recognizing her outstanding achievements in theater in Los Angeles.
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Her diverse professional background includes media talent coach for Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel and LivePD:Wanted, and in opera as assistant conductor, coach, and chorus master in productions with singers Dame Joan Sutherland and James McCracken, and conductor Richard Bonynge. An accomplished collaborative pianist, Ms. Baltz played extensively on tour with Columbia Artist Concerts and Minnesota Opera. She studied at the San Francisco Opera where she received the Otto Guth Award for outstanding coach in the Merola Opera Program.