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Shoshana
Greenberg
Intern in Action, April 2003
Opera
Lover Finds Internship Opportunity
 Barnard
junior Shoshana Greenberg has been going to the opera regularly
since she was 15 and always felt a special connection to the
Metropolitan Opera. "My father would take me, and it
was always a big event," said Greenberg, who grew up
in suburban Philadelphia. "It’s one of the reasons
I became a music major." After seeing her favorite opera,
Lucia di Lammermore, at the Metropolitan last fall,
Greenberg knew that she wanted to work for the organization.
Using the resources at the Office of Career Development, Greenberg
found an internship in the Education Department of Metropolitan
Opera Guild just a few subway stops from the Barnard campus
in Manhattan. At the Guild, Greenberg assists in the creation
of programs in music and opera education for children, schools
and adults. Working on their diverse programs since mid-January,
Greenberg has been able to draw from a variety of her interests
and skills, including her musical training and experience
working with children. "People don’t think of the
music major being applicable in the real world, but there
are so many instances where I use skills I acquired from my
music classes," Greenberg said.
For instance, Greenberg was responsible for preparing written
copies of an aria from the opera Ariadne auf Naxos
for a group of visiting high school students. "The opera
was in German, which I have not studied, so I had to read
the music and determine which arias were important to the
plot and would be good for teenagers to study," she said.
She then had to copy the vocal line, note for note. "I
don’t think I could have done that if I hadn’t been
writing music for my classes for the past three years,"
she said.
During her first few months at the internship, Greenberg helped
to promote and organize ticketing for "Growing Up with
Opera." The annual program presents two original children’s
operas for schools and families, which are performed one weekend
at the DiCapo Opera Theatre in Manhattan. Greenberg was particularly
suited to work on the project, having spent the past three
summers working with children at a pre-school day camp in
her hometown of Dresher, Pennsylvania. On the day of the performance,
when the younger children became restless waiting for the
opening act, she entertained them with songs she had used
at camp. "Most of the children really enjoyed it; they
kept asking for more," she said.
Greenberg now works primarily on "Creating Original Opera,"
a program that originated at the Metropolitan in the mid-1980s
and has since spread across the country and to a handful of
countries around the world. The program supports specially
trained teachers for visits to elementary and middle schools
to help children write, compose, design, build and perform
an original opera. Greenberg supports those teachers by compiling
the materials they need into kits—tool kits and make-up
kits, hardware and paint, as well as administrative booklets,
guidebooks and audition forms—just about anything you
would need to put on an opera.
"I’ve always loved creative projects, but I also
enjoy administrative work. Helping to put together these programs
has enabled me see that these two aspects can be blended,"
she said. After graduation, Greenberg hopes to nurture an
appreciation for opera by developing a production company
that would perform operas for children, as well as adults.
Click
here to see past Interns
in Action.
If
you would like to be featured as the Barnard Intern in Action
please send an email to Cara Smith, Internship Program Coordinator,
at csmith@barnard.edu.
Indicate where you are interning, what you are doing, and
why you would like to be considered.
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