YoungArts

RENÉE FLEMING: A YoungArts MasterClass, is set to air on HBO on May 28, 2012 at 6:00pm.

YoungArts MasterClass is produced and directed by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, a filmmaking team, whose documentaries have garnered an Academy Award in 2010 and four previous Academy Award nominations, many Emmys and the Dupont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming.  They have received filmmaking grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Ford Foundation and the American Film Institute. Their documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS, MTV, National Geographic and HBO, and screened at festivals around the world including the New York Film Festival, Sundance, New Directors/New Films, London, Berlin, Montreal and St. Petersburg.  Both Mr. Simon and Ms. Goodman are active voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) and Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys). Ms. Goodman serves on the Documentary Executive Committee for AMPAS.  They have served as consultants to the National Endowment for the Humanities Media Program, on the Documentary Screening Committee for the Academy Awards and as judges for the Emmy Awards and the DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award and the Writers Guild SilverDocs Award.

RENÉE FLEMING: A YoungArts MasterClass
This special presentation inaugurates the second year of the acclaimed Emmy-nominated program, which premiered last season on HBO.  YoungArts MasterClass presents world-class creative artists who share their art and life experiences with small groups of young artists who represent a new generation of American talent.  Each edition of the program highlights the importance of mentorship, which resonates in the arts and beyond, allowing this new generation of young artists to meet and work with legends, like Renée Fleming, in the fields they aspire to pursue.

In this special half-hour presentation, Ms. Fleming mentors four talented young opera students – all YoungArts winners – in New York City at her alma mater, Juilliard, and at her apartment. They attend a rehearsal at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center where the four young singers are the sole audience, following along the rehearsal with sheet music and then taking the stage with Ms. Fleming to learn about the nuances of rehearsal. The young artists also travel to meet Ms. Fleming at the Lyric Opera of Chicago where she serves as Creative Consultant.

The students are:

• Sean Plumb (Voice, 2010, and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts), attending the Curtis Institute of Music
• Crystal Vanrell (Voice, 2010), attending the Mannes School College The New School for Music
• Aaron Casey (Voice, 2011), attending the University of Houston
• Samantha Hankey (Voice, 2011), attending The Juilliard School

Additional upcoming specials of YoungArts MasterClass will feature such legendary artists as actress Patti LuPone, playwright John Guare, musician Bobby McFerrin, painter James Rosenquist and photographer Bruce Weber among others.  In last season’s first presentation of YoungArts MasterClass, the mentors included tenor Plácido Domingo, actress/director Liv Ullmann, architect Frank Gehry, choreographer Bill T. Jones, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, artist Olafur Eliasson, playwright Edward Albee, choreographer Jacques D’Amboise, and artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel.

Watch Season 1, here.