Kate Tombaugh is already taking applications for places in this year’s Poco a Poco. It’s eight days of singing instruction tailored to each student. There’ll be at least two public concerts during that week in June. She likes to have 30 to 40 students from eighth grade to high school senior level every year.
Getting in starts with a ten-minute online application and an audition, which Tombaugh says isn’t quite like the auditions already trained professional singers like her go through. It’s to find out where the student is musically and which teachers will be the best match to help the student get going toward his or her goals.
The cost is $300 and there’s financial aid available. In addition to the tailored training, students learn about how to go about their careers. Tombaugh thinks about what she would like to have known as a teenager before she became a professional opera singer.
Kate Tombaugh talks more about Poco a Poco in this interview: