Italy bound

Pianist Christina Faye is travelling to Italy this summer for five weeks, but it’s not for a vacation.

Faye, 26, was selected as one of 52 Canadian performers to participate in the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, a summer training program held in Sulmona, Italy for Canada’s up-and-coming opera stars.

The Thunder Bay native will be working with the vocalists and accompanying them on the piano during their live performances.

Not only does she get to work with other, more experienced, “awesome” pianists, but she will be immersed in the Italian language – one of the big three foreign languages in the opera world along with French and German.

“A lot of repertoire is written in those languages,” Faye said. “The last two years, since I’ve been out of school, it’s really been my goal to catch up on those languages and become at least somewhat proficient in them.”

It’s an important skill to have when working with vocalists.

“It makes you much more valuable as a collaborator and vocal coach,” said Faye. “I’m really excited to be immersed in that and be forced to use the Italian I do have. I’ll also be able to take lessons with people who speak it and it’s their mother tongue, which is really cool.”

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Faye studied at the University of Brandon before obtaining her Masters at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. She has been living and working in Toronto for the past two years.

Aside from learning Italian, Faye will also better hone her skills as a vocal coach; by working with some of the country’s best in the business, she’ll receive critique and guidance on how to work with singers.

A typical day in the program begins with an hour of physical exercise and then Italian language classes. The rest of the day is filled with voice lessons, master classes and opera rehearsals.

After such a rigorous schedule, Faye plans on taking an extra two weeks to explore Italy with her husband once her work with the program is finished.

“It’ll be nice,” she said. “I get to do the working/learning part first then go wander around for a little while and have some fun.”