And you thought you had to jump through hoops to get into a good school.
To gain admission to the world-renowned Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg last summer, Jennifer Zuiff first had to survive a preliminary cut by the Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta. Then, the classically trained singer bested four other finalists — one violinist, three pianists — in a live competition before a panel of judges and an audience of Mozart-mad society members.
It helped that the soprano from Johns Creek is “opera fluent” in seven languages. And, that the Georgia State grad was willing to venture a bit farther away for post-grad work — to Salzburg, home of Austria’s favorite musical son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and his namesake “Mozarteum.”
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“It’s one of the most prestigious conservatories in the world,” said Zuiff, 26, her voice still betraying traces of wonder months after she won the Pro-Mozart Society’s annual scholarship competition. “After I found out I was going there, I did one of those things where you get up and dance and sing like crazy!”
The mood should be nearly as celebratory on Sunday when Zuiff headlines a free spring concert presented by the Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta at Peachtree Christian Church. It’s a tradition for scholarship winners to come back and, in essence, sing for their already-consumed Salzburg supper. But Zuiff, who’s a staff singer at Peachtree Presbyterian Church and just finished up a run as Lauretta in Puccini’s “Il Trittico” at Capitol City Opera, hardly needed a push.
“The way Mozart wrote, the melodies are just so easy and free,” said Zuiff, whose Mozarteum voice teacher, lyric soprano Barbara Bonney, made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1987. “It just allows your muscles to almost relax and you go, ‘Ah ha.’ It reconnects you to why you’re doing music in the first place.”
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“It’s just the culmination of the classical musical art form,” Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta president Herb Buffington said about the prolific composer whose best known work includes the operas “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.” (Zuiff sang an aria from “Flute” in winning the 2011 competition.) “It’s the difference between something that’s emerging and something fully formed, like fine china.”
In fact, the society has been awarding its highly coveted Mozarteum summer academy scholarship (now totaling $4,000) since way back in 1967 — three years after the group was started by Nellie Bunzl, wife of the Austrian consul general to Atlanta.
“Why Mozart? I think it was only logical, since he’s from Austria and he was the best,” said Marilyn Dietrichs, a Juilliard-trained lyric soprano and past president of the society, which she joined in 1967.
Yes, but why Pro-Mozart? Was there some sort of anti-Amadeus group running around Atlanta at some point, beating the metaphorical drum on behalf of Bach or Beethoven?
“No, no, [although] we have laughed about that on the board,” Dietrichs said. “We have even talked about dropping the ‘Pro.’ But we all agreed that it was what Nellie Bunzl named it, so it stayed.”
Can anyone really blame the group for wanting to band together under the unapologetically brash “Pro-Mozart” tag so long ago? After all, it was a time when Atlanta was smaller and less culturally developed. Before there was an Atlanta Opera (founded in 1979) or Capital City Opera (1983), when the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was still in its adolescence and classical music lovers yearned for more opportunities to publicly celebrate and indulge their shared passion.
That’s hardly a problem now. Along with the Atlanta Steinway Society and the Chopin Society of Atlanta and the highly rated music departments at Emory and Georgia State (where Zuiff studied under Magdalena Moulson), the metro area is home to dozens of other amateur and professional companies that regularly present classical performances. Sunday’s concert by Zuiff is just one of a half-dozen that the Pro-Mozart Society has planned for 2011-12, all featuring well regarded professional musicians or singers, and open to the public.
And that doesn’t even count the annual Mozart’s Birthday Party in January.
Still, being Pro-Mozart doesn’t mean being fanatical about it. There are no rumbles with the Chopin Society. No “Verdi Free Zone,” say, at the society’s recitals and concerts, each of which promises the audience at least one piece by the great Wolfgang Amadeus.
As of last week, Zuiff was still finalizing her musical lineup for Sunday. Yet she already knew one thing for sure: Mozart and his namesake society in Atlanta’s influence will be felt throughout the program.
“I’m going to sing mainly a lot of arias and art songs,” Zuiff said.
“I’m trying to pick some beautiful music that I actually worked with Barbara Bonney on a lot at Mozarteum. I think that’s a really appropriate way to say thanks.”
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Concert preview
Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta spring concert featuring soprano Jennifer Zuiff
3 p.m. Sunday. Free. Peachtree Christian Church, 1580 Peachtree St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-876-5535, www.mozartatlanta.com.
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