Live presentation with Rachelle Jonck and Derrick Goff

AOTOS members only

The Singer’s Skill Set: Learning from the teachers and singers of the past

US vocal coaches Rachelle Jonck and Derrick Goff present an exploration of treatises, practice books and recordings with special emphasis on legato – also introducing Bel Canto Boot Camp’s system of practising ornamentation in the classic Vaccai lessons.

The Bel Canto Boot Camp (BCBC), as featured in the AOTOS 2021 Annual Review 2021,  was co-founded in March 2020 by professional New York vocal coaches/pianists Rachelle Jonck (www.rachellejonck.com) and Derrick Goff (Metropolitan Opera Music staff) in response to the Covid pandemic lockdown. The Vaccai Project is the BCBC’s online signature course and, during its first two seasons, attracted the interest of singers and teachers across the globe. As the world has opened up, Rachelle and Derrick have more recently presented/partnered with Cape Town Opera, Michigan State University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and San Diego NATS, among others.

Bel Canto Boot Camp biographies

Rachelle Jonck: Co-founder

Rachelle Jonck is a South Africa-born coach/pianist/conductor based in New York City. She is the Principal Coach of Teatro Nuovo and has been on faculty at Westminster Choir College and Manhattan School of Music, and guest taught at the University of Missouri Kansas City and Michigan State University. Above all these her first love is her private coaching studio. While her main field of study is bel canto, she often explores the wider applications of its principles in other styles and languages.

Last summer she led Rossini’s La gazza ladra at the Rose Theater from the fortepiano as part of Teatro Nuovo’s 2019 season. She received an honourable mention in the Conducting Category of the Annual Excellence in Opera Awards (aka a Freddie). She was amazed that she made it onto quite the illustrious list of conductors while sitting down and not conducting. She is technologically challenged so this entire endeavour is basically a miracle brought about by an amazing team of people – she can take no credit for anything making it all the way from her brain to computer and phone screens around the globe! If she is not busy with Bel Canto Boot Camp she is doing Kinstretch® or cooking her way through her favourite cookbooks. www.rachellejonck.com

Derrick Goff: Co-founder

Derrick Goff is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and returns to the MET music staff in the 2021-2022 season. Derrick has recently accompanied art song recitals at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York and at Caramoor. He has enjoyed many years of collaboration with Rachelle and Will Crutchfield at Teatro Nuovo, a continuation of the young artist programme of Bel Canto at Caramoor, where he is resident as a coach, chorusmaster, and Italian teacher. Despite mostly now being paid to play the piano, he holds degrees in organ and voice from Westminster Choir College.

Derrick is always looking for something new to learn about a foreign language and can often be found with an alarmingly large iced coffee struggling to finish the NYTimes crossword.

This event is for AOTOS members only, please log in to view and complete the booking form.

Hosted by Janice V Thompson

A recording of this event will be available to AOTOS member in the resources area of the website shortly afterwards.