Dear Gordon and Bill, After much thought and discussions with many people, including George, I have decided not to participate in the scenes program this year. Unfortunately, I don't feel that this program will benefit me in any positive way. It has been a negative experience from the very first day at auditions, and has progressively worsened. I am extremely disappointed with the decision that was made, as I have already expressed. The fact that you couldn't even come to me and say "you should work on…" is very disappointing. Silly for people to think we are in a school and people should be given the opportunity to learn something… As for the reason that I did not "rehearse" in the Read-Through is because it was a read-through. Apparently I am not aware what a read-through is, and this is something that should have been brought to my attention. Bill, you were sitting in the back of the rehearsal for 3 hours; you could have easily walked 20 feet toward me as we were changing between any of 9 scenes and told me that I should be rehearsing. I am a student and am happy to admit that I have a lot to learn, but I expect that the educators around me to have the ability to actually educate. Of course I am new to this. I still don't know the hierarchy of everything, and when I had 3 coaches in a room, I was not quite sure who took what role. When it comes to this, I certainly learned to ignore everyone, and just do what I need to do. My official start date was the 18th of October. I was never told until just a couple of weeks before the run through that I would be starting sooner. This is something that is unacceptable in the professional world. We should have signed a contract at the beginning of the year to set an actual schedule, including my responsibilities. When I said that my rehearsals begin on the 18th at our meeting, I was told that those are staging rehearsals at that point. If that was the case, was a 1 day marathon of all scenes the only true rehearsal I would get? I certainly don't have the ability to do that, and neither does the coaching staff. Speaking as Vice-President of Student Council: As I have been a part of Student Council for many years, I know that students are continuously complaining about the opera department (the only one we seem to get complaints about). I myself have represented the Student Body in front of the Faculty Council as a third party to address their concerns about the opera department in the past. I would have never imagined that I would be involved with the opera department at the time, so I thought that it was possible that the students were overreacting. I now see that they are not. I am not someone who gets intimidated or affected by negativity, which is why I am being as honest as I can be. I do not believe in hiding things to protect my reputation when things are just not working the way they should. Singers, however, are taught to be nice to everyone and not complain about anything. Since it was decided that I was no longer conducting the scenes, I've had over 10 singers, some who I am not even friends with, tell me how upset they were at the situation. The complaints ranged from what was done to me, to the fact that a different tempo is taken for many of the pieces each time they rehearsed with their new conductor. Unfortunately, many of them lack the backbone to just be honest with the staff, so that the staff may learn something in return. If all these singers, who really dislike the conductor in front of them, would stand up and say "we will not perform for you," what action would be taken? I've had the opportunity to work with Tom Muraco the last couple of years, and he has certainly taught me a lot. It really is amazing to see what a positive experience people have working in his seminar as opposed to what happens every year in the opera department. As one student recently told me, "I've learned more the last two weeks with Tom than I did all of last year with the opera department." This is the type people that should be working in the department; people who have endless knowledge and want to pass it on to their students. They do not sugar coat things when something is wrong and talk about them behind their backs once they leave, as was the case in auditions. I don't remember a positive comment for more than maybe a handful of people. This is not the way a school should be operating. We are not in an opera house and everyone should have the opportunity to learn. People pay too much money to come to this school, the money that goes toward your paychecks, to have you talking about them the way that you do. Instead of focusing on the positive and ways to improve, everything is about the negative, which is completely wrong. At one point in our meeting, you said that it makes you a bad educator if you were picking on me as the "little guy." Of course I don't think you were picking on me, however, you should re-evaluate what a "good educator" is. I hope you realize that this is an honest letter. I truly do not hold any anger or resentment, as you might think. I simply want to help make this school the best it can be, and if people don't stand up and address certain issues, they will never be changed. I hope that everything works out for the best, so that the rest of the students come away with a positive experience in the scenes. Sincerely, Joshua Bavaro