I can hardly believe it. I'm sitting just a few feet away from opera superstar Sherrill Milnes, one of the greatest baritones of all time, as he coaches a young soprano in how to approach an aria from La Bohème. "You have the lines memorized, but the character doesn't," he tells her. "Use the rests as if you're thinking of what to say next."
The soprano has a strikingly beautiful voice, and I'm floored by her talent, but Milnes interrupts her again and again, suggesting a different phrasing, a new emphasis, better language articulation. "Take a breath when your lungs are half empty," he advises. "You can go from half to full, but if your lungs are empty, you don't have time to go all the way to full."
The soprano obliges; the result is more gorgeous than ever.
Where am I? Milan? Paris, London, New York? Not at all: I'm in downtown Tampa, at the Patel Conservatory of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. This success story is happening here.
The Patel Conservatory begins its fifth year this week, and it's one of the best things that's ever happened to the arts in the Bay area. In fact, for those of us native to these parts, memory offers nothing else that's even close. Offering scores of classes in dance, music, opera and theater to adults and children, the Patel makes the performing arts available to anyone who's interested — and there are even scholarships for those who can't afford full tuition. Here, a 4-year-old can take her first violin lessons; a 45-year-old can learn to act on camera; a budding rock guitarist can be placed with other musicians to learn ensemble work culminating in an end-of-session "blowout" before an admiring audience. You can learn in groups or one-on-one, study jazz or classical, tap or flamenco, ballet or hip-hop. And you don't have to leave town to do it.
That's nothing less than startling.
The head of the Patel — her title is "Vice President of Education" — is Wendy Leigh, who in earlier years was best known as the scrappy artistic director of the Loft Theatre. I sat down with Leigh recently to discuss the Patel and its many accomplishments. One of the first questions I asked was: How many people — kids and adults — actually take part in Patel programs? "Well, it varies session to session," she said. "Let's just say this past summer we had 1,445 over 12 weeks, ages 2 through, I want to say, their 80s. We had 48 summer camps and 31 courses over that 12-week period."
As to a full year's participation, the fact that there's some overlap makes her figures only approximate, but Leigh estimated "probably cumulatively throughout the year we serve about three to four thousand. … Although we do see a lot of repeats — some of them are really growing up with us here."
Lest anyone think that the Conservatory is mostly for kids, Leigh points out that the adult/children mix is 50/50. "Already, introduction to ballet [for adults this fall] has 20 students signed up out of 20 possible in the class. Adult acting is always the first to sell out. … James Crumbly's adult jazz voice ensemble, [an] amazing group of women that's come up; we've got a pediatrician, a financial advisor, a USF professor, a stay-at-home mom, an eclectic blend, and they're dynamite, they're really, really great. And we have Kyle White's tap classes — we have three now, for adults."
Leigh doesn't think that the grownups who take these classes so avidly are looking for a career change. "I think it's a re-found joy of creativity," she said. For example, there are adults who once trained in ballet but then moved on to other things. "That doesn't mean they don't love it, their bodies aren't craving it and that they won't enjoy the challenge and the exercise," Leigh said.
On the other hand, adults may be attracted to the acting classes because after a lifetime of watching plays, movies and TV, they just want to try it — and there are no auditions to get through. "Anybody can sign up," she said.
As for kids in Patel classes, Leigh believes that many will go on to careers in the performing arts: "Many, many are serious about a career. We have two pre-professional programs, [including] the Orlando Ballet School. We're the only dance school in the area associated with a nationally recognized, established professional company … And many of our PCYO — Patel Conservatory Youth Orchestra, which has performed at Carnegie Hall twice, by invitation — they will go on to Juilliard; many of the ones in the concert strings will go on to Juilliard and take it up as a career."
As for the cost of classes, whether for children or adults, Leigh thinks it's reasonable: "I want to say it ranges from $11-$13 an hour. It can go from a 45-minute class to a three-hour class; they average about an hour, hour-and-a-half. Most of [the classes] are weekly." A few classes are more arduous. For instance, upper-level ballet classes can meet as much as six times a week.
There's more — for example, the Conservatory's recent outreach project, "an amazing program with Metropolitan Ministries," in which Patel instructors teach ballet to 75 homeless kids, who will also be offered theater and music in the coming year. Put it all together — and don't forget the great Sherrill Milnes, teaching a few yards from the Hillsborough River — and you've got one of the most exciting arts stories in all of the Bay area, in some ways more important than any hit play or blockbuster dance concert.
Leigh believes that word is still getting out. "I think we're still new," she said. "I think the community is very spread out, and it just takes a while to get people to know what we're doing and that we're here."
But, speaking as a Tampa native, I'm already dazzled. The Patel Conservatory is almost too good to believe.
But it's here and it's real.
For more info, call 813-222-1002.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2008.