"To everything, Skok applies shining tonal resources
and a sense of expressive urgency that is palpable.”
(Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Reviews
Master Classes
"Your class [at] Princeton was spectacular. The improvements that you imparted to each of the singers was for me, very dramatic. I attend Master Classes because they help me listen to performances with more focus, sensitivity, and understanding. Thank you for a most enjoyable and educational afternoon!"
"Brava! For your performance on the web. Your master class, that we were privileged to attend at Opera New Jersey today, was one of the best we have ever seen. We are opera fanatics and have been for at least 70 years. We plan to research our Met programs for your performances. Thank you."
Heidi Skok's Students
Long-time Skok student Claudia Huckle has become an international sensation for her "rich contralto". Read more about this important artist at www.claudiahuckle.com.
"Harp and marimbas accompanied the mesmerising mezzo Claudia Huckle, who played the Duchess."
"Claudia Huckle (Zaida), seduces with her warm mezzo soprano, it has not only an immense radiant power, but especially excels in its strikingly agile phrasing."
RESONANZ Albany Summer Intensive Festival
Experience shines amid opera students
at Resonanz Albany Summer Festival
Friday, August 6, 2010 — Schenectady Daily Gazette
"The Resonanz Albany Summer Festival production of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites proves you don't need a huge budget to create something riveting and special. On Thursday night at the Arts Center of the Capital Region's small theater, a capacity crowd of about 100 was mesmerized by a production pulled together on a shoestring, but with talent on its side.
"Resonanz is a three-week intensive opera training program, now in its second season, founded by former Metropolitan Opera singer Heidi Skok. This summer the program attracted 24 young singers and that inspired Skok to take a chance to present an opera. Because the Poulenc requires little scenery but has a lot of singing and character studies, it was a good choice. She was even luckier in that contralto Lucille Beer lives in town and that after so many years of not singing at the Met, Beer consented to try her hand again at opera. Beer sang the role of Madame de Croissy, the mother superior of the convent....
"Everyone sang well in the large cast. Diction of the English words was exceptionally clear. With the audience barely 10 feet away, everyone was focused and intent on the action. As Blanche, Katherine McDaniel sang with a bright clear voice that was strongly projected, and she did well acting in a natural way with an animated face. Caitlin Felsman as Mother Marie and Melanie Shank as Sister Constance, Blanche's friend, were also strong. Adrien Gleason as her brother sang and acted with forcefulness and Drew Pulver as her father was smooth and eloquent. But the real force and magnetic center of this production was Beer. Her low voice was so smooth it was like caramel and her phrases were sculpted with precision and clarity. The power of her acting was a force unto itself. With her years of experience, she knew how to lend her character depth. The way she used her large blue eyes to glance at Blanche almost with suspicion, the tiredness and pain in her face and body seemed real. She was a marvel. Everything radiated out from her.
"Sam Emanuel provided piano support, Benjamin Spierman directed with pacing and a practical use of the space."
Heidi Skok's Performances
"Soloist Heidi Skok was a golden presence in the Dvorak, especially when she sang in dialogue with the tenors and basses."
“Heidi Skok may be the major voice of the next century. [She] sang with the poise of veterans a good decade older and commands a soprano range that projected like high beams on a black velvet night.”
“More, I am sure will be heard from Heidi Skok (Countess), who demonstrated wonderful control and an accessible trill for her big aria ‘Dove Sono.’”
“Both 'Porgi Amor' and the beautiful recitative 'E Susanna non vien' called to mind nothing less than the young Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Miss Skok’s characterization doubtless will grow, but what a thrill to catch the beginning of what will become a great Mozartian portrayal!”
“…. Miss Skok is blessed with one of those voices that lingers in the memory.”
“Heidi Skok, who played the young Micaëla, exuded a sweet innocence and brought out the youthfulness of her character. Her portrayal was genuine and her voice crystal-clear.”
“In the opening work, Vivaldi’s little cantata 'All’ombra di Sospetto', attractively sung by Heidi Skok, a soprano, Mr. Hulbert, a flutist, had little more than a supporting role in the two arias….”
“….and the very best singing of the night came from little Heidi Skok as the Second Naked Virgin—one of those role names one dreams of listing in a program bio.”
CD Reviews
“American soprano Heidi Skok is a wonderfully vibrant interpreter of Ned Rorem’s “Women’s Voices”, a cycle of 11 songs set to texts by female poets. Like other Rorem works in the form, the pieces fall meaningfully on the ear. The music is ardent, biting and vigorous keenly molded to the shape of the words and full of heart felt emotion. Songs by Martin Hennessy, the disc’s insightful pianist, fill out the program, and they too, overflow with poignant and dramatic splendour. To everything, Skok applies shining tonal resources and a sense of expressive urgency that is palpable.”
“The Rorem is framed on this CD by two groups of songs composed by Martin Hennessy, who accompanies soprano Heidi Skok in the entire program.Of these, “In the Stillness”, a love lyric to Hennessy’s own verse, is particularly attractive. Throughout, Skok’s clear, direct music making gives the works their profile.”
“…Skok sings Hennessy’s music with abandon.”