Marla Kuchuk

Marla Volovna was born in New York of Russian parents. She earned her Bachelor of Voice degree from the New England Conservatory, Boston. She also earned a MFA in Opera direction from Indiana University Bloomington. Ms Volovna won a scholarship to study in Salzberg, Austria under the tutelage of Susan Anders at the Mozarteum where she earned an equivalent MM in Voice. She then left for private study in Italy under Maestro Valdamiro Badiali and Sara Corti and made her operatic debut in Besancon, France, as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma. She has performed the Verdi Requiem in Paris and Bordeaux, radio broadcasts of Mahler's Kindertoten Lieder in France, Darius Milhaud's Return of the Prodigal Son and Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesesllen for the RAI, Italian Radio. Among the roles she has sung in Europe and America are Olga and Filipievna in Tschaikowsky's Eugene Onegin, Taven in Gounod's Mireille, Fenena in Verdi's Nabucco, Astarto in Bononcini's Astarto, Nancy in Fowtow's Martha, Baba in Stravinsky's Rakes' Progress, the Mother in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Carmen the Witch in Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel, Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Adah in Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, and the Second Lady in Mozar'ts Magic Flute. Ms. Volovna frequently directs for the Apollo Opera and received extraordinary acclaim for Carmen, Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto, Dido and Aeneas and  Amahl and the Night Visitors. She is the opera director for the bay area, "Marin Baroque" and has directed, Venus and Adonis(Blow), Dido and Aeneas, Handel's Acis and Galatea and numerous evenings of baroque opera scenes. Ms. Volovna is a renowned voice teacher who has taught voice, and voice related courses, as well as acting for singers  both privately for the last 25 years and at the University level for 13 years. Ms, Volovna has taught masterclasses in Opera in China, South America, at the Opera Institute of the Colon Theater, Buenos Aires and in California with Complete Package Performer.

I have been teaching for 30 years and each student is unique. I watch to see what the student's challenges are and work specifically to make it possible for the student to discover his own voice and overcome those challenges.  I give a very solid technical base so that the student can increase range, carrying power, be able to use  nuance, bridging of registers,etc . One of my student won 1st prize in the Met Opera Competition and in many students have won other competitions in the US. This attests to the efficacity of this technique, but it also works equally well not only for the classical genre, but for all genres of singing.