Charlotte Finnegan Quirke and Olivia Abbattista are studying voice at Interlochen Arts Camp.
They came by IPR’s Studio A to perform music of Mozart and Handel and to talk about their lives and their camp experiences this summer..
Charlotte is a 16-year-old soprano who comes to Interlochen from Dublin, Ireland.
She sang a piece by Mozart called “The Violet” with pianist Katiann Nelson.
She enjoys singing it partly because it’s a song with a story, which helps her work on her acting skills.
Her preparation has served her very well: in March of 2022 she won a major annual music competition in Ireland with a performance of this song!
“There’s a festival in Ireland every year called the Feis Ceoil. It’s kind of the big music festival, and I was in the under-16 category. Anyone who’s Irish or living in Ireland can enter. And yeah, it went well!”
In addition to her singing, Charlotte is an avid field hockey player, having participated in the sport for over 10 years.
Olivia is originally from Brunico, Italy and now lives in London, England.
The 17-year-old soprano has really enjoyed camp activities like the Tuesday morning Polar Bear swims.
She performed an aria from Handel’s oratorio Messiah called “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” with pianist Tina Chou.
This piece contains many fast musical lines that demand a lot of vocal agility.
The soprano shared that she was apprehensive at first about learning these runs, but now she really enjoys singing them.
“When I first saw the piece I was very nervous about learning the runs, but now they’re probably my favorite part of the song.”
As she was born in the snowy Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy, Olivia loves skiing with her family.
Charlotte studies voice at Interlochen Arts Camp with Peg Plambeck, and Olivia studies with Dr. Ian Greenlaw.
Special thanks to voice area coordinator Dr. Autumn West, and to Stefan Wiebe, who engineered this edition of Studio A.
