PAGE 18 • GO! MAGAZINE
COVER STORY
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
Continued from previous page
orchestra out of them, with some synth help,
and then I mix in against the picture, and
then I teach a course on film music … and
premiere their Hollywood scoring job at the
end of it.
“And I’ve just been loving it,” Thomas
said. “I get to take all the questions they can
throw at me — there’s no real time limit.
And I’m like, ‘I love talking to young musi-
cians.’”
He has 15 more such gigs lined up, and
he’s hearing from more orchestras all the
time.
“I’m like, ‘Whoa. I think I just tapped into
something,’” Thomas said.
Like a lot of established teachers, art in-
structor Ian Factor, an acclaimed painter
and the founder of the Bend Academy of
Art, has found that online teaching can be
successful — and that it’s only as good as
the effort both teacher and pupil are putting
into it.
“You can have the most enthusiastic in-
structor who’s got all the technology di-
aled in, and you just have a student who’s
checked out,” he said.
“There’s no, like, broad answer that can
say everybody’s taken to it well. Some have,
some haven’t.”
When the effort on both ends align, good
things happen, he’s found.
“I do have a group of students who were
training with me ahead of the COVID
Submitted
This screen capture from the Bend Academy of Art shows a class in progress, with instructor Ian Factor at upper left and drawings by Sue Vordenberg, a
local artist and regular student of the Academy.
thing, in person, and some of those same
students have been with me every single
class every term throughout this whole year,
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online, and they’re into it,” Factor said.
At their recent last critique of the winter
term of Bend Academy of Art, “I had a cou-
ple of students who were really just express-
ing their gratitude and their excitement with
how this whole online thing has gone for
them, and how impactful it has been, posi-
tively in their grown. So that was really ex-
citing to hear.”
Forging new paths
Singer and teacher Jacalyn and David
Kreitzer moved to Bend last year upon re-
tirement. David, a contemporary realist oil
and watercolor painter who’s been paint-
ing professionally for over 50 years, forged
ahead during the pandemic opening Kreit-
zer Arts, a gallery at 20224 Archie Briggs
Road in Bend.
“I am inspired now more than ever to
continue painting and open a gallery here,
because I believe the healing power of art is
a means of connection to relieve the isola-
tion and difficulties of these times,” David
said by email.
“The very essence of my life has been
about painting only images I believe are
beautiful, and providing healing and medi-
tation through the power of art.”
Jacalyn grew up in Bend, and in 1974,
when she was 17 and the population was
around 40,000, she moved to Los Angeles,
where she went on to earn her Master’s in
Voice Performance from the University of
Southern California.
From there, the mezzo-soprano went
on to have a 35-year career as a soloist. She
sang lead and comprimario roles with op-
era companies including the Metropolitan
Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Paris Opera
and many more, and served as a symphonic
soloist with major orchestras from Los An-
geles to Prague.
After retiring from her career, which in-
cluded 24 years of teaching voice and pro-
ducing opera at California Polytechnic State
University in San Luis Obispo, California,
she and David decided to move back to
Bend.
That’s only semi-retired: Jacalyn still
teaches voice lessons privately, and said that
her revelation has been to help her students
in this trying time by waiving fees.
“I realized my former and new voice stu-
dents I am teaching virtually felt lost during
such isolation,” she said by email. “Many of
them had auditioned for and secured sing-
ing engagements around the U.S., and then
lost the contracts because of company fi-
nancial uncertainty. I realized the best way
to help was to perk them up by teaching for
free (my teachers … first Robert Preston at
Bend High and then Herta Glaz at USC did
that for me) and inspire them to use this
time to PREPARE. It’s not easy, but a regime
must be followed. The vocal and mental and
physical health must be strengthened and
maintained and skills improved to prepare
for openings and new shows and new audi-
tions.”
Jacalyn had originally planned to open a
physical studio in Bend “in order to concen-
trate on helping those with neurological dis-
ease to re-attain vocal plasticity,” she said.
That’s one thing COVID-19 can only de-
lay, not prevent, she said.
“We will reopen, and I will do this.”
e e
David Jasper: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com