While at the Kennedy Center to reprise her acclaimed Mostly Sondheim concert (Aug. 14-18), Tony Award winner Barbara Cook will offer a master class in the art of singing on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

Held at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, "A Master Class with Barbara Cook" will consist of Cook and six singers, whom the legendary actress singer will work with in front of a live audience. Cook's classes have become somewhat legendary themselves; in a recent interview Cook explained, "The main thrust of what I do in these classes is attempt to have each person get in touch with his or her 'emotional well' so to speak. I want them not to 'perform' for us, but to have the courage to 'be' for us — to learn to trust whatever is unique in them."

The Washington Post reports that the six singers who will comprise Cook's class include Judy Simmons, Jennifer Ridgway, Wendy Lane Bailey, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Tim Tourbin and Patrick O'Neill. About the upcoming class, Ridgway told the Post, "I am petrified. I've actually gotten three voice lessons in this past week . . . There's so much I could learn [from Cook]. I get caught up in the technique of actually singing the song. . . . I think I let it — one feeling, one emotion — shape the entire song, instead of having beats and moments within the song."

Tickets to the 2:30 PM class, which is open to the public, are priced at $5 and are available by calling (800) 444-1324 or by going on-line to www.kennedy-center.org. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is located in Washington, D.C. at 2700 F Street, NW.

Barbara Cook's Mostly Sondheim concerts are part of the Center's much-in-the-news Sondheim Celebration, which celebrates the composer by presenting six of his classic musicals: Sunday in the Park with George, Company, Sweeney Todd, Passion, A Little Night Music and Merrily We Roll Along.