And now for something completely different

I've been published in something other than this blog!

I was recently hired as a writer for David's Voice, an e-zine for young Jewish people in Cincinnati. As a result my foray into marketing/PR/journalism, they took me on and my first submission was published in this week's edition. Check it out here:

http://davidsvoice.org/blog_post.aspx?id=3780

yay.

And now back to being a starving artist.

Crossover

I've been getting more comfortable with this new technique and the imagery that comes with it.

One interesting side effect: I'm finding that I'm able to sing Musical Theater much better than I used to. That's not to say I've turned into a belter. I'm just finding that the forward placement makes for clearer diction and a steadier vibrato, so Rogers and Hammerstein is fitting like a glove.

....and a company or two may be starting to notice :)

But for now I'm totally focused on a Barber piece that I have to sing in an upcoming competition. I hope it goes well!

Bit of a Breakthrough

It's been almost 2 years since I finished my Master of Music degree. 2 years ago, I had just been contracted to sing Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at Bay View, I'd become newly single, I was all set to move in with 4 of my best friends in the fall, and was feeling basically on top of the world about my life. (At least that's how I remember it now. I probably was all angsty and moody in reality, but all that matters is what you remember, right?)
After that summer, things were still going well...I'd met fiancee there and had good performing experiences...but my vocal technique had been called into question. The interpretation of the technique I'd been given during grad school was completely incorrect. I decided that it was time to get a new teacher.

I had NO IDEA how difficult it would be to find a new teacher. I was coaching semi-regularly but hadn't found a technician. I didn't find a teacher I could see on a regular basis until 4 months ago. He's on faculty at CCM and by the time I found him, I had developed some pretty nasty habits in trying to undo the incorrect "mastery" of my old technique. These past few months have been frustrating beyond belief...I've had to keep singing, on tour and elsewhere, with what I felt was not the best presentation of my voice. I also went through audition season feeling like I was selling people a sub-par version of myself. It was embarrassing on some level, but mostly it felt like a waste of a year.

Well, last week I had a lesson and something my teacher told me FINALLY clicked. I started to ignore how I was sounding in my head, didn't do ANYTHING with my jaw or throat, and tried to let my entire vocal mechanism just "be." And guess what? it worked. I started feeling an immense buzz in my "mask" (the bones of your nose and cheeks), and it was as if all my phonation was sitting on an invisible shelf between my soft palate and an imaginary horizontal line drawn from my upper teeth to the back of my throat. I went home, and didn't sing the rest of the day. The next day I could sing for an hour without getting tired. That hadn't happened in 2 years. I've been singing for 30-60 minutes each day since then. I had another lesson yesterday, and it was the most successful one I've had in a long time. I dug out a piece that people have been saying is "right for me" but until last week felt all wrong...like I was guessing if notes would even come out or not. I was able to sing the whole piece without tiring or losing a note.

I'm cautiously optimistic right now. I've made mistakes of oversinging in the past when I made a vocal discovery, and the result was losing my voice from pushing too hard. I also want to make sure I can use this technique without it affecting my overall stage presence in a negative way. I don't think it will, as most of my tension has been released not only from my jaw but the rest of my body as well. I have a competition soon and hopefully this new way of singing (or, more of a returning to the old way before the interference of technique) will serve me well!

Getting Back to my Roots

I returned home to Cincinnati this week after almost 6 weeks away...3.5 of opera tour, 2 of nannying in Palm Beach. While I was in Florida, I was able to see a few relatives...my aunt, who spends her winters down in Boca, and her son, my cousin, who was visiting her. My cousin is 12 years older than me, so we were never that close growing up. He was a bigger version of my older brother...complete with teasing.

However, as I've gotten older and gone through college and my early 20's, I find that my cousin and I have more in common than I previously thought. I always felt kind of like the black sheep in my family...my dad and brother are computer geniuses and my mother works with disabled kids...so everyone has the smartest or most compassionate jobs, and then there's me. I have often wondered why I have certain traits...excessive energy, a penchant for going out to the clubs occasionally, a restlessness that no one else in my nuclear family seems to exhibit. My brother met his wife when he was 14. My parents are happy going out or staying in. Everybody is ridiculously responsible and content with their lives. This isn't to say I'm not content with my life, but I always felt that I should constantly be searching for something more. But this past weekend made me realize that my cousin and I are VERY much alike in these ways. We had a blast going out and enjoying the atmospheres that I so rarely find other singers or my family enjoy. It was a comfort to know that my energies come from SOMEWHERE genetically.

Now I just have to find a way to channel them into successful singing....