I made it through the first week of OFY tour in good voice and in good company. Our cast was really great...not a weak link in the bunch, everyone relaxed and happy, and ready to teach a few thousand kids about opera. I was a little sad to leave, but am looking forward to a short break back in Cincy before my next tour leg.
Before returning to Cincy, though, I've made a stop in Chicago to see Jon in Gianni Schicchi with the Dupage Opera Theater. It was a wonderful show! Almost everyone involved has been/is about to be a Ryan Center Artist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The talent level was exceptional, but more than that, everyone seemed to be having such a great time up there, and the good times continued afterwards when we went out to celebrate closing night.
It was great to meet and talk with these singers...about outreach, about finding jobs, and about how life goes on whether or not you're singing at the Met. I know I've said it before on here, but I love being a part of this family of people who have chosen the same path I have. It's very enlightening to speak with people who are a bit ahead of me on the path...I always leave these conversations reassured and glad to see how genuinely nice most singers are.
Now it's back to CIncy...after tying up a few loose ends at my old apartment, whose lease ends Monday. Then I'll REALLY be done with Chicago, for now :-( it's been fun!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Getting my Second Wind
Yesterday I started my first leg of the 2011 portion of the Opera for the Young tour. And it's so much fun! And work. I love singing for work. It's very refreshing and beginning to reaffirm my career choice once again.
It is great to have such an engaged audience...the kids don't hold anything back!
More on the tour later this week.
It is great to have such an engaged audience...the kids don't hold anything back!
More on the tour later this week.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Woodshedding
While I am waiting here, in Young Artist Limbo, it can be very frustrating and disheartening to receive these rejections and not have much going on and keep the faith that something WILL come along eventually. It always has, so now should be no different. I am stuck with the question of What to Do in the Meantime, though, and I always revert back to what I know: woodshedding and creating my own opportunities.
I am fortunate to have a found a wonderful teacher here in Cincinnati, one who is willing to work with me despite his many demands as a professor at CCM. Under his tutelage I am reworking quite a few aspects of my technique. Reworking technique is difficult because it feels like you are reverting back a couple of years in your training for awhile. And you ARE...you're going back to the time when you started to learn a bad habit (for me, this was about 2008) and fixing it. It doesn't take 3 years to fix it, but it takes a few months of patience, and relearning stamina and diction. So I'm in the middle of that now.
Once everything IS fixed, I get to put my new technique to work...this time in a new recital with Kyra, my kickass cellist in Chicago. We are doing a similar program to the one in September, in that we want to find rep that doesn't include the Baroque period. Personally, I'd like to find as contemporary a program as possible while still making sure the music is Tonal, ie: pleasant to listen to. I think that will open up our venue options once the recital is ready to perform. This challenging parameter is making me listen to A LOT of cello and soprano music these days, and I can't think of a more pleasant way to spend my time.
I am fortunate to have a found a wonderful teacher here in Cincinnati, one who is willing to work with me despite his many demands as a professor at CCM. Under his tutelage I am reworking quite a few aspects of my technique. Reworking technique is difficult because it feels like you are reverting back a couple of years in your training for awhile. And you ARE...you're going back to the time when you started to learn a bad habit (for me, this was about 2008) and fixing it. It doesn't take 3 years to fix it, but it takes a few months of patience, and relearning stamina and diction. So I'm in the middle of that now.
Once everything IS fixed, I get to put my new technique to work...this time in a new recital with Kyra, my kickass cellist in Chicago. We are doing a similar program to the one in September, in that we want to find rep that doesn't include the Baroque period. Personally, I'd like to find as contemporary a program as possible while still making sure the music is Tonal, ie: pleasant to listen to. I think that will open up our venue options once the recital is ready to perform. This challenging parameter is making me listen to A LOT of cello and soprano music these days, and I can't think of a more pleasant way to spend my time.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sloooow time
I haven't written much lately because there isn't much to report. Now that auditions are over and I'm 50% rejected, 50% waiting, and my tour doesn't pick up again for a couple weeks, I'm stuck in Cincinnati limbo.
My nanny job went well. And I just turned down a show (one of the first times ever :( ) because of financial instability.
In order to keep myself from being COMPLETELY deprived creatively, I'm planning another recital with Kyra, my cellist, this spring (very exciting!), hoping to do some woodshedding on my technique with my new teacher, and, as my new year's resolution, dancing at least twice a week down at Cincinnati ballet.
Writing more in here would probably be good too. We'll see.
My nanny job went well. And I just turned down a show (one of the first times ever :( ) because of financial instability.
In order to keep myself from being COMPLETELY deprived creatively, I'm planning another recital with Kyra, my cellist, this spring (very exciting!), hoping to do some woodshedding on my technique with my new teacher, and, as my new year's resolution, dancing at least twice a week down at Cincinnati ballet.
Writing more in here would probably be good too. We'll see.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Beaver Creek, CO
I made it up to the top of the mountains...after a 4 hour flight, 3 hour drive, with parents and 3 kids. Now we're in this GIANT awesome townhouse, and I am nannying to my little hearts content.
And the family keeps asking me to sing for them! I haven't yet...but it brings up an interesting issue among singers:
Singing for Different Groups of People. I think that audiences can be classified a few ways:
-the audition panel. Anywhere from 1-8 people, with their pencils scribbling away about you and their glances from each other to your resume to their auditor sheets to you. While it is nerve racking, I have developed ways of not paying attention to what they are doing and instead trying to PERFORM my butt off for them. It's what they prefer and it's much better than staring them down.
-"mankind" - the audience is in a darkened theater, retirement home performance space, school gym, etc., with anywhere from 50-5000 seats, and I can't SEE individual faces while I'm onstage. This, to me, is ideal. I LOVE performing for mankind. If it's an outreach situation, I can often feel the love coming from the collective group and that, for me, is why I sing. To share something that may touch others, or at least make them feel something.
and then you have this kind of group situation where I am now...people who meet you, find out you're a singer, and then say "oh great! sing something for me RIGHT NOW!" This is far more nerve racking than a staged performance, when you have others to play off of, not to mention an orchestra, costumes, and other elements to enhance what you're doing. It's also worse than an audition, where the panel is judging you...but at least you might get a job out of it. To be on the same level as a group of people who don't really know you, in close quarters (many people don't realize that an opera voice is much, much louder than a normal speaking voice), trying to give them a taste of what you do without blasting their ears out.
So far I have balked at this request, but I think I might give in. The more you share what opera is, the more educated others become, and that might be what keeps the art alive.
At least it's Christmas time so I can get away with a cheesy holiday song instead of something like Lulu.
O Holy Night it is!
And the family keeps asking me to sing for them! I haven't yet...but it brings up an interesting issue among singers:
Singing for Different Groups of People. I think that audiences can be classified a few ways:
-the audition panel. Anywhere from 1-8 people, with their pencils scribbling away about you and their glances from each other to your resume to their auditor sheets to you. While it is nerve racking, I have developed ways of not paying attention to what they are doing and instead trying to PERFORM my butt off for them. It's what they prefer and it's much better than staring them down.
-"mankind" - the audience is in a darkened theater, retirement home performance space, school gym, etc., with anywhere from 50-5000 seats, and I can't SEE individual faces while I'm onstage. This, to me, is ideal. I LOVE performing for mankind. If it's an outreach situation, I can often feel the love coming from the collective group and that, for me, is why I sing. To share something that may touch others, or at least make them feel something.
and then you have this kind of group situation where I am now...people who meet you, find out you're a singer, and then say "oh great! sing something for me RIGHT NOW!" This is far more nerve racking than a staged performance, when you have others to play off of, not to mention an orchestra, costumes, and other elements to enhance what you're doing. It's also worse than an audition, where the panel is judging you...but at least you might get a job out of it. To be on the same level as a group of people who don't really know you, in close quarters (many people don't realize that an opera voice is much, much louder than a normal speaking voice), trying to give them a taste of what you do without blasting their ears out.
So far I have balked at this request, but I think I might give in. The more you share what opera is, the more educated others become, and that might be what keeps the art alive.
At least it's Christmas time so I can get away with a cheesy holiday song instead of something like Lulu.
O Holy Night it is!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
A Short Break
Not much to report. I'm finally almost completely moved into Jon's apartment in Cincinnati, and it's starting to feel like home. Auditions are pretty much done...though I will be driving to Cleveland tomorrow for my last one of the year (woohoo!). Then I'm off to Denver for an xmas nanny gig, and then I'm back in Cincinnati until OFY picks up again at the end of January.
It's a little weird to have this break from singing. I feel more like a "normal" person, able to work, come home, cook dinner, hang out at night with no rehearsals, etc. But I also feel a little aimless. I'm pretty sure one of my auditions will work out for something next year. I'm not too nervous about that, and I think I'll feel refreshed and ready to take on any new projects that come my way.
It's good that I have some time off, as I'm still adjusting to Cincinnati...it's definitely different from Chicago! I'm in the process of meeting people, but it takes awhile to build up relationships. It is, however, WONDERFUL to finally live with Jon and not in different cities from each other. Getting to the same city was the hard part. Whatever comes next should be easy.
It's a little weird to have this break from singing. I feel more like a "normal" person, able to work, come home, cook dinner, hang out at night with no rehearsals, etc. But I also feel a little aimless. I'm pretty sure one of my auditions will work out for something next year. I'm not too nervous about that, and I think I'll feel refreshed and ready to take on any new projects that come my way.
It's good that I have some time off, as I'm still adjusting to Cincinnati...it's definitely different from Chicago! I'm in the process of meeting people, but it takes awhile to build up relationships. It is, however, WONDERFUL to finally live with Jon and not in different cities from each other. Getting to the same city was the hard part. Whatever comes next should be easy.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
In the thick of it
2 auditions Thursday, 2 auditions yesterday. Now I have the weekend off, and start up again in Chicago on Monday.
Though it is overwhelming to rattle off all my auditions when someone asks about my schedule, it is much easier to do them when it's all happening in real time.
But I will say this: being at NOLA (the audition studios in NYC) during these weeks has to be the most stressful thing I've witnessed in a while. Or at least, it should be. 100 people crowded into a tiny hallway, 3 different companies holding auditions on the same floor, everyone either making or avoiding idle chit-chat with everyone else....and I kind of like it. I feel comfortable enough in how I'm sounding and performing to think that a company will (eventually) notice and hire me. Yes, the sheer numbers are against everyone who is trying to make a go of this career. I finally feel like I have something worth sharing in the performances I give, and that's what these auditions are...mini, super-important, judged performances.
Now I'm off to Long Island to hang out with Megan, my maid of honor...getting AWAY from the giant nervous crowd of 20-something singers sounds pretty awesome right now.
Though it is overwhelming to rattle off all my auditions when someone asks about my schedule, it is much easier to do them when it's all happening in real time.
But I will say this: being at NOLA (the audition studios in NYC) during these weeks has to be the most stressful thing I've witnessed in a while. Or at least, it should be. 100 people crowded into a tiny hallway, 3 different companies holding auditions on the same floor, everyone either making or avoiding idle chit-chat with everyone else....and I kind of like it. I feel comfortable enough in how I'm sounding and performing to think that a company will (eventually) notice and hire me. Yes, the sheer numbers are against everyone who is trying to make a go of this career. I finally feel like I have something worth sharing in the performances I give, and that's what these auditions are...mini, super-important, judged performances.
Now I'm off to Long Island to hang out with Megan, my maid of honor...getting AWAY from the giant nervous crowd of 20-something singers sounds pretty awesome right now.
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