Another Month Flown By

In 3 weeks and 1 day, I will be married! With all of the wedding madness, I haven't had time to practice or prepare much. However, 5 days after I get married, I will have to go and sing for my CCM opera audition. So I'm going to go and pick up a score or two this weekend. Along with finishing my last week of teaching, making cake toppers, crafting the name tags, figuring out flowers, trying to get in shape....I could go on but it's 10am and I'm already exhausted. The good kind, though.

I should probably write at least one post this month

You know how it is...when you have interesting things to blog about, you are far too busy to write. Whenever I don't post in here for awhile it means I have zero down time due to work. This time, it's not so much singing work as: -wedding planning, which is really coming along. It's going to be beautiful, and filled with music (some of it original compositions by my ridiculously talented fiancee). -MOVING. we just switched to a slightly better apartment, and have been transporting one tiny carload after another to make the transition. -Teaching. 26 students at the moment, all of them wonderful. I'm going to be sad when I downsize my roster at the beginning of the school year, but am confident with my replacement choices. -Learning. I'm hoping to get my first DMA recital done in the first semester, so I'm cramming some Rorem, Debussy, and Rossini in my head this summer. Not to mention preparing for those pesky pre-tests in history and theory. Oy. So that's it right now. I think it's enough. I'm also covering Cincinnati Opera's season for David's Voice again, so much of my writing energy goes there. Hopefully once that's done I'll get back on top of this thing. Happy summer, everyone.

Backstage at the Piazza

I'm sitting here, just having finished Act I with a nice break before I'm on stage again. FINALLY a moment to write! Here are some bullet pointed updates: -I will be attending CCM in the fall, working towards my Doctorate of Musical Arts! I'm having a weird sort of reverse senior-itis these days, itching to go BACK to school, but still dealing with responsibilities of my current job(s). Everything worked out well and the choice of CCM became clear. I'm so happy to be able to stay with my teacher and to have secured an assistantship to finance my education. -Wedding plans are coming along well. One of the highlights has been choosing our ceremony music with Jon! It must be similar to a master chef planning their wedding menu. We had an enormous selection of music to choose from, not only from the classical but also Jewish genres. I am so excited to share the music we love and appreciate every day with our relatives an friends. -I have an upcoming performance of Die Schaspieldirektor (once again singing Mme. Herz) on June 9 and 10. Info for that show can be found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/44388989/mozart-opera-double-bill After that show, I'm planning on putting together my first DMA recital, getting married, moving, and continuing to teach. Oy, it never ends. I love it.

Rush and Crash

One of the interesting things about this career is you have periods of extreme stress followed by periods of NOTHING. In the past 2 months, I had about 10 auditions, 2 operas, and 1 concert, in addition to my teaching responsibilities. Now all of that is over. On the horizon I have a soloist concert, a recital, and a show, but for these couple of weeks, I have very little to do. I usually enjoy the quiet for 2 days and then go a little crazy. But I remember what one of my coaches in undergrad would tell me: find the pockets of time between hectic periods to do everything you can't do during the storm." Here's a list of what needs doing before the crazy starts up again:

-wedding planning (invitations, band list, centerpiece design)
-learning music for the next series of events
-TAXES
-pick a school and figure out where I'm going to be in the fall.

A pretty weighted list when I see it all written out. Yikes. Time to get over the perceived "calm" and make some of this list disappear.

Greetings from Florida!

I'm in my hotel room near FSU, getting ready for my audition and interview. It's amazing how different things are down here - the weather, the landscape. It's beautiful, and a nice reminder that opera is everywhere and maybe I don't have to live in a cold climate to pursue this crazy career.

More later...

3/8"

This is how long the average set of female vocal cords are. Opera singers tend to demand a lot from such a small muscle. I try to baby mine as much as possible, but sometimes they give out for no apparent reason.

This week has been one of those times. what started out as a slight scratching on Monday turned into full-blown laryngitis on Thursday, despite epic amounts of sleep, tea, gargling and steaming. I had just been congratulating myself on not getting sick so far this winter! Spoken too soon.

The damage from this bout of illness isn't too great. I did cancel one audition today, having learned my lesson from MANY auditions performed in less-than-perfect vocal health: If you are sick, DON'T sing! There is always next year if you cancel. If you don't, the judges may think that's how you sing at your peak, and as a result never hear you again. As much as it pains me to miss out on an opportunity, I didn't miss anything crucial and I have some very important auditions and performances in the near future for which I need to rest up.

Nothing is more frustrating for me than throat illness. It is the same as a dancer breaking their foot....when I can't sing, I can't work. Luckily most of my income is from teaching at the moment, which I can croak out for a couple of days, as long as I am silent the rest of the time. Hopefully taking this weekend as easy as possible will set me up for next week in good voice.

Check out my website, www.samanthastein.com, for a few exciting upcoming performances!

Now back to bed.

The Next 5 Weekends

I will be out of town for auditions. 2 road trips and 3 flights, all to determine where I'm going to be 2 days after the wedding until my Artist Diploma and/or Doctoral degree is finished. I feel prepared for all my auditions, though the process was rigorous. I had to learn 5 arias and a recital to perform, as well as review music history and theory for qualifying exams. Thanks to my BM and MM training, I was able to get ready for these auditions in a timely manner.

While I've been doing all this, I've maintained a studio of about 25-30 voice and piano students. Some of THEM are also getting ready for auditions...for local shows, school plays, and college auditions. While I'm trying my best to help them prepare, I've realized I can't force them to be ready. They have to come to it on their own. I can't memorize a monologue for someone, or chart their audition schedule. All I can do is share with them the tools I've acquired for proper preparation, and hope that they listen. But I am grateful to everyone who helped ME realize what it takes to be ready for something. My parents, who helped me schedule and audition for 10 different colleges. My teachers in undergrad, who taught me how to make a spreadsheet to track auditions (and expenses!) And my Graduate school seminar, which forced us to do mock audition after mock audition until it felt like auditioning was my job. Guess what? For the next 5 weeks, it is!