First Dates and Auditions

I've often joked with my students that auditions are like first dates and that many of the 'rules' are the same. You want to look and act your best but you also don't want to pretend to be someone that you are not. We, the audition panel, want to get to know you as an artist in those brief minutes at the audition so do your best to be open and relaxed.

 Show us your good side! Sing a starting selection that you would be sorry that we didn't hear, something that shows us the beauty of your voice immediately. Your calling card. On Broadway after hearing your monologue and seeing if you can dance the call is 'give us your best 8 bars'. That feels rather crass to an aspiring opera singer BUT we do want to hear your best bars and the sooner the better.

Wear something in which you feel comfortable and attractive. Flashy and trendy is not the best idea, go for classic. Guys, a nice dress shirt and pants are quite acceptable these days. Suits are not necessary. Girls, a dress that goes to the knees please. You would be surprised that what looks great going out on the town( even on a first date!) simply looks inappropriate on stage. Mezzo trouser role types can certainly show up in pants if you predominately sing those type of roles. Wear shoes that you can walk in , if you are having trouble navigating the stairs as you come into the space it all seems rather unnatural.

About that first date...smile, be open, let us see you and experience your artistry.

Football and Opera: Twins separated at birth

 I was reminded of the topic of opera and football by a recent posting by my friend and colleague Rebecca Hass. Her post included a link to an article about the coaching style of Chuck Noll and drew parallels in terms of habit and practice as well as keeping focused on what is ahead. My son and I have long joked that the 'real' common bond between opera singers and football players is that they all have big heads!  


People have been riffing on the topic of the link between football and opera for years and there are several wonderful examples of amazing people who actually have done both!  Morris Robinson, the wonderful American bass, was a colleague of mine at the Met and a nicer man you will never meet. When he found out that my son was into football, he offered to chat with him a bit about it and give him some tips. He was true to his word: we snuck into List Hall at the Met ( where many a singer has sweated at an audition) and Morris showed Julian some moves. My husband snapped a pic which we proudly title "The Met Bowl" ( see stylized photo above). Morris was an offensive guard at The Citadel before he was lured to the opera stage.

Keith Miller is another Met colleague who played ball, he was a fullback for the University of Colorado  and went on to play a bit in Europe and was scouted by the Denver Broncos. He has done wonderful things in terms of melding the physicality of the athlete to the opera singer. See the link below and his Puissance Training Program. Keith also helped my son on a visit to NYC by suggesting an off season training regime for him.

Thanks again to both of those great guys for their football advice and amazing singing!

The opera/football connection scored a touchdown for me one day in the studio. I was trying to find a more tangible way to explain the concept of spinning the tone in the sound column. I think we can all agree that the desired result is for the tone to be sent forward.  The ( get ready for the 4 letter word)          
B A C K space concept…it seems so, so, so…counter intuitive. EUREKA! It is just like the quarterback. He wants nothing more than to get that ball down the field and yet the first thing he does when he gets the football in his hot little hands is to…back up! Why?

There are a number of reasons but the most important one is to buy time so he can really gain some trajectory with the ball. Are you with me on this? He gains perspective of the field and momentum; not to mention avoiding the defensive hulks who are on their way to sack him. If he stepped forward he would get short term gain but no long term spin and arc in his throw.

The place that the QB steps back into is called the pocket. Imagine that your sound column is the pocket, a secret place where you can observe and let your sound pick up colour and spin so that it really projects. The sound needs to bounce off the pharynx, ricochet off those fantastic cheek bones and sail to the back of the house. Hail Mary!


Rebecca's blog :  https://www.facebook.com/TheResonantLife 

Morris Robinson:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPUr-Lm9dMM

Keith Miller:  http://www.keithmillerbass.com

Competitions P.S.

I found the ribbon after a small search. For the record it says: New Brunswick Provincial Livestock Show 19( ahem)71. Grand Champion Team.

Thanks to Gilbert Robinson and his prize winning Jersey cattle from my home town of Harvey Station, NB for the incentive and support all those years ago!

Competitions

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Toronto's Dora Awards I feel the need to comment on competitions. I've been percolating on the subject for awhile and the topic certainly is an important one for singers. What is the function of competition and whom do they serve... particularly in the arts? With the World Cup of Soccer in full cry at the moment it gives one pause. Are we, in the arts, trying to compete to compete? Is it a basic human need to see who is the fastest, highest, or- heaven forbid- loudest?  Ack!

This brings to the fore the main flaw in arts competitions. Aren't we all trying to create and when we focus our attention on competing for a prize isn't the natural inclination to be distracted by that quest? The Dora Awards , like the Oscars, award the prizes after the season is completed so that when the show is on it is simply an act of creation and not trying to 'win' anything other than the audiences appreciation and attendance. Is that, in and of itself, a competition?

Singing competitions…sigh. We've all been in them, many of us since our tender years in the local music festival. God bless the Kiwanis Club of Canada for perpetuating these and the many other organizations who support music festivals. I, myself, first competed with the allure of winning…a ribbon as big as my head when I was at the tender age of eight. A local farmer , and friend of my parents, heard me sing in church and told me that if I simply entered the music festival that he would give me the largest of his prize heifer ribbons( I hear you sniggering!). I succumbed to the challenge, won the class and won the ribbon that I still have to this day. The beginning for me. I realized that I had an ability that might be perceived, on a particular day, as being exceptional or at the very least ( shudder) somehow superior to those of my peers. I would be lying if I said that this music festival experience in Harvey Station, NB was not formative. I eventually 'graduated' to the Fredericton Festival and onwards. The goal of the spring music festival and the possibility of winning some money and trophies was appealing and certainly kept me motivated toward something tangible.

I returned to adjudicate the Fredericton Festival this year. It was a very interesting experience as my former voice teacher is still teaching voice there. How well I remember her observations of me in festival. She recognized that I had a competitive nature she said when she saw my side long glances when others received praise. She was right though I tried my best to hide it. Perhaps one has to have a competitive urge in order to improve but could it exist in a vacuum, that is without others to spur you on to better them?

I would like to think that with maturity I learned to compete with myself but I can't say that I always resisted the urge to see what and where other sopranos of my ilk were singing. I didn't do particularly well in the few big competitions that I did enter with a couple of exceptions. I didn't take part in the Met competition but then they didn't seem to be at the forefront as they do now. One year, when I was singing at the Met, I attended the finals and wondered how I would have fared in such a high pressure competitive situation. I have heard it said that there are certain personalities that really thrive in the competition atmosphere, I was not one of those people so I avoided most of them. I preferred to do my work and hope that I would be hired based on an audition or better yet, someone seeing and hearing me in performance.

And yet…these big competitions can be a fantastic launch for singers! Several of my students have participated in some big national and international competitions in the past year. When we discussed them afterward, both those that won and those that didn't, seemed to be aware of a certain 'it is out of my hands' kind of circumstance. There are so many factors that go into the decision making. I have a bit of insight into this now that I have been on the COC jury for the COC Ensemble Studio Competition. Several of my Canadian colleagues and former Ensemble members as well as some very recent alumni felt that they would not have fared well in such a spotlight. Indeed!  On stage, at the opera house, with orchestra and not a lot of rehearsal…it takes nerves of steel and a lot of preparation to thrive. This is a typical competition scenario.

I don't think I have any particularly new insight on this topic but I will say that I council my students to focus on their  own artistry and performance knowing that the outcome of the competition is a crap shoot. BUT, these competitions are often a terrific means to be heard by a wide range of people. Many a singer has not won the competition but ended up being offered work as a result of their appearance in this high profile platform.

Bully for you!

My husband’s favourite line to me of late is 'that's a blog, you should write about it'. Often it stems from me needing to talk through a concern about 

teaching and, despite not being a professional musician, he is an excellent sounding board and support to me.

This morning, on my last morning of the Christmas holidays, we were sitting in our sun-room with the wood stove fire glowing, looking out at the frozen lake while sipping our morning tea (me) and coffee (he). I had been re-reading Julia Cameron’s book 'The Artist’s Way', as well as her two subsequent books (now available in one large and heavy volume). I was reminded of one of the exercises from the first book that had really resonated with me. It was the one where you had to write about three people who had been less than supportive, or perhaps sabotaged you in your artistic growth.

I had no trouble with it at the time. The first person that came to mind was 

someone from when I was a graduate student. He was a bully and while I learned a tremendous amount from him , he definitely undermined my confidence and development. I survived him. I remember he would imitate me and make fun of me. It hurt and did not open me up but rather made me more self conscious.

The exercise in the book involves writing down what was said to you and then writing what you wish you had said at the time, or that you could now say with more maturity and perspective. It seemed like such a simple thing to do but it felt soooooooo good. I also applied it to the second less-than-supportive person that came to mind. Interestingly enough, it involved a personal relationship that I had at the same time. It worked beautifully for that too. 

Since then I have certainly met my share of bullies/saboteurs, many of them on the podium I regret to say. Sometimes bullies need simply to be answered, politely but firmly. I remember singing with the New York Philharmonic and the conductor was blatantly bullying one singer in particular. How I admired her resolve and her professionalism as she did her job with beauty and grace no matter what he did. Often time these bullies are simply mirroring behavior that was used on them to great effect ! The culprit that I dealt with at grad school was a former Marine…

Why not begin the New Year by de-powering those bullies of the past and/or present, looking at the other side and rejoicing in the champions of the present and future?

O Canada!

During the past weekend as we observed Remembrance Day I was having several memories that didn't necessarily go with the solemnity of the occasion.Growing up my brother Erik was famous in our neighbourhood for scaring the bejinkers out of the lady next door by singing O Canada at top of his lungs into her dryer output pipe on the side of her house. Who knew that doing the laundry could elicite such strong feelings of patriotism?  My son Julian, as a child, also rejoiced in his rendition of the national anthem which included the line ' O Canada, our home and mative land!'. Spell check didn't like that one bit...

Which brings me to an exercise that I created and have been using with singers for quite some time now: the O Canada exercise. A number of years ago I had the pleasure and privilege of improving my teaching chops by filling in for a sabbatical leave at Mount Allison University. I did not have a lot of experience with undergraduates at the time and it was a real challenge to learn what their needs were in terms of vocal development.  I wanted to impress upon them the importance of trusting thought and emotion being conveyed through tone. Because this was a young group of singers I wanted to do this through repertoire that didn't 'distract' them with complexity of the musical or linguistic variety.

I came up with the idea of having them sing O Canada which, hopefully, they had known since childhood and could sing without being self conscious . I wrote a series of situations on individual pieces of paper that they would select and then have to embody while singing. For example:

You have just been rescued  from a burning building and feel relief, gratitude followed by the shock  of realizing what just happened to you.

OR

 You've just won a major prize and are elated then troubled as to how to spend the prize wisely.

OR

 You've just broken up with your significant other, you are calm and then overcome with concern about having done the right thing.


While this is an exercise for the singer in simply letting subtext flow through you while singing a very familiar song it is also interesting for the other singers observing. They are trying to read and guess what is being portrayed. The goal, it must be said, is not to guess correctly but instead to reflect what you see and hear. We have had some big laughs as others create a whole opera in their head from what they saw and heard in O Canada.I encourage the performer not to resort to too much gesture and trying to act out the scene but rather to let the thoughts pervade their sound and see what the result is.

In the interim I have used this exercise with more advanced singers at the University of Toronto where I teach as well as at my summer program in New Brunswick.  I was thwarted once when I had a singer from Bahamas who didn't know O Canada and I had to resort to Amazing Grace. It was also remarkably effective. So many interesting things come up including the unconscious instinct to change the thought with the change of harmony.

 At its heart, this is an exercise in trusting your talent and allowing integration of sound and emotion to happen. Our job, as singers, is to express and allow our audiences to project onto us what they need to see and hear. This is possible only when our own subtext is supremely clear and well conveyed.

Porcine Performance

One of my students at the University of Toronto had a personal victory today in a group class. We were all excited for her, and the other singers were amazed to hear her confess that her secret ingredient was...(drum roll please)...bacon.

Earlier in the day at her private lesson we spoke about performance energy. Petunia, not her real name, was lamenting that it was difficult for her to summon performance level energy for auditions in particular. It was a bit of a sore spot because someone had suggested that she was not the kind of singer to get jobs from auditions, but likely to get jobs from jobs (i.e. being seen in performance). While this was interesting feedback it can be rather discouraging because, as a young singer, you must audition. Heck, as a professional you must audition!

You must practice performing, just as you must practice technique. Period.

Is performance energy something that is learned, cultivated, and/or put on? I think it is all of those things. I am constantly surprised at how many singers are, in fact, shy people in the 'real world'. They love being on stage but don't necessarily need to be the centre of attention wherever two or more people are gathered. Somehow our Canadian sense of discretion can get in the way too...better not show off or we will get our come-up-ance!

Back to Petunia in the studio. In her lesson we got her body opened up and voice flowing, but it wasn't a place she went to instinctively. She felt she was way over the top for the size of my studio and her audience of two. It wasn't, and the proof is that it became vocally easier for her. Building on this I suggested that she think about channeling someone who might inspire her to be more 'diva like'. Did she have an idea? She did. I challenged her to appear at master class and be that 'diva'.

She delivered.

Imagine the hilarity in the room when after a terrific performance of  'Una voce poco fa', for which they applauded vociferously, Petunia confessed to be channeling none other than...Miss Piggy! The other singers thought that it was some of the best singing they had heard from her; vibrant and a complete performance. Petunia was stunned. She was convinced that it was too much. It wasn't.

Petunia has a lot of stage experience and is a very talented singing actor, she just needs to bring performance level energy in an audition or rehearsal. I remember Canadian pianist/coach Michael McMahon telling me of his admiration of Maureen Forrester's rehearsal style. He said she never sang a note without complete commitment to communicating the emotional meaning.

We can learn from Miss Forrester. So often we check out from the emotional connection when trying to get a certain passage note perfect or correct technically. We forget that emotion and connection are directly linked to breath and soul. It's the very essence of what we do.

A great exercise is to assign emotions or situations to vocal exercises. Here are a few suggestions:
sing that scale imaging a joyful reunion with an old friend,or that arpeggio with the dread of not knowing what the future holds or that melisma distraught at the loss of someone close to you. Keep your technique brain in close contact with your emotional brain, they might just help each other out.