Nearing the end...Nashville Day Five

Having gotten a little more sleep last night than I have the last couple of days, I had more stamina today. Following a presentation entitled, “In Search of Perfect Phonation,” I wandered over to the CD table and bought the 2 CD set of Ms. Talamantes’ recital from last night. Then, I met up with my friend AMJ from the Summer Vocology Institute (2005). He gave me a great big hug that said to me, “I’m thrilled to see you again.” We had a great chat – you wouldn’t know we hadn’t see each other for three years. Kind of like IB, the SVI is a challenging, transforming experience that really draws together those who go through it together. He told me that JJ (also from our SVI class) was upstairs scoping people for Dr. Sataloff’s voice study, so I wandered up there and said hello to her.

Then, I gave in to temptation and bought myself another one of those heavenly fruit tarts at the Conservatory Café. It’s my third one this week. They’re quite expensive, but I consider them a special occasion.

Upon running into my chapter president and finding out that I wasn’t missing much by not being in the session on what it takes to “make it” in the commercial music industry, I proceeded to the swimming pool (finally!) to relax!

Next, a publisher’s showcase where we received a free song collection and enjoyed a short recital, followed by the long-awaited presentation by Dr. Robert Sataloff. As his work is a vocology staple, I stuck around and had my picture taken with him and thanked him for his contributions to the field. He struck me as a very friendly, personable person who would probably be great to work with.

Finally, I sat through part of a presentation on helping students with performance anxiety. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold in the room and, after four days of conference sessions, my ability to focus was next to none, so I ducked out halfway through and came back to the room to relax for awhile before tonight's banquet.

To finish off the list of big names for this week, tonight's entertainment will be provided by the singing voice of Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady), Marni Nixon. (No, Audrey Hepburn did not do her own singing in that film.) This being the 50th National NATS Conference, they have really gone all out this year. It's been quite the experience. Meeting so many legends in just a few days really brings things into perspective - it makes the world smaller when the legends become real.

The rest of Day 4...

I arrived in time to hear the last half of the recital by Danielle Talamantes. I’m glad I went – it was among the most amazing recitals I have ever heard. That girl has an unbelievably vibrant voice paired with stellar acting skills. I plan to purchase a recording of the recital.

Afterward, I had a craving for ice cream, so I bought a double-chocolate drumstick at the sundry shop and enjoyed it while I strolled the deserted boardwalk and listened to the waterfalls.

From Nashville - Day Four

I’m losing steam now. These conferences take a tremendous amount of energy. This morning I enjoyed another expensive, but divinely delicious fruit tart in the conservatory before my 9 AM session on teaching kids to sing. I got a few ideas from it, but for the most part it was geared towards folks that think children are too young for voice lessons. The next session was a panel of opera company professionals talking about what they look for when they are auditioning to hire for a part. Then there were a couple of mock auditions with feedback. I took a lot of notes.

Lunch was the 2nd Leadership Summit. It was a nice three-course plated lunch. At the end of the meeting, I made an announcement about the collaboration I am involved in with the Texoma Region for acquiring tabulation software for our student auditions. Several people came up to chat with me about it afterwards, which was exactly what I wanted. That 15-second announcement will be worth its weight in gold when it comes to trying to share the financial responsibility for this project. In that regard, my trip to the national conference was extremely well-timed. I also found out that a friend of mine from SVI 2005 arrived at the conference yesterday. I left him a voicemail and am hoping I have an opportunity to see him while I am here.

After lunch was the master class with Dawn Upshaw. As usual, I snagged a front row seat and captured bits of it on video. It was much more engaging than the Sherrill Milnes class, but she was intentional about not discussing vocal technique, instead addressing interpretational issues, which are generally rather subtle changes in singers of high caliber, as these were. The amusing thing was that in both the Milnes and Upshaw classes, they began with the piano lid raised on the short stick: Milnes immediately closed the lid with a comment about how it should always be closed when accompanying singers, while Upshaw immediately lifted it to full stick, suggesting that the singer use it as a sounding board. Ms. Upshaw continued to impress me as a very down-to-earth, sincere individual. I was sad that she had to leave rather quickly afterward so that I had opportunity neither for a photo with her nor a handshake & hello.

Following my 2nd afternoon session, I met up with other board members from my region at the regional governor’s room for wine and chips. We had some very engaging discussions about the guest artists and the judging from this year’s NATSAA competition.

After that, I returned to my room where I sit wondering how to proceed with my evening. This evening’s artist recital, featuring the NATSAA winner from the last conference, begins in five minutes. I would like to hear her, and I am particularly interested in hearing her last set, but I am also very tired and want to be mentally and physically fresh for another long, busy & exciting day tomorrow. I have also really wanted to go to the pool sometime while I am here, but so far haven’t had time. At least having done my journaling a little early, I will be able to get to bed earlier tonight.

Sorry so long...some personal discovery... Nashville, Day Three

Yet again, how did I fit all of this into one day!?

My roommate and I started the day by attending at 7:15 breakfast meeting, part one of the Leadership Summit. We were recognized again as Young Leaders, and as a current and future officer, I was glad to be there to hear the organizational-type discussions. If only it hadn’t been so early….!

After that, I attended Martha Elliott’s session on vocal performance practice based on her book, Singing in Style. She waved to me before the session began, and in the introduction to her presentation, she recalled our conversation from last evening about how I used her book as the starting point for my research, and then she thanked me by name. I felt special – not just a face in a crowd or just one reader out of many thousand. I know, I know… it’s the little things.

In the brief time between that session and the next master class, I visited the exhibition hall and was sidelined at the first booth to chat with my regional governor, who thoughtfully invited me (and some others from our region) to a gathering in her room tomorrow evening. We started chatting about some of the presentations we had seen, and as we were discussing a technique Shirlee Emmons introduced in her master class yesterday, Ms. Emmons herself approached us. I found her to be very natural and personable, very easy to chat with and quite down to earth. I had my picture taken with her and (as with Martha Elliott’s) will print it and paste it into my copy of her book, which is at home.

Elizabeth Blades, a colleague from my chapter, wandered our way as I was getting ready to head to the master class. We sat together at Dr. Thomas Cleveland’s master class concerning the occupational hazards of singing contemporary commercial music. It was an enlightening event all around, but I personally got a kick out of hearing some of his sound clips. He was talking about how it really doesn’t matter how well or how poorly you sing if your style of singing doesn’t match the style of the music. To demonstrate he played a recording of someone singing an aria from Handel’s Messiah… with a country twang. The person singing it did not intend it to be humorous, it just kind of came out that way, despite the fine quality of the singing itself. Then, he played another recording featuring the same singer… I recognized it instantly as The Gatlin Brothers singing one of my childhood favorites, “All The Gold.” Same voice, same style, same twang, perfectly at home in its style of music. Dr. Cleveland noted that a few of us had “the audacity” to move to the music; under my breath, I muttered, “and sing every word along with him, thank you very much!” He was being facetious, but as Robert Edwin said in yesterday’s master class that combined classical and CCM singers, “it’s kind of like getting the Lutherans and Roman Catholics together.”

After lunch, I attended a short publisher’s showcase featuring Joan Frey Boytim, a “household name” to any teacher of young singers. She just released some new books, and we received one of them as a gift, plus a book of Schubert songs. Can never go wrong with that!

Next was the master class with Sherrill Milnes. Perhaps it was because I was starting to feel unwell, but I didn’t get much out of this class, and was actually anxious for it to end. I didn’t learn anything new from the Marilyn Horne master class in April, but it wasn’t until later that I realized it because I was still gaining some new perspective. I didn’t feel that way this time. I felt like this one was more about him than about the young singers he was tutoring. I am not sure to what extent this is due to the fact that my roommate, who had seen him before, told me that he was full of himself, or whether it was simply the reality of it, but I didn’t come away from that class feeling I had gained much of anything.

I skipped the last breakout session of the day. I’d had some interest in attending the class about countertenors, but I really just didn’t feel well, so I went back to my room to sleep for an hour and a half so that I would feel fresh for the Dawn Upshaw recital this evening. Mission accomplished.

As we entered the Ryman Auditorium, I spied someone else that looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t place her. Just a couple minutes later, she approached me to say hello. It was Kitty Eberle, another one of my professors from the SVI in 2005. The world of voice professionals really is a small world. I am amazed now how many people I know when I look around the room at this convention. I have met so many wonderful people and reconnected with many others.

The recital was beautiful. It was a private recital. Our NATS membership filled less than half of the historic Ryman Auditorium. Had they opened it to the public, it would have quickly sold out. Ms. Upshaw was very down-to-earth and conversational. Like many singers whose performances I have greatly enjoyed this week, she made singing look incredibly, deceptively easy. I have been desperately wishing my students could see and hear the performances I have seen and heard this week because they epitomize the things I keep telling them about the art of performing – and to experience it for themselves would be worth more than a thousand words. The highlight for me was when she sang my all-time favorite German Lied, “Die Bekehrte,” by Hugo Wolf.

When we boarded the bus to go to the recital, it was the first time I’d been out of the resort in over two days. I felt like I was an institutional patient being let out into the “real world” for a sojourn. Walking back through the “outside” (not “outside outside,” remember), I couldn’t help feeling again like we were in a Martian biosphere. I actually really like it, but it’s still strange.

Another person approached me this evening when we got off the bus to say that she was impressed with my voice when I sang as an impromptu subject in Kittie Verdolini’s workshop yesterday. The farther we get from the time of that event, the more it floors me that people remember me from it and care enough to say something. She also said I was very brave. I had to laugh…crazy is more like it!

I think the other reason such praise has meant so much to me and struck me as so peculiar is because I have been struggling with my voice so much lately – not so much with the voice itself, as with my energy level and my limited amount of time to devote to singing when I have been so swamped with teaching. Therefore, the last thing I would expect from people who really know “good singing” when they hear it, is praise.

My personal goal for this trip, which continues to be brushed aside by more imminent concerns, has been to redefine the role of singing in my life because it has become such a source of frustration for me. I have been very busy as a music teacher and it takes a lot out of me, such that when all is said and done, the last thing I want to do is sing. Because singing is my career, it no longer qualifies as leisure; even though I still love doing it, it definitely falls into the category of work. Don’t get me wrong – I consider myself incredibly blessed to do something I love as my work, but work is still work, and it is tiring, and one needs time away from it in order to refresh.

I think the source of my frustration is that, while I have redefined my desired career path to be that of a teacher rather than a full-time performer, I have not adjusted my expectations of myself as a performer to accommodate that shift. I know that a teacher of music must continue to perform in order to remain in touch with the artist within, but it only makes sense that if one is now devoting a great deal of energy to honing the art of teaching, something else has to give. That time and energy doesn’t come out of nowhere! Sort of a “conservation of matter” kind of philosophy.

I feel a sense of peace, relief and accomplishment at having unraveled that persistent mystery, but now comes perhaps the hardest part… accepting the change. Lowering my personal expectations of myself as a singer feels so much like quitting or giving up, even though I know that’s not the reality. I will still improve and grow as a singer, just not as quickly or perhaps as fully. This part of the puzzle will take some genuine effort and struggle, but at least I feel like I have a better understanding of the situation, and that should begin to relieve some of my anxiety.

The remaining item of note for today was that my roommate’s niece was born in San Fransisco while we were riding “home” from the recital on the bus.

From Nashville - Day Two

Wow… has all of this been one day!? I guess I should start at the beginning….

I got a good, long night’s sleep, something I will not be able to say for tonight, as I have a meeting in less than 8 hours, and I’m only now beginning to write. But at least I won’t be awakened by the cats at 4 AM. This is both a good and bad thing, I guess. I do miss them.

I spent my morning in a pre-conference workshop with Kittie Verdolini and Douglas Roth on applications of motor learning to the teaching of singing. It was, as expected, a fine review of the things I learned from her in 2005 at SVI. I introduced myself to Kittie during the first break, and she did remember me, which made me happy. She’ll be in Denver all next week at this year’s SVI, but of course, I won’t be there…! Near the end of the workshop, she asked for a volunteer student and teacher to implement what we had learned. On the spur of the moment, I volunteered to be the student. I had been noticing my jaw was very tight (and thus sore) all morning, so I figured this would end up being the item of discussion, and I was right. I have felt very tense most of the day, and I wish I knew why. Anyhow, I sang parts of Handel’s “V’adoro pupille,” and I actually didn’t think it was half bad. Nonetheless, I was still a little surprised when a couple of people approached me later with compliments. I really don’t know what possessed me to actually sing for my singing teacher colleagues, let alone in the morning and with no warm up or preparation, but I’m glad I did it. Among other things, it gave me the student’s perspective on the topics at hand.

After lunch was the opening ceremony for the conference. Sherrill Milnes delivered the keynote address. It was a hodge-podge of opera singer wisdom, most of which I’m afraid I’ve already forgotten because none of it was especially new, but it was an entertaining address nonetheless. I was a little late returning from the break for the afternoon session and encountered Mr. Milnes in the lobby, chatted with him briefly and had a photo taken with him.

The wired master class was interesting, though I’m not sure there is much to say about it here. One of the more interesting aspects was that they had both classical and CCM singers, so we were able to compare EGG and spectrographs for the different methods of production. I thought it was interesting that the last singer had a solid, strong belt sound, but was very weak and breathy in her classical sound. No connection between the two voices at all, yet the same instrument!

I didn’t have to worry about finding dinner because the master class was followed by a reception. I found my roommate, and she introduced me to Scott McCoy, who was unfortunately very distracted, and Marvin Keenze, who was very personable and was introducing me to people almost before Sarah had introduced me to him. Martha Elliott and her husband, Michael Pratt got in line behind us at the reception. Ms. Elliott’s book, Singing In Style (2006), was the starting point for my Handelian embellishment research from fall semester. I enjoyed chatting with her for quite some time and also got a photo with her since I didn’t have my copy of her book with me for her to sign. I enjoyed social time with various colleagues at the reception, but excused myself in time to take a short 30-minute nap before the evening festivities.

The NATSAA competition finals was a stellar show– all six finalists were outstanding, though I was disappointed with the results because the singer that won had atrocious diction in two of the three languages in which she sang. I know it’s not all about diction, but it was the most obvious flaw (to me) in any of the competitors. She had many excellent qualities, however, which apparently made up for her diction. The panel of judges could not have been more qualified: Shirlee Emmons, Robert Edwin, Scott McCoy, Jane Dillard and Sherrill Milnes.

Welcome to Nashville - Day One

It has been a long day already, but a good one and worth the early start. After finally getting to sleep around 12:30 this morning, I was up again at 3 AM, leaving the house by 3:30 to catch my 5:30 flight to Nashville. I read a lot of Terry Pratchett’s “Night Watch” on the flight – I am enjoying this book quite a bit – it’s very witty. I laughed out loud a couple of times.

I checked into the Gaylord Opryland Resort shortly before noon and slept for an hour before wandering out to look for lunch. I can tell that eating and drinking are going to be expensive endeavors for the next several days. But the atmosphere is beautiful. The resort is 9 acres – a whole village – under one glass roof. It’s kind of like being in a biosphere. So there’s “outside” and then there’s “outside outside.” My room overlooks the river – outside. I am presently sitting on the balcony with my feet up listening to the waterfalls and the breeze blowing through the palm trees. Yes, a breeze indoors (“outside”) and palm trees in Tennessee. They even have a large garden conservatory. They’ve got it all here. It’s a fascinating place, really, and very relaxing, which is exactly what I’ve needed. I’m in the part of the resort known as The Delta, which has a riverboat theme to it. The only downside is that there are only two swimming areas, and in a 9-acre building, they are both a bit of a hike.

After lunch, I checked in at the registration table, where I ran into my regional governor, who told me that the NATSAA semi-finals were going on upstairs. I sat in to listen to the first four singers of the afternoon. They were all excellent, and at least three of the four are better singers than I, but I was pleased that I was still able to identify in each performance several areas needing specific improvements. This is not a vindictive sort of thing; it just means that my teaching ears are good and sharp, which is an encouragement, though as my roommate stated, sometimes it would be nicer not to have sharp ears.

Throughout the competition, the timekeeper would call out the remaining time, and I would crane my neck to try to see her because the voice was so familiar to me. About halfway through, I finally got a glimpse of her and decided I didn’t recognize her, but nonetheless the voice was extremely familiar, but I couldn’t figure out who it reminded me of. It was driving me nuts.

As tired as I am, I got restless after an hour and headed back to my room. This brings us to where I was three paragraphs ago, on the balcony with my feet up. As I was typing, I was also checking out the conference program, and on page 4, I spied a familiar name from my past on an ad for the UT School of Music. She was my choir director at my church in Ohio before I moved to Colorado, and her daughter and I sang together in CSOCC. I haven’t seen her in 18 years. Underneath her name, it read, “Tennessee Regional Governor, NATS.” Considering the conference is in Tennessee, I thought to myself, “Wow, I bet anything she’s here. I wonder how I can make sure I run into her.” I continued flipping through the program, and on page 9, there was her name (again!) and picture, but this time underneath her name, it read, “NATSAA Coordinator.” NATSAA…. That’s the competition I was just sitting in on… And then, of course, it hit me… she was the timekeeper! A different hairstyle and 18 years made her not immediately recognizable to me from a distance, but had I been closer, I would have recognized her.

Needless to say, the remainder of this journal entry had to wait while I darted back over (waaay over) to the convention center. I slipped in to hear the final contestant and reintroduced myself to my choir director, who was naturally as happy to see me as I was to see her. We got to chat only briefly because, of course, she had responsibilities to attend to for the contest, but we’ll be here a few more days and we did get a picture just in case time gets away from us this week.

I came back to the room and was just starting to journal again when my roommate arrived. We had only chatted a couple of times by email, but when she came in, she gave me a big hug like we were old friends, and oddly enough, it kind of felt like we were. We chatted awhile, then we went “outside” (not “outside outside”) for dinner and chatted some more. Conversation comes very easily between us, which is an incredible blessing. She went to Westminster Conservatory, like a surprising number of my friends – maybe that has something to do with it. And she is a Fulbright scholar – she leaves in August to start her studies abroad. We are both here in Nashville on a scholarship from NATS. And now we are both lying on our respective beds with our laptops. I considered going swimming this evening, but I am just too tired. Never mind that it is only 8 PM. (7 PM in CO!)

I am looking forward to many exciting educational and professional experiences over the next few days. Here’s a preview of tomorrow: First, a pre-conference workshop with Kittie Verdolini, which I expect will be somewhat of a review of the things she taught me in 2005 at the SVI – and I need a review, so this is good. Then, the opening ceremony, including a keynote address from renowned baritone, Sherrill Milnes. Finally, a “wired” master class, which will likely be fascinating on multiple levels: first, that the master teachers are Shirlee Emmons, whose The Art of the Song Recital is a standard university voice program text, and Robert Edwin; and second, that the singers will be connected to biofeedback instruments so we can observe the effects of the master teachers’ instructions visually and objectively. Worth getting a good night’s rest for, I think.

Another unexpected visitor - pleasant surprise!

Yesterday afternoon, just before my first afternoon student, I got a call from my college roommate, who is presently a flight attendant for Delta Airlines. All the flights back to her hometown were booked, so she thought she might fly into Denver to spend the night if I was going to be around. :-) I hadn't seen her in a few years, so this was very special. We stayed up really late chatting, just like the good old days, even though her day had started in Rome some 24 hours earlier.

This morning, we "fiddled" around with my violin and got it more or less back in tune and then played some of our old favorites with me playing the piano accompaniment and her on violin solo. Fun stuff! And she accompanied me on "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" from Suzuki Violin volume 1. I've been really longing to pull out my violin for quite some time, but I didn't feel I could justify playing the violin for fun when I wasn't getting my singing practice in. I don't know that I'm going to bother guilt-tripping myself anymore. Besides, the poor violin suffered from being silent so long, so I need to keep it in shape. :-) Don't worry about Eric, though - I know better than to practice while he's home!

So, anyhow, I just got back from the airport. Roomie had to be back in Cincy by 8pm, and with the time difference and all, 2pm was the latest she could really afford to leave. It was such a wonderful 16 hours, though. It made me feel good to reconnect with her and with all the memories we have together.

JPL & CBL... I told her when you would be out here to visit just in case it works out for her to drop in that week. She wasn't sure she could swing it, but we'll see!

A different kind of "Mozart Effect"

Many music educators know that the so-called "Mozart Effect" - the theory that listening to classical music improves kids' spatial skills or otherwise makes them smarter - is a very controversial issue among both educators and researchers.

This fascinating NY Times article examines the possibility (nothing proven yet, folks!) of quantifiable medical benefits associated with listening to music, specifically that composed by W.A. Mozart.

You know, they say that cat owners live longer than non-cat-owners -- that the presence of a beloved pet helps people deal with stress better and thus helps keep their blood pressures lower. Between being a classical musician and owner of four cats, maybe that's why my blood pressure runs so unpleasantly low... I have too many stress relievers in my life!

Someone needs to invent a tongue-in-cheek smiley.

----------------------------

Interesting.... see my March '06 blog entry entitled, Music Therapy.

An unusual week

This has been an interesting week so far. My dad called me on Monday to say that he was en route from Ohio to Colorado to visit. My brother had driven out there to get the motorcycle Dad was giving him, and they rode back across the country together. They got in this afternoon. It was strange having so little notice. Eric and I have been hoping to get him out here for over 5 years without success, and now that he is here, we are piled with responsibilities we can't get out of (i.e. studio recital & dress rehearsal, classes I am teaching, Eric working nights and being on-call). Still, it is wonderful to have him here. It was great to spend the evening just chatting over crackers, cheese and wine.

In other news, I have made the uncharacteristic decision to take a hiatus from my own voice lessons for the next 6 weeks. Too many things are going on with me physically and emotionally right now that are keeping me from focusing on my singing, which makes me dread each lesson where I expect to feel like a failure. This is not an unusual circumstance for any singer, but it has been this way for months now and is just getting worse. In 16+ years of continuous voice lessons, I have never taken time off, except summer vacations in college. Even when I changed teachers 3-4 years ago, I was only out of lessons a few weeks. I'm hoping in the next six weeks I can get a fresh perspective and come back to my music refreshed. The trick is, of course, that I am not taking time away from music - I am still teaching a great deal, and I am going to the NATS national conference at the end of the month - so, I'm just taking a break from the weekly deadlines that I keep missing, but I think that will help a lot.

I think I am going to hit the sack early tonight - I'm whipped!

What I learned the hard way...

... is that certain medications (i.e. medications that I am currently taking) have a side-effect known as photosensitivity. The medication somehow causes one's (i.e. my) body to react more strongly to sunlight than it would otherwise. In some cases, I read, the body actually responds to ultraviolet rays with antibodies as though they were a virus. So, if one were to spend half a day out in the Colorado sun covered head to toe in SPF 25 sunblock, one could still get a severe sunburn, the likes of which she has rarely seen.

Yes, this is useful information. It would have been even more useful a couple of days ago.