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.