A Soprano's Scratchpad

Face 2 Face !!

2010-02-23T01:14:00.002-07:00

Eric and I saw Billy Joel and Elton John in concert tonight on their Face 2 Face Tour. It was AWESOME! Their voices sound great, their stage presence is great, the music has always been great, their bands are amazing, the energy in the room was through the roof, it was unbeatable. And Eric and I got to enjoy it side by side, which made it that much better.

They opened with four songs together at their "face to face" full size grand pianos. (Gosh, yes, the PIANO playing we heard tonight was out of this world!) They started with one of my favorite songs, "Your Song"... and it was just hit after hit all night with stuff going back to the 70s. After their four together, Elton John sang about 90 minutes of his favorites, after which Billy Joel sang another hour of his favorites, and then they closed with another set face to face, concluding with "Piano Man", with Joel playing piano AND harmonica simultaneously, of course!

Their styles complement each other very well, and it's fun to hear them sing one another's songs. They have very different stage styles, though. Elton is more serious and doesn't talk much, while Billy likes to make amusing small talk with the audience (and he's very good at it). He had us laughing a lot. One of his quips was about how he had been wondering if there was a certain age at which singers were supposed to retire. The audience started to rumble and boo, but he came back with "then I watched the Superbowl half-time show with The Who and decided there must not be!" He also stopped halfway through "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", panting, and said, "It's frickin' high up here!!" hehe.

They also had unique set-ups. The two pianos were on separate lifts so that at any time, they could have either, both, or neither piano on stage. Elton's had a regular piano bench and four monitors surrounding him; Billy's had a swivel stool and only two monitors, but his piano was on a turntable and had some kind of unusual thing in it - it looked like it might be a computer monitor or something where the music stand would usually be. I'll have to do a little scouting online and see if I can figure out what made that piano so unusual.

Partway through, I became aware of a strange echo, and realized that most of the 20,000 or so audience members were singing along for the whole concert - but it wasn't bothersome since the sound system was loud enough to almost completely hide it. But it always made it cool when the artists stopped singing to let the audience sing because they didn't even have to indicate they were going to do it - the audience never missed a beat because they were already singing.

It was just a stellar evening. Three and a half solid hours of exceptional music. I'd go again if I had the chance.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!

2009-12-21T23:43:00.003-07:00

Tonight, I took my students caroling at the hospital. Even more than usual, I could see how much our music meant to the patients and their families. One woman sang along with us as she waited for her husband to be returned to his room. A young woman holding her sick two-year-old daughter wiped back tears as we sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to cheer her up. Another was crying even as she invited us into the dark room to sing for her husband, and as we sang, she gave me a big, long bear hug and cried on my shoulder. It was all I could do not to cry myself. It is humbling to see how such a simple gift can mean so much and how just a few ordinary people can have such a positive impact on so many others in just 90 minutes of walking the halls of a hospital at Christmastime.

Tomorrow night, same gig, different singers. Really looking forward to it.

First dress rehearsal

2009-11-03T01:01:00.003-07:00

Tonight's preliminary dress rehearsal for Hoffmann was quite an adventure for me!

First of all, having come to the conclusion that I really needed to be able to see the conductor better than was possible without my glasses, I drug out my old contacts from my senior year of college (10 years ago). I haven't worn them at all since my wedding (7 years ago). I was impressed with how few problems they gave me, considering I previously stopped wearing them because they were fussy. I might have to reconsider the contacts idea.

The other thing that made the evening interesting was that I had some of the worst wardrobe malfunctions I can remember experiencing personally. The hat that I wear as a gondola in Act IV was so tight that we couldn't get it all the way onto my head, and the gals working in the wig room said they knew how to fix it, but would lose their jobs if they did so without express instruction from the head of the department. So, for the short term, we put it on as far as it would go and pinned it on. It didn't feel too bad at first, but it wasn't long before it was giving me a headache.

In Act IV, the first time I had to move off of my rolling staircase, the snap that holds my gondola piece around my middle unsnapped, causing it to fall off. I took the opportunity to step off stage to fix the problem - one-handed, since I had my cane in the other hand - and found myself in an even bigger pickle when my hat fell off, too. The stage hands finally came to my rescue and I made it back onstage for the next staging change. The gondola piece unsnapped again as I got back onto the stairs at the end of the scene, but in a sitting position, it was much easier to be discreet. Hopefully the costuming angels will have everything resolved by tomorrow night. Umm...okay, tonight!

Staging continues...

2009-10-20T23:40:00.002-06:00

Another great rehearsal. We reviewed and fine-tuned the first two acts this evening, and I seem to have redeemed myself after my sad dance audition -- I was one of four people the director praised publicly. That made my night!

Staging rehearsals for Hoffmann

2009-10-18T22:50:00.003-06:00

Have I ever mentioned that I just love staging rehearsals with Opera Colorado? They are so much fun!

The first thing the stage director said to us at the first full chorus staging rehearsal was, "We begin with a dance audition!" Ugh. All my hopes of making a good first impression went out the window with that opening statement. So, I am not a dancer (duh!), but I still have very busy staging, which makes me happy, and it has given me a chance to redeem myself from the dance audition. Some choristers have had the misfortune to be assigned to stand on the top platform and react to what happens on the floor. I think I would be bored to tears in that situation. Instead, I am happily chasing Arthur, the robot, around the stage for the entire act and operating his right arm (which happens to be made out of an egg beater...). We rarely stop moving - as soon as we reach one position, it is time to move to the next one, so it keeps me on my toes. I think the audience is really going to enjoy it!

Saturday, we added the principals to the mix. They are excellent, and it is truly a privilege to share the stage with them. Pamela Armstrong is particularly impressive, though I might not think so if I didn't know how extremely difficult Olympia's aria is, because she sings it as though it is the easiest thing in the world. And I'm all of three feet away from her when she sings it - sweet!!

NATS vs. Blizzard....

2009-04-04T23:19:00.004-06:00

Wow….

The phone started ringing at 5:00 AM exactly, and I fielded 5 phone called before 6:00 AM. The reason was that all the Wyoming highways were closed all the way to the Colorado border due to the blizzard, which stranded all of the UW contingency, among others (and brought the total to four schools withdrawing in the last 24 hours). In the end, 17 judges (out of 50) cancelled less than 24 hours before the auditions, with 10 of those canceling within 3 hours of the start of the auditions. This meant some ridiculous reorganizing of the judging schedule with most rooms having only two judges for the preliminaries. God alone knows how I managed to pull that off. That would be the power of prayer. Truthfully, I felt like God granted me the peace, patience, strength and wisdom that I prayed so hard for almost constantly over the last three days.

I spent the day with a great team of tabulators who worked diligently and carefully while maintaining a spirit of fun, and my colleagues were tremendously supportive. (At the teacher’s meeting, one even jokingly moved to remove the term limit on the Audition Chair’s office so that I could stay Auditions Chair forever! Hehe.) The teachers all communicated really well with my office, too, so that all the little issues that arose throughout the day, I was able to deal with quickly and effectively. They were so awesome. And our hosts at CSU were so hospitable and organized that I had nothing to worry about where they were concerned.

As for the “blizzard,” it hit a lot of the region and made life difficult for several participants in various part of the CO & WY, but overall, its impact on Fort Collins was minimal. The roads in town remained clear, and by the time I left at 6:30, they were even dry.

To put the icing on the cake, one of my students took first place in her division, the advanced open category, which thrilled me to pieces. She’s worked very hard and she deserved it. It is exciting and encouraging to see one's students succeed in a competition.

So, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the event came off better than I could have ever hoped. We even stayed right on schedule and ended on time! I’m still in awe of all that my colleagues and I accomplished today. Imagine how well it could go next year with cooperative weather!

P.S. An interesting tidbit... the building at CSU where the auditions were held is the newly-renovated building of the old Fort Collins High School, where both my husband and his almost-102-year-old grandmother went to school! Granny is the oldest living graduate of FCHS, and the school building was originally constructed while she was a student...there are photos of the construction in her yearbook! I took some pictures of the interior to show Eric, but I doubt he will recognize any of them... it's a state-of-the-art music facility now and surely looks worlds different than it did when it was a public high school.

Comedy of Errors

2009-03-03T22:10:00.003-07:00

Ever have one of those days where everything that could possibly go wrong does? Well, I actually had a pretty good day today, but I had one hour where one thing after another didn't go my way, to the point that it became absurd, and therefore funny.

I finished my voice lesson at 2:00. I had an hour to run three little errands and get back home in time to teach my next lesson at 3:00. The first errand actually went smoothly.

Second errand: Drop off sunglasses at eye doctor so they can be sent to the lab for new lenses. Sounds easy enough. So, as I give them to her she says, "And just so you know, because you're using your old frames instead of new ones, the lab will not be responsible for any damage that could occur to them while they are in their possession." Now, if I had this to do over again, I would say, "okay, fine" and go on with my day. But instead, I said, somewhat jokingly, "Well, I am assuming that if someone dropped them and then stepped on them that the lab would compensate me for them," thinking this was a no-brainer. She said, no, even in that circumstance they would not compensate me. I was incredulous, so she decided the verbal notification wasn't good enough and had me sign a waiver. Still looking at her like she must be joking, I informed her that if my frames came back ridiculously broken, I would sue, waiver or not, as a matter of principle. The waiver is designed to protect them from lawsuits that result from damage that occurs due to fact that older frames are often well-worn and and thus more fragile than new frames; the document is meaningless if one can prove that the company was negligent. Again, as it's not likely to be an issue and I didn't gain anything by explaining this to her, I should have kept my big mouth shut and saved some time, but when someone looks you right in the eye and says they won't compensate you if they carelessly drop your glasses and step on them, you start to question the integrity of the company and whether or not you actually want to give her your prescription sunglasses. It got my dander up, but I was not too bent out of shape when I left their office.

Third errand: Drop by the grocery store to pick up my prescription. I had actually stopped by there on my way home from church on Sunday. I was fourth in line when I got in line. I was still fourth in line 15 minutes later, so I decided I could come back another day. So, I went back today, and this time I was first in line. And I was still first in line 15 minutes later. There were SIX people behind the counter, and none of them could be bothered with the line standing in front of the counter. When it was five minutes to 3:00, I was almost in tears, and finally went up and nicely asked someone to please retrieve my prescription because, while I was not in a hurry when I got in line, I was now already late for my next client. She was very nice and helpful, except that my prescription wasn't ready...!

Now, contrary to my usual procrastinating, I called my doctor 10 days ago to request a refill. They said they would prefer that I have my pharmacy contact them directly for the refill request. So, I asked the pharmacy to do this, and the pharmacy apparently did, but hasn't heard back from my doctor's office. So, first of all, I'm thinking that the pharmacy should have followed up by now either with me or the doctor's office or both. Secondly, I decided that it is truly time to find a new family doctor because this is not the first time my doctor's office has been well outside their 24-hour turn around time for refill requests. So, I will have to go back tomorrow, and if they still haven't gotten the approval, I will have to a) get a "loaner" prescription of three days worth and b) call and read my doctor's office the riot act about not being prompt in responding to refill requests on drugs for which one can be admitted to the ER if one has to stop the drug cold turkey because the doctor's office couldn't respond to the request within TEN DAYS. (Yes, one of my readers has experienced this nightmare firsthand, and I am happy to take his word for it that it isn't fun.)

Again, I was very nice to the lady at the pharmacy because she did all she could (including refaxing my doctor), but the cumulative effect of all that nonsense was that I was fuming when I left the pharmacy. I pulled into my driveway at exactly 3:00, which makes me officially late because that's when the lesson is supposed to begin.

As I sat down to begin the lesson, I grabbed a bottle of red Gatorade thinking a nice, refreshing drink would help me recenter myself so I could teach, but I was shaking so much that I spilled red Gatorade all over my skirt!

This is where I finally started to laugh out loud. This was unmistakably a message from my God that I was taking myself way too seriously. I changed my clothes, and after that, the rest of the day was wonderful again. But that one hour was something else.

The most ironic part of it all was that before last week, in seven years of private teaching, I have never had to change my clothes during a lesson, but today made two weeks in a row that I had to change my clothes during the same student's lesson! (Last week, Lucy jumped on my lap after having stepped in something yucky and smelly.)

Yes, I have been told that I get long-winded. Sorry. I guess I figure it doesn't sound nearly as exciting in print as it did to me at the time. My husband will tell you that I am incredibly patient with people as a rule, so please don't think I'm every service representative's worst nightmare. Besides, I wouldn't want to take that title away from my husband... just kidding! Honestly, I consider myself very blessed to be able to consider these trifles to be upsetting - I know most people would gladly trade their troubles for mine in a heartbeat, and I praise the Lord that I am so fortunate.

Closing performance

2009-02-22T20:45:00.003-07:00

It's finished now - we just gave our last performance of The Pearl Fishers. I am going to miss it terribly - the music, the costumes, even the schedule! And most especially, the other choristers. Despite the great demands, I feel that Opera Colorado respects its performers and treats them well, plus it brings together some of the best talent in the region, which keeps things both exciting and challenging. This whole experience has been wonderful.

Today, my husband and his parents were in the audience, so I was especially glad that I felt today was one of my best performances overall. After I got out of my costume, I brought them backstage and showed them around a bit and introduced them to a few people before taking off my makeup, and then we went to dinner at Racine's. I'm glad my husband finally got to see what I've been working so hard at for the last 6 weeks.

Tonight I'm headed to bed early. This crazy schedule has caught up with me. But I will fall asleep with feelings of peace, joy and accomplishment.

Post Review

2009-02-17T11:33:00.003-07:00

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_11717586

The Post was harsh on the opera itself, but praised nearly everything that Opera Colorado did with it. This reviewer particularly disagreed with the News reviewer on the quality of the principal singers, which is good. The only downside is that he didn't mention the chorus at all.

We're back in action tonight! Looking forward to it and hoping I feel a little less tired by tonight. An energy boost in my Jamba Juice plus a little stage adrenaline should fix that.

RMN Review

2009-02-16T23:41:00.002-07:00

REVIEW: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/16/design-overcomes-opening-night-woes/

"John Baril's chorus sang well, and moved busily under Andrew Sinclair's stage direction." Yay, chorus!

We'll ignore the fact that they gave the production a "C" overall. Besides, the Rocky Mtn News will probably go under in a month or so, and Opera Colorado will still be going strong! :-p

Opening Night - Pearl Fishers

2009-02-14T23:59:00.002-07:00

I had a wonderful time tonight. There was so much positive energy in the theatre tonight, despite the sad fact that our leading soprano was ill and unable to perform. Opera Colorado flew in another soprano on Thursday night - she has been performing this role for years, most recently just three weeks ago. She did an incredible job stepping into the role on short notice. Although she was wonderful, we still hope that Heidi will be well enough to perform on Tuesday.

Make up update

2009-02-11T12:42:00.003-07:00

Okay, so I added the blue eye shadow. It doesn't look as realistic up close, but I suspect that the effect from the stage is an improvement.

And here's one to help you see just how dark the make up is.

First Dress Rehearsal

2009-02-10T00:15:00.005-07:00

Tonight was fun! Many would say I won the award for being the least recognizeable in costume. At least two people said they had to ask someone who I was. That was neat. I can definitely tell it's me when I look at the pictures, but I had doubts when I looked in the mirror sometimes. I was relieved to find myself still under there at the end of it all!

I have a long braid down my back, though you can't see it in the pictures here. And I'm am debating whether to add some exotic blue eye shadow. I have two more dress rehearsals in which to figure that out. Oddly enough, I am the only female wearing pants and the only female with a hat. It's a unique costume.

The rehearsal was interesting. It was a totally new experience to see it with everyone in their beautiful costumes. Both of my sandals broke in the first scene, which left me barefoot until intermission. Go figure, the first time I go without shoes is the first time someone steps on my foot.

As for my 16-year-old stage boyfriend, we almost didn't recognize each other when we first saw each other on stage. And I had forgotten his costume is little more than a large diaper, so I had to get used to him being practically naked. Hey, they say it gets rather warm in Sri Lanka, and he is supposed to be a pearl diver, after all.

A new trick

2009-01-31T22:23:00.004-07:00

Today, we had a pair of three-hour staging rehearsals with an hour lunch break in between. Those seven hours just flew by. I always come home with a story, don't I? Well, today the director asked one of my castmates to drag me upstage as part of our drunken pre-execution revelry. I don't think he knew it, but he couldn't have picked a better person to do the dragging. Bryan is certified in stage fighting (or something like that), so he shared with me some of the basics. There are clever techniques for making it look like you're being jerked around even though you're really in control. So, although I'm not in control of the direction or speed of the dragging, I am in control of the physical contact so that I'm not in any danger of dislocating a shoulder or anything, despite the complaints of the stage manager that she was afraid I was going to get hurt. I guess that just means we're convincing! I enjoyed learning how to pull that off.

Naturally, after a long day of rehearsal like this, I've got Pearl Fishers perpetually stuck in my head. The good news is that every time I notice this, it's a different scene that's running through my mind.

This evening, my family took me to Benihana for my birthday, and I had a great time. I love watching them turn cooking into a spectator sport. :-)

The fun continues

2009-01-29T23:47:00.003-07:00

I continue to be amazed by the variety and extent of talent I am surrounded with. And everyone is so friendly and interesting to talk to, too! I am having such a great time working on this production and will be very depressed when it's over, I expect. Fortunately, there will be Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and NATS auditions to take my mind off of it...!

Tonight I was asked to stay late, along with 9 other members of the chorus, to stage an additional scene. It's a very short scene, but as a relatively new member of the chorus, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to do a little something extra.

Also, quite unexpectedly, tonight they announced that they are giving us tomorrow night off, so suddenly I am free on my birthday. The break will give me a chance to rest up for the 6 hours of rehearsal on Saturday.

2nd Staging Rehearsal

2009-01-27T23:19:00.001-07:00

The 2nd Pearl Fishers staging rehearsal tonight was another adventure, and I mean that in a good way. Tonight we added the dancers to the picture, and this made all the difference in the world. Not only are the dancers immensely talented, but the choreography is very sensual and exciting and really heightens the excitement of the scenes in which they participate. It's neat to have so many different kinds of talent together in one production. The dancers have expressed their amazement at our singing, and the singers are in awe of the dancers. The principals are also excellent and wonderful to work with. They are all very down to earth, friendly individuals who interact freely with the chorus rather than looking down on us. It's a very collegial environment, which is making the process even more fun than I had anticipated. It is definitely hard work, though, no doubt about it!

Is this legal?

2009-01-26T23:37:00.004-07:00

Tonight was the first staging rehearsal for The Pearl Fishers. It was a lot of fun. As one of the younger-looking women in the chorus, I have been assigned to play the role of the girlfriend of one of the rookie pearl fishers who is to be blessed at the opening ceremony. The supernumerary who is playing this particualar pearl fisher happens to be 16 years old. I have found it surprisingly challenging to play a giddy girl and spend a whole scene flirting with a teenager little more than half my age, but Eric reminds me that this is an indication that I have a long career ahead of me...! It's funny...age 16 doesn't seem all that long ago until you're standing next to a 16-year-old realizing how little you have in common with him. But I'm too focussed on myself, huh? I mean, this poor kid has to flirt with someone nearly twice his age. Imagine the conversation he had with his mom when he got home!

Spoiler

2009-01-23T14:40:00.002-07:00

Being a musician, I naturally had a handful of conversations with my music friends & colleagues about the musical numbers at the inauguration on Tuesday. Among these was a conversation about how the instrumentalists in the Williams piece played in the cold without damaging their priceless instruments. My friend came back to me today with the answer to our question: they didn't. The music was pre-recorded.

While JPL and I were breathing a sigh of relief at this news, others were having fits about it: http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/23/the-milli-vanilli-inauguration/ Their primary complaint is that those involved apparently tried to keep it a secret that the music was pre-recorded.

Personally, I'm not upset that they tried to keep it a secret and I don't really understand why others are. The piece was still legitimately composed, prepared and performed expressly for the inauguration by the parties credited for it. I think most people are happier just not knowing it wasn't a live performance. It's a legitimate case of "what the public doesn't know won't hurt them." Not knowing any better, they just enjoyed the music for what it was and allowed it to enhance their "inaugural experience". Why spoil it for them? What is gained by announcing that it was pre-recorded? Nothing. What is lost by keeping it secret? Nothing. It's music, it's entertainment. It's not a competition, it's not politics and it doesn't hurt anyone in any way. Honestly, sometimes I think people are just looking for reasons to be offended.

Wish granted! But...

2009-01-19T01:00:00.003-07:00

Yes! The UNITED TOUR is coming to Colorado!! The United Tour is Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman on a concert tour together. They started it in the fall (and that was all they planned for), but they had only 2 concerts west of the Mississippi, and none in Colorado, so I was really bummed. But I just read that they've extended the tour and they're coming to Colorado Springs on April 14th! :-)

Slight problem... the concert is on a Tuesday night, which means it conflicts with choir practice. This wouldn't phase me in the least except that I'm currently missing six rehearsals in a row to sing with the Opera Colorado Chorus in The Pearl Fishers. I haven't missed that many rehearsals in the last few years combined, and we'll be only a few weeks out from our concert of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, which is a no small piece. Our director is not going to consider a Christian CCM concert to be a legitimate excuse to miss yet another rehearsal. Not entirely sure what I should do.

AOL Meltdown?

2009-01-11T03:04:00.003-07:00

Wow, I'm really glad I moved my website back in February. I have kept a few files on my aol server since that time, mostly pages with forwarding code to direct folks with old links to the new site... never a bad idea when your website has been at the same URL for 13 years... so I went to look at one of those files today, and it was gone! It had been replaced by a letter from AOL, and I kid you not, this is the letter I found in its place, verbatim:

Dear AOL Hometown User,
We're sorry to inform you that as of Oct. 31, 2008, AOL® Hometown was shut down permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Sincerely,
The AOL Hometown Team

Naturally, this posting was followed by several comments from irate customers wanting to know where their website went and how to get their files back so they could move them to a new hosting account. Yes, that's right... AOL didn't tell any of their customers they were shutting it down until it had already happened, so all of their customers lost all of their data! Now the smart ones, like me, will have their html files backed up on at least one home computer, but there is quite a handful that are cursing AOL because they have to rewrite their websites from scratch!

Upon further pondering, this makes me wonder if my email address is in jeopardy, too. This would not be good. My website users have had nearly a year to find my new website with direction from the old URL, but a similar obliteration of my email account with no time to update the world (i.e. friends, clients, newsletters, creditors, other online accounts, etc.) would be quite frustrating, indeed. Hmmm.... it might be time to consider moving my email address to ellieseligmann.com, too.

Rehearsals start next week

2009-01-07T23:56:00.003-07:00

Rehearsals for Opera Colorado's The Pearl Fishers begin Monday. We'll rehearse 4-6 days a week until the show opens on Valentine's Day. I've been looking over the music, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Evening shows are Feb 14, 17 & 20, and there is a matinee performance on Feb. 22nd, in case anyone is interested in coming.

Anonymously famous

2008-12-20T23:02:00.004-07:00

I read something funny on Thursday. I am the only person in the world who would find this funny. A little background....

In June, I blogged about an encounter with the author of a book I used in my Handel research last fall: http://ellieseligmann.blogspot.com/2008/06/sorry-so-long-nashville-day-three.html. I met her at the NATS conference in Nashville and told her how I had used her book as a starting point for my research. The next day in her presentation, she told the audience that she had just met a reader who had used her book as a starting point for deeper research, and she thanked me by name.

Six months later (two days ago), I was reading a review of her book in American Music Teacher, the journal of the Music Teachers Natl Association, and the fifth and final paragraph of this brief review read, "In a presentation for the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference in the summer of 2008, Elliot spoke of her delight in learning that a reader had used her text for a 'springboard' to locate additional resources." Haha! My jaw dropped! That reader was me!

I found this amusing.

Clare Choir videos

2008-11-24T12:17:00.002-07:00

They've posted a couple videos from our last choir concert:

Adoramus te, Christe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8lhHJu2bkk

and Ave verum corpus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSG3Rbobceo

Enjoy!

God is being strangely predictable...

2008-11-21T15:03:00.002-07:00

A pattern has developed. Whenever I acquire an extra sum of money, i.e. birthday check, extra gig, etc., some major expense immediately follows, i.e. $1500 car maintenance & repairs or $900 dental work for two cats...

So, when I started noticing some extra padding in my bank account due to increased studio business, I told my friend MM on Sunday, "something's coming down the pike." And right on schedule, at least $550 in vet bills (total TBD) and another $550 in my own medical bills (nothing's wrong...I'll explain another time).

It's interesting to see how God provides. I consider myself fortunate that God provides the money right before I need it, not after. Actually, I consider myself fortunate that God provides, period, but you know what I mean, right? On one hand, it seems strange that God is being predictable about these things right now, but then God has always been predictable to some degree, hasn't he? The same 2000 years ago as is he is today and will be forever and ever. In a world of terrible uncertainty, it's nice to know you can count on God to be consistent. :-)

Vet drama

2008-11-21T12:26:00.002-07:00

So, I took Trisket to the vet today, as I mentioned last night. It was surprisingly traumatic.

All of his symptoms are unilateral... the one runny eye, one drastically swollen lymph node, etc. and it turns out he has some bad gingivitis on that side, although they say his teeth look pretty clean. So, the theory is that an abcess or other type of tooth infection has caused a sinus infection. To get a 2nd opinion, the doctor took Trisket back to their dental specialist for a look. They were gone about 10 minutes.

As I waited, I heard a cat down the hall screaming bloody murder...for the whole ten minutes! I almost started crying because it sounded like they were torturing the poor animal, and it just wouldn't stop. I'd never in my life heard an animal in so much distress. When I later found out it was my cat that was making the fuss, I went all to pieces. I got tears all over my kitty and he gave me kisses in return. And all they had done was look at his mouth. They said he started crying as soon as they left the room and didn't quit until they got back to me.

So, they're going to do some dental and sinus x-rays in the morning and then clean his teeth and do whatever else needs to be done in there. They did pre-anesthetic blood work today. They started to take him away from me again, but I asked them to do the blood draw there in the exam room. "Can you handle watching us stick needles in your cat?" "Of course! I just can't stand listening to him scream from the next room." She thought he would scream anyway, but I was pretty sure he was only crying because he was very frightened. They humored me, thank God, and my good little boy was a model patient for his blood draw - barely a peep.

The moral of the story seems to be not to let them take this particular cat out of my sight when he visits them. Unfortunately, tomorrow we have to leave him there for several hours. :-( I'm not looking forward to it. In the meanwhile, they've started him on antibiotics to treat the infection. Tomorrow's visit focuses on addressing the root cause of the infection rather than the infection itself. I am proud to say that my kitty and I were world-class in our execution of the first dose of medicine this afternoon... we didn't lose a drop! Good kitty!

Catching up

2008-11-20T20:50:00.003-07:00

Okay, it finally happened... I joined FaceBook. Within three days, I had 100 friends. Unreal. You never realize just how many people you know until you start listing them all! (I'm now up to 163 or something.) It's a very addicting program.

Been a busy time. I am feeling out of touch. I am behind in my email, and the sad thing is that it's the personal emails from good friends that I am behind on. Studio email always gets taken care of, but then I'm too sick of typing and communicating in general to reply to anything else.

Studio recital is this weekend, then a full day of normal teaching on Monday, followed by group lessons in the evening. Then the rest of the week off! I sooo need the break! It will be good to get refreshed so I can be fresh and effective again starting in December.

Oh, good news... I was cast in the chorus of Opera Colorado's upcoming production of The Pearl Fishers. This will be an interesting one to be in because it is not performed very often. It will also be my first fully-staged production with OC. The Flying Dutchman was a concert version, but they still owned me for two solid weeks. This time they will own me almost every evening and weekend for six weeks! It will be intense! In order to do it, I have had to request a 6-week leave of absence from Clare Choir, which (thankfully) I was granted.

Trisket has a cold. He's had it about 6 days now. We tried to wait it out, but today he sneezed up a blood clot. On one hand, Eric says he's got the same stuff coming out of his own nose this week (he has a cold, too), but on the other hand, I've never seen a cat do that, and he's clearly not feeling well, so we'll go get him checked out tomorrow and maybe get him some medicine to make him well. (Oh yes! Cat and medicine! Won't that be fun?) Poor kitty.

And my mom is having neck surgery in a couple of weeks. Not going to offer a lot of details on that for a variety of reasons, but she is having her neck fused to relieve the pressure her four herniated discs are putting on her spinal cord. I welcome prayers for her safety and quick recovery.

Okay, that's probably enough catching up for now. If I don't write much in December, it's because I have at least a dozen holiday singing gigs. And if I don't write much in January or February, it's because I'm living at the DCPA, eating, sleeping and breathing The Pearl Fishers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween from Nebraska!

2008-10-31T21:05:00.002-06:00

My presentation went very well - much better than my rehearsal in the hotel room last night, and really better than I had even hoped for. I felt like I was articulate and in control. (We'll see what I think about it when I watch the video!) And believe it or not, eleven people showed up for my 8 AM lecture even though it was a five minute outdoor walk from the building where most of our events are taking place. I felt honored by that. And a few others have approached me since then lamenting that they weren't able to come because they were judging auditions at that time. So, it would seem that I picked a topic of some interest to my colleagues.

The rest of the day has been relatively low-energy for me. I don't think I slept especially well last night, even without my husband's snoring and cats waking me up wanting to be fed. And things moved much slower this year than last so that we seemed to be idle more than we were busy. Busy-ness would have kept me more alert. Still, it has been a good day.

Also, I have been brainstorming ways to tighten up the tabulation process we use in our local chapter for student auditions, and I came up with a plan today, inspired by the regional protocol, that I think will cut the tabulating time back substantially while also eliminating a source of error. I will need to run it by the membership, but that can be done electronically in the next few weeks, and I don't anticipate a lot of opposition (though there will certainly be some). Our chapter president supports the change, which is helpful, especially since he is my predecessor in the role of District Auditions Chair.

And for anyone who was wondering, yes, I did find that geocache last night, officially adding Nebraska to our geocaching map. :-) We also passed a major milestone on October 19th when we found our 200th cache. Passing this milestone means that we are now ranked among Colorado Geocachers. Presently we are 589th in the state of Colorado. Unfortunately, the weather and an increasingly busy schedule have severely limited the amount of caching we've been able to do since then.

Welcome to Kearney

2008-10-30T16:48:00.002-06:00

I am presently in Kearney, NE for the West-Central Region's annual NATS conference. I am delivering a presentation first thing in the morning. I'm not sure how many people are going to show up for an 8 AM presentation that wasn't announced in the packets they received in advance, but one of the teachers who helped us get settled in the tabulation room this afternoon said he was looking forward to it. They all have to be there by 7:30 AM for the judges meeting anyway, so those not judging at 8 AM might come. Then I am assisting in tabulation for the rest of the two days for the competition portion of the conference. I am hoping to get to see my church choir director, whom I ran into again in Nashville after 20 years. She is a featured master class teacher at our conference. Unfortunately, I don't know that I will be able to get out of tabulation long enough to attend her class, but hopefully I will still get to say hello.

I have this evening to myself, as MM is in meetings until late. To my satisfaction, there appears to be a geocache within a few hundred feet of our hotel, so I might get to add Nebraska to my geocaching map, after all!

Violin in the core curriculum?!

2008-10-30T16:41:00.002-06:00

Wow... this is interesting! http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/8987.html

It starts... "Starting in late September, all 46 first-graders at Bloomington's Fairview Elementary School added a new subject to their regular class schedules: violin."

And then there's me...

2008-10-10T21:52:00.002-06:00

The Aurora Music Teachers Association (AMTA) hosts a high school coffeehouse "open mic" night at Border Bookstore every month. AMTA members' students can sing or play an instrument for their peers in the coffeehouse at our local bookstore. It's a really awesome opportunity for kids to enjoy making music together and for one another.

I enjoy attending these events. Tonight one of my students was there, and she had a great time because it turned out some of her friends study with some of my colleagues, so she knew people there already.

I found myself in sort of a strange position, though, I guess. There's all these students... all teenagers... and all these other teachers... all in their forties, fifties and sixties... and then there's me... 30. It was just weeeeird.

Never thought I'd see the day

2008-10-09T23:39:00.003-06:00

New Kids on the Block... remember them? Well, they're back together and on tour! I absolutely adored them when they were popular, and abandoned them when they fell from glory. I didn't stop liking their music, per se, but I moved on to other things and never really looked back. So, they have a myspace page, and it has all their old music on it, so I listened to some of the tracks that I remembered as having been my favorites... it's amazing how you can not hear a song for 16 years or more and still remember every word and inflection. It's rather nostalgic, isn't it? But I have a lot of good memories associated with the NKOTB music, namely my surprise 13th birthday party and bonding with my cousin, Shelly, who was a few years older than me and fanatical about them, which made them really cool to little cousin Ellie.

I had a very similar experience recently when I bought a Gatlin Brothers album that we used to listen to all the time when our family drove to/from Sanibel Island, FL for our summer vacations, and listening to it reminds me what it felt like to be a little kid on vacation. It's funny - some of those songs refer to very adult activities, but they don't come right out and say "sex" and "drinking" so even though I had every word memorized, I never had any idea what I was singing about... and never knew the difference until I heard the songs again this summer.

I used to have a cassette tape with a compilation of songs my parents had put together from their LPs. I listened to it all the time and always sang along to it. I remember singing along in the backseat one day and overhearing my parents snickering in the front seat... apparently, the record had skipped and left out a whole section, and I had never noticed. I just sang along like that's how it was supposed to be. Now, when I hear that song, it doesn't sound right to me without the skip I was used to hearing!

...which is just another reminder to my students to take care not to learn their music wrong, because it'll never sound right when they do it the right way!

Support my choir... a good idea!

2008-10-05T01:04:00.004-06:00

I always like good ideas. Goodsearch is one of the recent good ideas I've come to like. Goodsearch is a search engine like Google or Yahoo (in fact, it is powered by Yahoo), but unlike ordinary search engines, this one gives money to charity every time you use it. More specifically, it gives money to the charity of your choice every time you use it. My choir, the Musicians of Saint Clare, is registered as one of the charities, so every time I do a websearch through Goodsearch, my choir gets a kickback.

At first, I thought it was inconvenient - after all, I could Google so easily from my Google toolbar. But Goodsearch has a toolbar, too. (I LOVE those things. Saves time!)

So, if you'd like to help my choir out, start searching the web with Goodsearch. In the "select a charity" window, enter "Musicians of Saint Clare". (Note the spelling of "Clare".) If you're not interested, ignore this posting completely, and I'll never know the difference...! ;-)

For more information about my choir, visit our website: http://www.mscchoir.org.

Curtain Call

2008-09-28T11:17:00.002-06:00

I am having an awesome time performing in the Nuptials show with Eric. I just feel joy well up inside of me every time I see him on stage with me. :-) This afternoon's matinee is the closing performance.

It did not go well

2008-09-20T22:48:00.003-06:00

LOT audition for Elixir.... was today...

2 weeks ago, I fully expected that I would make callbacks.
1 week ago, I started to doubt.
Yesterday, I decided I'd have to be lucky to make callbacks.
Today, I knew they'd have to be deaf to call me back.

It did not go well. By some standards, it didn't go horribly, but in my book, it really did not go well. I didn't need to make callbacks, I just needed to give a performance I could be proud of - one that would reflect my decades of training and weeks of preparation. But I didn't. The good news is that it's behind me now, so I can go on with my life and start rehearsing something other than the audition music I've been hammering for the last three weeks. I'm frustrated, though. Unfortunately, times like this take a huge chunk out of my self-esteem, no matter how supportive my friends or the directors (also friends!) are.

I do take some comfort in my husband's love, though. He was so affirming today (my love language!), and while it didn't make me feel tons better about myself, it did make me feel incredibly lucky to have such a supportive and loving partner in life. If I had to choose between the career or the husband, I'd choose the husband any day.

Great Accomplishments in Texting

2008-09-18T21:10:00.002-06:00

Do you remember the commercials from last year or so where they talked about breaking the record for the most texts sent in such and such a time? One of them showed a girl brushing her teeth with one hand and texting with the other. It was an advertising gimmick, not for real.

I think I met her real-life equivalent yesterday. I'm teaching a voice lesson, leading my high-school sophomore through warmups, and she stops me with this big grin on her face and tells me that in choir that day while she was singing, she had her phone behind her back, texting her mother a reminder to take her to her voice lesson after school... "and I looked later, and I had only made one typo in the whole message!" Wow.

There's a generation gap here.

A Funny Thing...

2008-09-17T13:59:00.002-06:00

... Happened On The Way To The Nuptials

http://denver.yourhub.com/Golden/Events/Theater/Event~518581.aspx

A comedic musical revue by Confluence, a Golden community choir.

I joined this group this month. I saw this show when they did it last year. It's cheesy, but it's supposed to be. Now I'm taking the role that was left open when someone left the group. Oddly enough, they also lost a tenor who only had one singing part, which they reassigned to an alto, but for the whole wedding thing to work out, they still needed another guy. Where could we find another guy?

Yep! Eric is doing the show with me! We haven't performed together since I Pagliacci with the Colorado Opera Troupe in 2001 when he played the walk-on roles of the priest and the policeman. (And played them marvelously!) So, I'm looking forward to bringing him back into my world for a little while. The show is next weekend, 9/27 @ 7pm & 9/28 @ 3pm. Details at the link above!

Hurricane Ike hits Ohio

2008-09-15T11:06:00.003-06:00

Wow... geocachers all over central Ohio are scrambling to see if their caches are intact... okay, that might not be their first priority. I talked to Dad this morning. He lives about 30 miles east of Columbus. He has power, phone, etc., no problems there, and no major damage to the house - a couple slats of siding came loose, but otherwise pretty good. His gazebo was decimated, though... look at the picture below, and keep in mind that thing was bolted to the deck and was covering the table once upon a time.

So, we're grateful that he was spared major damage and praying for those in areas hit much harder, particularly those down south. Also hoping the one unaccounted-for cat comes strolling home soon. This particular kitty has a habit of disappearing for days at a time, so we're not panicking yet. I guess one out of eleven isn't bad, but still...

Cat nap

2008-09-13T15:16:00.001-06:00

When we got home today, we found all four cats curled up together on one corner of the bed. :-)

Visiting Eric's great-grandparents

2008-09-13T14:07:00.003-06:00

Today we did some geocaching at a nearby cemetery. I remembered hearing at some point that my husband's great-grandparents were buried in this cemetery. These would be the parents of his still-living 101-year-old grandmother. So, before we went, I contacted the cemetery to find out exactly where they are buried, so we were able to visit their graves while we were there. Eric's mother has never been there to see them. They both died many years before she was born. We may be the first visitors they've had in over 75 years! It was neat to be there, and I think it was particularly special for Eric, though one can never tell with men, you know. We'll take his parents there sometime when they're in town.

Identity theft is child's play?

2008-09-08T10:32:00.003-06:00

A blogger friend of mine sent me a link to this article: "How I Stole Someone's Identity"

It's kind of scary. A lot of people are fanatical about NOT posting information about themselves on the web. What I think this article really stresses, however, is to be careful how you set your security questions in all your online accounts and to remember that your identity is only as safe as your least secure online account or email address.

The other scary thing is, I wonder how many amateurs are reading this article and trying it for themselves. :-(

Sea Organs

2008-09-01T22:37:00.002-06:00

A choir-friend of mine, who happens to be a very avid world traveller, is presently touring eastern Europe, and he periodically sends his friends back in the States updates on his adventures. (He really ought to have a blog! It's excellent reading.) There was something in his latest email that I thought was especially interesting, so I figured my blog readers would find it interesting, too.

Quote:

One feature most cities developed in the 19th century and continued to modify is the riva, or coastal promenade. The one at Zadar is similar to others in that it is a long, sweeping walkway along the sea with palm trees and benches, particularly employed by locals and tourists for strolling and greeting on warm evenings. Zadar recently added something unique that brings people out at all hours: a sea organ. What’s that, you ask? It is actually a series of organ-type pipes under the concrete walkway laid at such angles so that the shifting water of the sea creates air pressure to make them sound. They worked it out so that no matter what the tide level is or what the wave or winds are, some pipes will be sounding and others will be silent. Like an auditory kaleidoscope, it is always doing something but never the exact same twice. I found it very interesting and rather hypnotic. It almost makes the inanimate sea come alive.

Isn't that fascinating?

The fall music-making shake-out

2008-08-27T11:51:00.004-06:00

It's been a whirlwind last 24 hours. I received an email early yesterday with casting for the upcoming Opera Colorado production of Madama Butterfly. It listed first names only, and I didn't see my name, so I was confused as to why I received an email telling me that scores were ready to be picked up and contracts ready to be signed. I replied and found out that they had erroneously listed me as "Elizabeth." They had cast me after all.

Thus began the craziness of seeing whether or not it would work. I was surprised to have been cast since I had already notified them I would be out of town the weekend before the show opens. I think they had forgotten, though. I emailed back a list of my conflicts, including two misses in the first week for the Loveland Opera Theatre gala and three the weekend before the show when I am speaking at the NATS regional conference in Nebraska. They replied that it was too many rehearsals to miss, but that they would keep me in mind for the spring productions.

So, I am disappointed because I was excited to make the first cut this time around and I was excited to sing with them again - it was so much fun when I sang with them in April - it was also great to be surrounded by musicians of my caliber or better. But I was also nervous because it would require withdrawing from my choir because the performances overlapped. (Yes, this sounds like a no-brainer, but it's complicated.) I was prepared to do this, but it wasn't going to be pleasant.

So, it's all shaken out and the fall will find me singing with Loveland Opera Theatre and two choirs. The spring is still totally up in the air on all fronts, but it will work itself out in its own time.

We grow 'em big

2008-08-19T10:25:00.006-06:00

For some reason, mushrooms grow in our back lawn. I wish we knew if they were edible, but as we don't know, we are not eating them. This particular one caught our attention on Sunday afternoon because of its tremendous size. Actually, Eric thought it was a baseball at first. It kind of reminds me of those big "golf ball" towers at Buckley AFB.

Then this morning... less than 48 hours later, it had opened and was even bigger! Now it reminds me of the canopy on a children's ride at the fair.

And as long as I was out there, I decided to take some pictures of the flowers. This one, I think, makes a stellar wallpaper. :-)

Some thoughts on performing under pressure

2008-08-17T22:55:00.003-06:00

Singing and gymnastics have a lot in common: Both are very physical activities requiring tremendous stamina and motor coordination combined with aristry. As performers, both have to keep their bodies in optimal condition in order to perform their best, and they struggle with the effects of nerves on their performances. As one who often performs poorly under the pressure of competition, it has been educational for me to watch the Olympic gymnastics finals on TV. The best of the best (i.e. Liukin & Johnson) are careful what they allow themselves to pay attention to during a competition and are often seen closing their eyes as part of a routine to focus their thoughts and calm their nerves. They are also known, according to commentators, for being exceptionally able to "live in the moment" and are less affected by recent and/or significant setbacks and disappointments -- skills which are probably linked to their ability to focus their thoughts. These qualities make them very successful. Others, like Alicia Sacrimone, are more like me, lacking in these skills. Our technical and artistic skills enable us to compete in venues where we consistently perform below our ability because we are overly concerned with the importance of the event and the consequences of mistakes.

Figure skating is in the same boat with singing and gymnastics as a sport requiring both athleticism and artistry, and it has similar examples of grace under pressure. My favorite is that of Sarah Hughes, Olympic gold medalist in women's figure skating in 2002 - she was in fourth place heading into the final program behind three powerhouses in the sport. Assuming she was out of contention for a medal, she decided the pressure was off and just tried to entertain the audience, while the powerhouses, each knowing the smallest mistake could cost them a gold medal, made significant careless and uncharacteristic mistakes. A commentator stated, "For Sarah, it wasn't about the result; it was about the performance." And it earned her a gold medal. In the end, it's not about who is the best skater, but who out of a handful of world-class skaters performs best under unfathomable pressure.

I have worked on telling myself that these events (i.e, the Met auditions) are not important and that I am not trying to accomplish anything "special", I'm just there to repeat the "same old show" that I do day after day in the studio. This helps, but I am still working on convincing myself, I think, because most of my best performances show up in the privacy of the studio. Tim Galway's book, The Inner Game of Tennis, offers a great deal of insight on this matter, as well, which again, I have yet to fully internalize. Book knowledge of these concepts is not surprisingly insufficient.

For the record, I have won more track (running) events than I have singing events -- and I have competed in more singing events than track events, albeit at a much higher level.

SCC delivers and God reigns/rains!

2008-08-10T21:10:00.005-06:00

Eric and I attended the Rockies game this afternoon for the purpose of hearing Steven Curtis Chapman sing the post-game show. The man is an incredible witness with an amazing sense of humor, even after all he has been through in the last 2+ months. And something I have always appreciated about him is that he doesn't sing his songs in concert the same way he sings them on the albums - he varies them according to his mood at the moment, sometimes changing lyrics to fit the environment or current events, sometimes just playing with timing, rhythm & melody. It keeps things especially interesting and real.

We had an unplanned intermission due to the rain. It was kind of humorous at points. Steven was so intent on getting his important message songs squeezed in before the storm that he changed the concert order and kept singing and playing as the band and crew covered the stage with plastic. They eventually even covered his keyboard with a tarp as he continued to sing and play! He joked, of course, that when he prayed that God would reign over the concert, he should have specified the spelling. When the rain passed, probably 1/2 to 3/4 of the audience remained for the conclusion of the concert, which included the song that he has sung at every concert of his I've ever attended, the song he wrote for his wife, the song that I sang for Eric at our rehearsal dinner, "I Will Be Here."

Apples & Oranges

2008-08-07T20:00:00.003-06:00

I just finished watching the Chapman family on Larry King Live. Only yesterday, they appeared in a pre-recorded segment on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts. Having never watched either interviewer before, I was surprised by the contrast in their approaches. Roberts was clearly moved by the Chapmans faith and suffering; her questions were phrased sensitively and served the Chapman family's desire to glorify God. Contrastingly, King was ambivalent; his questions were blunt and he seemed to be seeking the "sensational" story. His attitude suggested that he was barely even interested in the interview, let alone the Chapman family. For that reason, the latter was difficult for me to watch. It has occurred to me, however, that the Chapmans made a wise choice in which programs to grant interviews to (and these were the only two television interviews - there will be an article in People magazine later this month): Because of the contrasting nature of the two interviewers, the two programs attract different demographics - they were able to reach many people who would not otherwise encounter their faith in such an exposed setting. I also think that it's a good thing the Larry King segment was live -- it gave the Chapmans much more control over their message by not allowing the station to cut, paste, twist or distort their responses. GMA did a beautiful job editing their segment on the Chapmans, but I would not trust LKL to do the same.

Steven Curtis Chapman is appearing at Coors Field on Sunday to sing a concert following the Rockies game. Eric and I have tickets and are looking forward to the concert.

The root of all evil...

2008-07-31T00:01:00.003-06:00

So, Comedy Central has this "courtroom" show called "The Root of All Evil" where every Wednesday night two comedians act as attorneys in a trial to debate which of two "evils" is worse, and, therefore, the root of all evil. Some interesting cases in the past argued Paris Hilton versus Dick Cheney and beer versus high school. Tonight's case pitted Ultimate Fighting against Bloggers, and would you believe that despite stellar arguments against fighting and weak arguments against bloggers, the latter were deemed by the judge to be the root of all evil. The nerve! Among other things, Patton Oswald blames blogging for creating a "first draft" society in which complete, well-planned sentences take a backseat to abbreviations and sentence fragments. Um... which blogs has he been reading? All the blogs in my RSS feeds list are informative and thought-provoking and use complete words and sentences that even make use of correct grammar (most of the time). Now, naturally I don't take these things too seriously, but maybe I am too skeptical.... after all, ultimate fighting is "ultimately" going to result in the development of the Mexican nation to the point of the invasion and overthrow of the United States (yeah, there was more to it than that), and blogging will eventually lead to the complete degradation of human communication until we are back to cave paintings. This is serious stuff, people.... my deceptively innocent thought-sharing is slowly chipping away at the integrity of human civilization as I type!

Geocaching milestone

2008-07-24T20:25:00.002-06:00

For those who haven't heard, geocaching is my new favorite hobby. Yes, we actually got started last summer (A day of firsts), but after that first one, it took us until this summer to really get going, and now I am totally addicted to it. This evening, we placed our first cache for other geocachers to find.

Now, some geocaches are, imho, kind of boring & pointless... something someone stuck in the middle of a parking light under a lamp post just because they could - not a lot of thought in it, and not a lot of value to the finder. But I saw some really neat ones when I was caching in Ohio, though - the two neatest ones were in cemeteries... one was by a headstone shaped like a motorcycle (Dad loved that one) and one was by the grave of a Revolutionary War veteran! These were interesting! And last weekend, we went off-road geocaching on Saxon Mountain with some friends from church and found several larger caches hidden in the mountain forests. We were rewarded partway through with the ineffable views from the summit, not to mention the fun of navigating the rocky "roads" and spending time with friends.

So, naturally, I had to make our hide interesting. I was going to go for the gravesite of Baby Doe Tabor (a la The Ballad of Baby Doe), but someone beat me to it. Instead, I settled on the Melvin Schoolhouse located on the grounds of my alma mater, SHHS. In the process, I have learned so many fascinating things, not only about the school house, but about the history of Aurora - and not boring history stuff, really really cool stuff. I think our new cache adds value.

Next, Eric and I are thinking of acquiring and launching a pair of travel bugs and competing to see whose bug travels farther. :-) We are also hosting two of El's college friends from NJ next weekend and hoping to convert them. ;-) hehe.

World's Oldest Blogger Dies at 108

2008-07-14T11:07:00.001-06:00

As an avid blogger, I thought I should post this:

World's Oldest Blogger Dies at 108
http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/obamas-lead-has-faded-poll-says/20080714092009990001?icid=200100125x1205783261x1200262703

The article doesn't say who has succeeded her as the new world's oldest blogger.

A tech blast from the past

2008-07-11T14:03:00.003-06:00

I'm back in Denver now doing some "spring cleaning," and I found my old software for "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego". The box contained twelve 3.5" floppy diskettes and six 5.25" diskettes - I haven't seen 5.25" diskettes in at least 15 years! The box also contained a 1991 World Almanac and a brochure advertising Prodigy Internet Service.... anyone remember them? They were my ISP at the time. That was a pretty cool service in its day.

Back in time

2008-07-08T12:39:00.003-06:00

This morning, Dad and I rode to my hometown for breakfast at the donut shop a few doors down from the house where I grew up. I saw a few people I knew in the old class pictures on the wall. After breakfast, we walked down the block and looked at the house. The owners, we noticed, were working in the backyard - middle of the day on a Tuesday, would you believe! So, we said "Hello, we used to live here 17 years ago," and the guy gave us a tour of the house. It has changed tremendously in 17 years - walls have been moved, for example - but many things are also quite the same, like the original 83-year-old hardwood floors and the doors with skeleton keyholes. The guy had only lived there 6 months, and all the work had been done prior to his purchase of the home, so as we went along, we told him where the walls used to be and how things had changed. It was really strange walking through my old house again after all this time - the rooms were all smaller than I had remembered them - but what a neat experience.

Then we went down to Wyman Woods and found a geocache. :-) It had a travel bug in it. My first travel bug! I'll take it back to Colorado with me and deposit it there somewhere.

Doing much better and having fun

2008-07-04T10:21:00.004-06:00

Hi all - Happy 4th!

I'm feeling substantially better! Anything remotely acidic sets my throat aflame yet, but beyond that, I feel quite back to normal. :-)

The day I got here, I got to ride Dad's mini-motorcycle. What a trip!! Fun little thing. Thought you'd enjoy a picture.

The family here has a Wii. I'd never encountered one before. Eric and my stepmom had a ball creating my Wii Mii. If I hadn't intervened, who knows what I'da come out looking like! I've tried boxing and bowling - fun. And I'm pretty much just as good/bad at bowling on a Wii as I am in real life. But my stepsister just kicked Eric's butt, and I don't know that this would happen in real life. Interesting.

On to Columbus... not a great start.

2008-07-02T19:19:00.001-06:00

I got into Columbus yesterday afternoon and met up with Dad & Eric. My throat had been growing increasingly sore over the last two days. My throat is absolutely raw, so anything remotely acidic makes it burn, and it hurts to swallow. Then, I spent most of the nighttime hours praying to the porcelain god. This left me exhausted and, more importantly, extremely dehydrated so that I could neither sit nor stand without becoming dizzy and nausesous. I stayed home while Dad & Eric went to the cheese factory and the winery, and when they got home, we went to urgent care where I got a liter of IV fluids to give me a good start at rehydrating. Strep test, sadly, came back negative, which means I'm fighting a virus rather than a bacteria that could be easily dealt with via antibiotic. Darnit. So, I'm glad this wasn't supposed to be a short visit. I can take some time to get well and still enjoy time with the family. Grateful this bug waited until the conference was over, at any rate.

Conclusion

2008-07-01T01:14:00.000-06:00

Wow… I figured I’d finish up tonight with something like, “the banquet was a lot of fun, a nice finish to a great week.” Tada. But if I can find the energy to write about it all, there will be a lot to say. Problem is, of course, that I am absolutely exhausted. Why? Because I danced for over three hours.

The dinner was nice. Anticipating I would want wine with dinner, I bought a glass at the cash bar, only to find out that they were serving wine complimentary during the dinner. Oh well. We Young Leaders found each other and sat together, but it was very loud in the room, so we were limited to one-on-one discussions. I mostly talked to the guy next to me, Larry, who was not a young leader, just a friendly colleague with a lot of spunk. He cracked me up… he actually fell asleep while Marni Nixon was talking, and then when we started applauding for her, he woke up and tried to cover it up with, “she is so funny, isn’t she?” She really was, though. She told us a handful of funny anecdotes about her career and working with Liberace and Victor Borge.

After Marni Nixon, it was time to dance. The orchestra was absolutely first rate. During dinner, they had played a variety of jazz standards, but during the dance time, they played mostly rockin’ oldies. Well, that and “Play That Funky Music, White Boy.” Hehe…. Can you just see a hundred or more voice teachers of all ages rockin’ out to that? I can. I did! Hehe…. I was one of them!

It was really tremendous. When the dancing started, they added some really great rock vocalists to work the crowd. There were a few hundred people at the dinner, and at least 85% of them were on the dance floor within the first few dances. Although the crowd gradually thinned out over the next three hours, there were still a good 60-80 people on the dance floor when the orchestra bid us goodnight. The singers got us involved in the music. For awhile, the lead singer even passed the mic around for various teachers to improvise while the orchestra looped the chord progression. That was a blast. I don’t think anyone quite expected how “with it” NATS could be!

I had a lot of fun tonight. I danced with a lot of different people. Mostly, we Young Leaders danced together, but we danced with a lot of other people, too. And we finally got some group photos. It’s too bad we didn’t all get together sooner because we were the perfect group of friends when we all finally met up at the banquet. All in all, the banquet was the perfect way to close an unforgettable five days. I will be sorry to leave it all behind in the morning.

Nearing the end...Nashville Day Five

2008-06-30T16:43:00.004-06:00

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...

2008-06-29T22:25:00.001-06:00

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

2008-06-29T19:04:00.001-06:00

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

2008-06-28T23:38:00.001-06:00

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

2008-06-27T23:21:00.002-06:00

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

2008-06-26T19:14:00.005-06:00

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!

2008-06-20T13:37:00.002-06:00

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"

2008-06-06T22:39:00.004-06:00

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

2008-06-05T22:21:00.002-06:00

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...

2008-06-02T22:44:00.003-06:00

... 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.

Perception vs. Reality

2008-05-26T22:38:00.000-06:00

I am supposed to sing a Cole Porter song for Loveland Opera Theatre's fundraising gala in October. I mentioned this to my teacher, and her response was, "have you ever even sung in a musical or pop music before?" When I replied that I had done quite a bit of it, in fact, she said she was surprised - she said, "I can't quite match it to your personality; it is more a matter of personality than of voice." This reminded me of a friend saying recently that his first impression of me was that I was uptight and goody-two-shoes. This isn't a first. It's not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that per se, but I believe that I am much more complex than that.

When I am pouring my heart into a jazz ballad and feeling it very deeply and feeling expressive, I always think that if anyone were listening, they would have to feel it as deeply as I do, so it really makes me stop in my tracks to know that someone who's known me this long can't even imagine me singing like that, let alone singing like that well. I feel pigeonholed.

I realize that other people don't perceive me the way I perceive myself, but I don't like not knowing how I am perceived. There's got to be more to this "goody-two-shoes," "strictly-classical-music" perception than just a Christian label, but I don't know what it is.

The good news is that I think those who know me well see a lot more than that, but one never really knows how much more. The frustrating thing is, I like me the way I see me. What if I looked at myself through the eyes of others and didn't like the me they see?

The first sign of summer

2008-05-18T00:23:00.002-06:00

For kids, summer begins when school gets out. As adults, we use other events to signal the start of summer. I have two, and the first of those two events was this evening: the Musicians of St. Clare's spring concert, which concludes our season. Now, instead of choir practice on Tuesday nights, I will be teaching my summer master class with Allison in Golden for 6 weeks before I embark on my summer travels to Nashville and Pataskala.

The 2nd of my summer milestones is the my studio recital, after which I shift to a summer teaching schedule, which is lighter overall, and generally fewer days of the week. Ordinarily, I do most of my teaching from 3-6 PM - the hours between school letting out and Eric getting home - but in the summer, the kids have more flexible schedules so I can get them all into three days instead of five. This milestone is three weeks out yet.

Nostalgia and a small world

2008-05-09T22:44:00.004-06:00

So, based on my last posting, you can imagine I am feeling nostaligic about my children's choir days. So, I decided to look them up on the web. I had heard that a handful of years ago the children's choir split from the symphony and became an independent organization, the Columbus Childrens Choir. It has grown from the one choir it was in my days to NINE choirs. They are still under the direction of Dr. Sandra Mathias, who conducted my first audition and was the only director the CSOCC ever had.

Even cooler, the CCC website has an alumni section where they list what the alums are up to. I have, of course, just submitted my info. In the meanwhile, however, I found the names of dozens of people I remember. Of course, in my memory, they are all still 8 to 13 years old, so reading about their accomplishments is mind-boggling. One of my fellow charter members, David Ayers, played Fiyero in Wicked on Broadway!

But it gets weirder... in Googling David to find out what he's up to, I found that he is co-founder of Broadway in Boulder....he freakin' lives in Colorado now! I think I will try to call him tomorrow and see if he remembers me. He used to sit right behind me, and I've never been a wallflower, right?

A personal loss

2008-05-09T21:30:00.004-06:00

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Columbus Symphony may be closing its doors:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/08/picnic.html

The article begins:

- - - - - -

"After 57 years of music making, including a triumphant concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, the Columbus Symphony says it will shut down June 1.

Out of money and having failed to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra's board of trustees said today that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October.

Columbus would become one of the nation's largest cities without a full-time professional orchestra."

- - - - - - -

Now, why does a Denver soprano care what happens to the Columbus Symphony? Flashback 20 years to a 10-year-old piano student in Grandview Heights, a suburb of Columbus. Her piano teacher hears that the Columbus Symphony Orchestra is creating a children's chorus and suggests that the young girl audition for it. The girl does (along with 500 other children) and becomes one of the 75 charter members of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Children's Chorus. During the three years she sang with this first-rate ensemble, as she performed with the symphony orchestra and a handful of renowned conductors, she gained an appreciation for classical music, learned how to sing "correctly," and learned how to sightsing.

Minus the experiences she acquired in the CSOCC, odds are 50 to 1 she would not have majored in music and would therefore not be a music teacher and performing musician today. Anyone who knows me would consider music an integral part of my spirit - it's part of who I am - I am not ME without it. It should now be easy to see why the potential demise of the CSO is a great personal loss for me.

And it was only a couple of weeks ago, I was recalling these 20-year-old memories with the CSOCC here in my blog in response to similar new experiences. Remember?

I really hope the managers and musicians are able to reach a suitable agreement.

"Brand New Song"

2008-05-08T22:02:00.002-06:00

Someone I love very much emailed today that he/she is feeling depressed (for reasons I can easily see) and said that this song has been resonating with him/her this week. It's a beautiful song in any context, but in this context, it's absolutely heartbreaking.

"Brand New Day" - Gaither Vocal Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3FtwK-xidc

(No, it's not my husband.)

Out of touch

2008-05-04T02:01:00.002-06:00

I went shopping today. I hate shopping. As such, it had been ages since I was last at a mall for anything but lunch after church. I was disappointed to find that there is very little for sale at the mall that I would consent to be seen wearing. I did come home with a couple of cute new outfits, but the overall experience was depressing. I just stared around with wide eyes wondering at what point I became so out of touch with "the times." I mean, I literally felt like I had just stepped out of a time machine into the future.

I went in to 5-7-9.... this was my absolute favorite clothes shop when I was in Jr. High. It's a totally different store now. They didn't grow up with me, I guess. I got older and a new generation of youth filled my shoes, and the store adapted to meet their demands. I mean, the stuff they sell now fits a culture that is totally foreign to me! Even the stuff at the major department stores seemed weird to me. But 5-7-9 was the biggest shock/reality check.

I was also very bothered today by the aloof attitude of people in general. It's like people go out of their way not to make eye contact with you so they don't feel compelled to smile, say hello, or in any other way acknowledge your existence.

Apparently, I am old-fashioned.

My next gig

2008-04-19T20:12:00.003-06:00

Some of you have asked me to post about my upcoming performances. (Thank you for the ego boost, my dear, dear friends!) At the moment, the only thing on the docket (other than my students' studio recital in June) is a concert of the Faure Requiem and the Lauridsen Lux Aeterna mass (both with orchestra) with the Musicians of Saint Clare at St. Paul Lutheran Church (16th & Grant, Denver) at 8 PM on Saturday, May 17th. I am not a soloist, but it is a very enjoyable program worth the $18 admission ($12 students/seniors).

Opening Night

2008-04-19T10:46:00.006-06:00

Last night was opening night of The Flying Dutchman, and it was awesome! It’s ridiculous that they pay me to have this much fun. I enjoyed it even more last night than at the sitzprobe. It helped that Hasmik Papian (Senta) was singing full voice this time so I could hear her better – gave me goosebumps! I was grinning from ear to ear when we got offstage for the intermission after Act II. Three of my good friends from high school came to the show, which also made it more exciting for me. When the show was over, I caught Maestro Stephen Lord as he was walking through the chorus area and asked him to pose for a picture with me.

Opera Colorado - excerpts from my diary

2008-04-17T01:29:00.003-06:00

The sitzprobe went well and I found the Ellie Caulkins Opera House to be a fascinating place. They call it “The Ellie” for short [as you saw in my previous posting], and they even shorten that to just “Ellie” in many cases, so all of the trash cans and music stands have “Ellie” stenciled on them. It’s funny to see my name stenciled on a trash can. And there are signs that say “Ellie Stage Door,” like they are there specifically to tell me where to go. And they have a marvelous PA system to corral all the performers – “gentlemen of the chorus, stage right in five minutes, please.” “ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra to the stage, please.” “Maestro Lord, stage right, please.” “The rehearsal will begin in 30 minutes.” Etc. It’s so FORMAL!

I had been in the theater before in the audience. It is really a beautiful hall. As the women are not in the first act, I was able to enjoy the first act from the first balcony of the audience, and in doing so, I got a much better view of the hall than I had from the floor when I saw Carmen there with Denyce Graves at the beginning of The Ellie’s opening season. I really enjoyed the first act – it’s such a fine opera [The Flying Dutchman].

I spent the second act on stage. The women sing a little in the beginning of the 2nd act, and then sit there for an hour. This would have been marvelous if we were in front of the soloists and able to hear them better. In any case, it was a very different view of the theater, equally breathtaking, with its three balconies. And I was constantly enjoying the swell of emotions I always feel with a full orchestra, choir & soloists in collaboration with a world-class conductor (here, Stephen Lord). It is a magical scenario to me. The music was so dramatic and emotional and, well, there’s just no way to describe it really – it’s just magical to me – I love it. And this was just a dress rehearsal! Friday night we’ll all be in concert black and the hall will be full of people. While I have been in situations like this a number of times as an adult, it particularly reminded me of the concert-version operas in which I participated while singing in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Children’s Chorus [in the late 80s and early 90s].

Sometimes I feel a little sheepish being so enthralled with this stuff. I’ve been around it all for more than two decades, but I marvel at it as though it is my first time. A small part of me thinks it’s probably more “cool” to be ambivalent, but the never-ending magic reminds me why I became a musician to begin with and makes me thankful for the line of work I have chosen and been privileged to pursue.

The third act is quite short and has the most chorus music. It is the only time both the men’s and women’s choruses are on stage together. I am particularly fond of the men’s chorus music in this opera. I get a thrill listening to them sing it. It has a magical quality of its own, especially the way they sing it. I also love it whenever the men’s chorus applauds the women’s chorus – I don’t know why. I like thinking they are impressed by us and proud of us. Must be that “words of affirmation” love language thing again.

What the world is coming to

2008-04-13T23:46:00.004-06:00

So, they've had this giant sign up at the Denver Performing Arts Center for several months... maybe longer... and I have always found it amusing. Today I finally took my camera and got some pictures of it.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE sharing my name with an opera house?

Rehearsals, by the way, are going well - I'm having a great time with it.

First rehearsal

2008-04-06T22:32:00.002-06:00

Today was my first rehearsal with Opera Colorado. I left in time to be early, but the traffic by the performing arts center was terrible, barely a crawl. I was so upset to be running late to my first rehearsal! I finally found a lot, paid an astronomical $15.00 to park there (it would have taken another 20-30 minutes to get into the DPAC garage) and sprinted the two blocks to the Tramway building for rehearsal. As it turned out, they delayed the start of rehearsal because so many choristers got caught in the traffic. Whew!

The rehearsal was fun and the time passed quickly, but it was not at all like I expected. The atmosphere was very casual and lighthearted, the group was smaller than I expected – about 60 total – 25 women, 40 men, and oddly enough, overall, they were not very good sight-readers. The music is really not that difficult, and I’m singing the harmony (soprano 2), but the rest of my section, in particular, was a little slow catching it, I thought, and wanted/needed a lot of it played for them. In that regard, Clare Choir is much more sophisticated. However, here I can sing fully and operatically, which I cannot do in Clare Choir, despite how often our director says she wants us to sing fully. She is constantly toning me down, it seems. It’s a different style of music, though. This should make for an interesting two weeks.

NATS

2008-04-06T22:31:00.002-06:00

The NATS chapter auditions were yesterday. I think they were successful, even though half of the finals weren’t posted until well after they were to have begun. Truthfully, I think we’d have been fine on my original schedule, but Steve had asked me to condense it, and we just weren’t able to tabulate that fast, as I had predicted. Half of my tabulators never showed up, so the teachers pitched in during the afternoon. The room was full of tabulators all afternoon and we still seemed hopelessly behind. But all the double checks left me feeling confident in the quality of our work.

My colleagues have been very supportive. Sometimes I wonder if they are as positive about me behind my back as to my face, not because I think they are two-faced, but because they go much easier on me than I expect anyone to. When I lamented lightheartedly that things were not going like clockwork (as I had become accustomed to at regional), my colleagues were always very quick to point out my strengths and the exceptional challenges that made these auditions different. I was particularly surprised to find that we managed substantially more auditions today in just one day than regional does over two days. That made me feel like we accomplished quite a feat, even if it did take longer than we’d hoped.

Most of all, I am proud of myself for maintaining a level head at all times – even those times when I was sure everyone must’ve thought I was the worst auditions chair ever (which, in reality, probably was not true), I kept my focus. I acknowledged the stress in my internal dialogue, but I kept redirecting my thoughts to the task at hand so it wouldn't overwhelm me. I was able to smile all day. And when people came up to me throughout the day with problem after problem (i.e. they sang in the wrong category, they didn’t meet the repertoire requirements, a judge didn’t show up, finalists didn’t show up, the doors were locked, room conflicts with other CU events, etc.), God granted me the wisdom and quick thinking to come up with solutions that seemed to keep everyone happy. In short, it was an answered prayer. A lot of answered prayer. I also learned a lot today – I have many ideas for improving things next year in order to avoid some of the pitfalls I discovered this year. I had the best training in the world for this job, but it definitely still has a learning curve.

Experience of a lifetime

2008-03-29T22:50:00.004-06:00

The MTNA national conference is in Denver this year and began today and goes through Wednesday. This afternoon culminated with a 90-minute master class with opera legend, Marilyn Horne. I managed to get a front row seat, from which I occasionally captured short video clips, some of which my students will get to watch. (Before lunch, we also enjoyed a "conversation" with Ms. Horne.) This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is difficult to describe, but I learned so much, and it all made so much sense - as she coached the singers (some of whom I knew), I could imagine how it would feel to sing it as they did at first and then again as she recommended. All in all, I didn't learn anything particularly new, but I processed it in a different context - specifically in the context of singers who are more advanced than I am, as opposed to in my own voice or in less-accomplished voices. And, demonstrated by a legend, these ideas took on new significance. My visual and aural mental image of these sounds/techniques is enhanced.

And afterward, Ms. Horne autographed my copy of her autobiography (which I acquired years ago, thank you very much). "To Ellie - Marilyn Horne '08"

Yes, this makes up for yesterday. I'm looking forward to the rest of the convention, though I can't imagine anything else this week will top this afternoon. :-)

Not my day.

2008-03-28T20:23:00.002-06:00

I was already blue for no comprehensible reason. Then I got a call from a mentor stating that she did not fully agree with my assessment of my student's readiness to be cast for the Pie Jesu solo in our upcoming performance of the Faure Requiem. A few minutes later, I was making dinner and burnt my finger on the skillet. Then, I went to watch the TV program I had taped while I was busy talking on the phone and burning myself and found that the tape would neither rewind, fastforward nor play. All in less than an hour. So, not my day. Or at least, not my hour.

I own 37 pairs of shoes

2008-03-27T13:15:00.002-06:00

At the church Valentine's social we went to last month, there was a "Newlyweds"-type game in which we were asked how many pairs of shoes we owned. I don't know why that came back into my head today, but it did, and suddenly I had to know exactly how many I have. Not including slippers or snow boots, I own 37 pairs of shoes. These include dress shoes in a variety of colors (some dyed-to-match) and heel heights, wedding shoes, character shoes, sandals, athletic shoes, crocs, and "business casual" shoes. That's a lot of shoes, I think. And I don't consider myself a shoe fanatic or anything. I think I need to go through those and get rid of the ones I haven't worn since I got married (except the wedding shoes, of course).

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Worth watching

2008-03-15T23:10:00.002-06:00

I liked this inspirational video: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

And Eric and I watched "Dan In Real Life" today on DVD -- it's worth watching, too. We both really liked it.

Sparky

2008-03-14T19:47:00.005-06:00

I mentioned earlier that Eric & I spent the weekend in the mountains. More specifically, we stayed at a friend's cabin in Breckenridge. The snow on their porch came all the way up to the base of the window, so when a red fox came to the window, he was level with it and able to peer in at us. Our friends have been known to feed the fox, and we enjoyed feeding him, too. We named him Sparky after a waitress that served us over the weekend.

See my videos of Sparky on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5qodtHV37c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZCaMpUhdgs

Yes, I'm still alive

2008-03-13T12:45:00.004-06:00

I have just been so busy! I must say, I am not missing grad school like I thought I would. There are just so many exciting things going on!

My big project has been scheduling the spring auditions (contest) for my NATS chapter. This has been like a gigantic sudoku puzzle scheduling 58 judges and 380 singers into 16 rooms for 534 singing auditions. I've actually quite enjoyed it, but it has occupied nearly every free moment for the last few weeks. I finally finished the scheduling around 1 o'clock this morning. Now, I just have to get the final mailing ready to go and then prepare for the event day. Still a lot to do, but there's a huge chunk of it done now.

This will be my year to attend national music teacher conventions. The MTNA (Music Teachers Natl Assn) national conference happens to be in Denver this year, so I would be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity. That one is the end of March and beginning of April. Then, I won a scholarship to attend the NATS (Natl Assn of Teachers of Singing) national conference in Nashville this summer. I am REALLY looking forward to both of these awesome opportunities for learning and networking.

And finally, I have been invited to sing with the Opera Colorado chorus for The Flying Dutchman in April. It will not be a staged production, so we will rehearse every night for two weeks and then two performances and then it's done. I auditioned back in September and have been an alternate for the last two shows, but this time I get to sing. Rehearsals start the same day as the NATS contest, so I won't have time to rest & recouperate from the auditions, but it will be something new and it doesn't last long.

So, that's what's been up in my little world. Eric and I were able to get away to the mountains this last weekend and the time away from everything was very good for both of us. We need to get away more often, I think.

Five fabulous years!

2008-02-15T10:23:00.003-07:00

Happy Anniversary, Eric, my love! I love you more than words can possibly convey. Thank you for five fabulous years!
(And many more! cha-cha-cha!)

See how important my job is?

2008-02-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

MUSICOGENIC EPILEPSY CASE PRECIPITATED BY VOICES SINGING INCORRECTLY

Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol 131, Issue 10 1255-1258, Copyright © 1984 by Canadian Medical Association
S. E. Brien and T. J. Murray

A case of musicogenic epilepsy is reported in which the seizures were precipitated by singing voices. It was found that some singers' voices were particularly epileptogenic and that some of their songs, but not others, would precipitate a seizure. A study of the "offending" songs and singers did not reveal a common key, chord, harmonic interval, pitch or rhythm, and the emotional feeling or intensity of the music did not seem to be relevant. However, the voices that caused the seizures had a throaty, "metallic" quality. Such a singing voice results from incorrect positioning of the larynx such that it is not allowed to descend fully during singing; consequently, the vowel sounds produced must be manipulated by the lips or jaw to be distinguished. This trait is most common in singers with a low voice range who sing softly and use a microphone. It is not seen in trained operatic or musical theatre singers. The results of repeated testing showed that the seizures in this patient were caused by listening to singers who positioned the larynx incorrectly.

Close to home

2008-02-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Helicopters keep flying over our house in what seems like swarms. About 45 minutes ago, there was a gang shooting at a park about one city block from our house. The mother of the student I was working with at the time had just dropped her son off at the park, and just then about 40 kids started to converge on the park, so she decided not to leave. She said it was eerie the way they started coming from all directions. They roughed her son up a little. She got that sinking feeling and called her son back to the car. He said, "Mom, they're asking each other if they brought the guns." Then they pushed two kids on the ground and started beating them up, so my student's mother called the police. "Are they shooting?" "No, but they're fighting - you need to come now!" Seconds later there were several shots. She drove away in a hurry. Two people were taken away in ambulances. This is getting awfully close to home.

The time has come

2008-02-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

Friends have been encouraging me to get my own web domain name for years, but I resisted because my website had been hosted on AOL for over 12 years - it's linked all over the web. But AOL finally forced me into a split-second decision.

I pulled up my website this evening and found a very unattractive AOL advertising banner across the top of my site. I was not amused. I contacted AOL to find out if this atrocity would go away if I went back to paid AOL service and was told it would not. Half an hour later, I became the owner of ellieseligmann.com.

There's about a 24-hour turn-around time on the setting up webhosting through GoDaddy.com. When that is complete, I will start moving my files and then look for the most efficient way to forward traffic from the old site to the new site. Or maybe duplicate the site for awhile. See, I've been on the web so long, I have pretty decent status with Google. If you Google "voice teacher aurora colorado" - I am the first web page that comes up. I don't want to lose that priority. But that advertising banner on AOL looks SO unprofessional!!! So, the short of it is that I have to be smart in how I make the move to my new domain name. I welcome the advice of those more experienced in these matters.

Brava, Klara!

2008-02-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Just last month, I wrote about the tremendous positive impact that of one of my voice teachers, Klara Barlow, had on my development as a singer. (See What I need) She was my teacher at IU and is easily the best teacher I ever had.

For years, I have wondered what became of her - she was elderly when I studied with her 9 years ago. I received a message through MySpace today from a friend of hers (a stranger to me, though) telling me that Ms. Barlow passed away last month at the age of 79.

The announcement in OPERA NEWS: http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/news/pressrelease.aspx?id=1496

I offer my condolences to her close friends and family. To anyone fortunate enough to have known her well and long, this is a great loss.

Priorities? Anyone?

2008-01-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

Interesting thing about America. At dinner last night, we talked about how Europeans generally have 5-6 weeks of vacation a year and most only work 30-hour weeks or so. So, they're not the dominant super-power on earth, who cares? They still live well.

The US feels the need to be better than everyone else - it's become part of our identity and culture, so every company feels the need to be better than everyone else, too. Our priorities are totally off-base, in my opinion. Employers value their bottom lines more than they value their PEOPLE. They push people to work long hours and limit vacation and other benefits. They ask - no, REQUIRE - employees to accomplish amazing feats with inadequate resources. Even companies that want to be people-focused have to demand a lot of their people just to stay in the game.

And our children are watching and learning.

I'm THIRTY!

2008-01-30T23:46:00.000-07:00

It's taken me six months to get used to the idea, but I am finally ready to be 30. I'm not ready to be 35 or 40, but I don't have to be.

It was a very nice birthday. Eric took the whole day off - both day and night shifts - to spend with me. He took me to breakfast at IHOP. Lots of friends and family called, which made me feel loved, and that's what birthdays are for, right?

In the evening, we went to a wine dinner with my parents at The Bent Noodle. The wines were all from Tuscany. The meal was excellent, as were some of the wines.

The sudden heavy snowfall was a nice touch, too. :-)

I love my birthday. :-) It's a feel-good day.

Peaks and Valleys

2008-01-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Eric and I seem to be at a peak in the cycle of our marriage, which is absolutely shocking given that he is working an odd combination of days and nights and is therefore sleeping very little. Sadly, I know that this peak will not last indefinitely. I always chant to myself, "this, too, shall pass" when things are going badly, but I think it is worth remembering when things are going well, too; then when the natural cycle in our marriage pulls us down into another valley, maybe we won't think of it as a crisis, but instead as just an inevitable bump in the road that truly will move on again to make way for another peak.

Uh, I was breathing that?

2008-01-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

You may remember that one of my Christmas presents from Eric was an ionic air purifier. It has been useful. It eliminates the litter box odors even when the kitties forget to cover up, and my students who are allergic to cats notice significant differences in their allergic reactions when I use it in the studio just before their lessons.

Eric gave it to me a little before Christmas, so we've had it about a month now. Last night, we cleaned the filter for the first time - ran it under water in the sink like the instructions said. It's hard to describe... for at least two minutes (maybe more), clear water went in one side and absolutely opaque, dark as night, black water came out the other side. I looked at all that crud and realized that the purifier had pulled all of that out of the air I was breathing! Wicked! And that was only a month's worth!

Update on the Met auditions

2008-01-16T23:28:00.001-07:00

I almost forgot to tell you how the audition went. It went okay. Multiple people, including my teacher, said it is the best I have ever sung in an opera competition. I felt I sang a solid performance, but I felt I must have looked terrified. I was sure everyone could see my knees shaking. My teacher concurred - I looked like I wanted to be anywhere but on that stage. But it was still my personal best for that environment, so I am glad I did it. That being said, however, I don't see much point in doing it again. Yes, I will be too old for the Met auditions next year, but the DLOG competition uses the same stage, and I think I will forgo that from now on, too. There is nothing more for me to gain from the experience. I am not a competitive singer. After all, a competition is not very different from a studio recital - you come on, you sing your song, and you leave - but I perform quite well in recitals and not so well in competition. Recitals are the reality of performing, so if I had to choose, I would take being better at recitals; competitions are contrived. In competitions, we go to win, but in recitals, we go to entertain, and that is what art is really about: entertainment and the sheer joy of doing it.

How does this happen?

2008-01-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

So, my first semester at UNC, I discovered that being in school threw my life out of balance - there was no time for family, friends, church activities, performing, etc. So, I took fewer credits my second semester, but somehow found myself even busier. My third/last semester at UNC I knew would be crazy, but I pushed through it so I could be done in December and get back to the rest of my life.

When I graduated a month ago, I thought I was looking forward to a more reasonable lifestyle again, but so far that has been a joke. That's not to say I'm not enjoying myself, but I am swamped. Email is coming in faster than I can reply to it. I finally got 83 auditions packets ready to mail to my NATS colleagues tomorrow - that was a lot of work! (But again, it's fun.) And things are starting to pour in for the Loveland Opera Theatre program. And my studio recital is 2 1/2 weeks away, so the final planning is in the works there - finalizing the program, getting the music to the accompanist, and scheduling a dress rehearsal. This week, I have been running from one thing to the next from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning until my head hits the pillow sometime the next morning. It's unreal. My birthday will be here before I know it, and I won't be ready!

Those close to me keep asking what I want for my birthday. It's a big birthday, after all. But it's right after Christmas and graduation - what else could I possibly want that I haven't received already? And yet, I hate to waste such an opportunity ;-) - when will I be this "special" again?

Anyhow, I thought I should blog so you all know why I am so slow in replying to your emails....! I'm still trying to catch my breath!

It goes both ways

2008-01-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished watching the Bucks get anhililated in the BCS championship for the 2nd year in a row. About halfway through, I remarked to a friend that I am a lot like the Buckeyes' football team: I generally perform really well, except in competition (that is, under pressure). He said, I thought you were going to say the Bucks looked like a bunch of opera singers trying to play football. He has a point.

What I need

2008-01-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for my last run at the Met competition next Friday. I know I'm not Met material, but I'd like to advance out of the prelims for once. Unfortunately, as much as I might shine on stage in a show, I am not very good at competition. Beyond that, as a singer, I am fully aware that my own insecurities are holding me back more than anything else right now.

As much as I know the judge (last year) who said it was way out of line [if I had known the woman was opera's Simon Cowell, I wouldn't have bothered waiting around for her comments!], I can't shake her accusation that my performance that day was an embarrassment to my education. Except she didn't see it (or say it) as "my performance that day" - she saw it as "me" or "my abilities." My intellect tells me that her comment was based on one of my worst performances and therefore it doesn't really matter, but Satan keeps repeating it to me and it tortures me.

This week, I remembered that the best time in my life as a singer was probably my last year and a half at IU when I studied with Klara Barlow. The woman never succeeded in remembering my name, but she built up the diva in me -- the one my two previous IU teachers had nearly crushed to bits. The confidence she encouraged in me set my voice free and corrected a whole mess of technical problems without her ever having to address them directly.

I'm not looking for someone to tell me I'm awesome just so I feel good - I still need the constructive criticism that is part of taking lessons, but I need more than just technical mentorship.

Happy Holidays!

2008-01-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

We had a nice Christmas with our families. Eric gave me an ionic air purifier, which is considerably reducing the dust and odor surrounding the litter box in the guest room. In fact, when that thing is on, you'd never know there was a litter box there! It's very effective.

He also gave me a digital picture frame, which I absolutely love. Because the pictures are made with light, they are so much more vibrant than paper photos, and I don't have to limit myself to just one photo in the frame -- I get to see a slideshow! I've loaded pictures of all of my favorite memories from the last few years so it brings me great joy to watch them appear on the screen.

He also gave me one of those page-a-day calendars -- it's an origami collection. Every page provides instructions for making some origami piece with the paper from the day before. Today I made a fox. Later in the week I will make a dog... I will make the dog's head on Thursday and the rest of his body on Friday and then put it together. It's neat! Now, what am I going to do with 300-some origami creations?

One of my students gave me a piano Christmas tree ornament. I was stunned to realize that I had never had a piano ornament. I've played the piano for 27 years and I teach piano, but I have never had a piano ornament on my tree! How weird is that?

Our two-year-old niece gave us two interesting gifts. First, she learned to say my name, and I got to hear her say it for the first time on Christmas day. (She had already figured out Eric's. My name is tricky because of the Ls I guess.) She also gave us a box of kleenex -- the box was decorated with pictures of her and pictures of us with her. Her mom special-ordered it through MyKleenex.com. If you're a picture person or need a gift for one, this is a clever idea.

Last night, Eric and I watched movies together until close to midnight and then rang in the new year together. This is what we did our first New Year's together, too. It's a nice way to spend the holiday. This morning I made breakfast for him and we are watching football games.

Happy New Year!

Poll regarding Christmas letters

2007-12-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

I was reading something today about conserving resources, and it suggested sending Christmas letters electronically instead of using paper products to mail them. I am torn on this (pun not intended). On one hand, it saves a lot of time and paper to send them electronically, especially considering most will be thrown away. On the other hand, it's exciting to receive them in the mail and watch them stack up throughout the month of December. In the electronic age, the personal touch is particularly appreciated.

I have historically mailed a Christmas letter to friends and family who live far away, particularly those who only hear from me once a year. It has always seemed a little silly to me to send cards to people I see regularly. To those, I usually email the letter I have mailed to the others. I mean, I send 20 or 30 cards a year anyway - I can't imagine how expensive and time-consuming that would get if I sent them to everyone I know. And YET, I enjoy receiving these letters from certain friends I see regularly.

Of course, that's another thing... cards versus letters. Cards are pretty, but they don't communicate a lot to me. The thrill of getting Christmas letters is in reading about my friends' lives and putting myself back into their lives for that moment, remembering times we've had together and appreciating the ways God has blessed them. I'm afraid I don't really understand the tradition of sending cards that are simply signed with no personal touch other than the signature itself. What is the point?

So, anyhow, I am especially interested in hearing your perspective on this. Please share!

Look out.... political commentary!

2007-12-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting case.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/cheesesteak-shop-owner-defends-policy/20071215115009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

I agree with the business owner. It's not discrimination to ask patrons to order in English.

Someone commenting on this article posted the following quotation from Theodore Roosevelt:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."Theodore Roosevelt 1907

I verified this quote on snopes.com, where they also provide additional quotes along these lines from T. Roosevelt. http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/troosevelt.asp.

Diversity is a beautiful thing - it is something that makes this country extra special, but for different peoples to live and work together, they must have something in common, too. Historically, we have shared similar values (i.e. the Bill of Rights) and a common language. Many immigrant families have held on to their heritage and language, and rightly so, but they also learned the ways and language of the land they chose to inhabit. They embraced certain things that unified them with their new countrymen. Our society cannot endure if there is no common thread binding its many cultures together. Human nature just doesn't work that way.

Why is it considered discrimination to ask restaurant patrons to order in English? The menu is written in English... he's providing the words. His ethnic patrons are there to eat American-style food. If they are willing to embrace that aspect of American culture for an hour or so, why not 2 minutes of speaking the local language to order the food? Presumably the restaurant owner would not have created the sign if this had not already been an issue his servers were facing.

I value cultural diversity, and I don't believe in discrimination, but I also don't think asking people to learn a little English to facilitate basic communication in public venues is discriminatory. Tourists do it; why not immigrants?

Things change

2007-12-15T15:00:00.001-07:00

Well, now that I've graduated, I have to update my blog profile. Until now, it has read: "I am a Christian, happily married, and the "mother" of four wonderful cats. I am privileged to have one of the best jobs - I teach singing, piano and music theory. I am presently pursuing a master's degree in Music Education at the University of Northern Colorado. And I own every episode of "I Love Lucy" on both VHS and DVD."

I am presently trying to sell the I Love Lucy VHS collection at the insistence of my husband. 60 VHS tapes (3 episodes per tape) take up a LOT of space, whereas the same collection on DVD takes up very little space. That's when it occurred to me that I really had something unique that is no longer special. I had the complete set of I Love Lucy long before they started releasing entire television series on DVD. Now everyone and their cousin seems to own every episode of "Friends" on DVD, but when VHS was still the media of choice, owning an entire series was a considerable novelty. How things change!

Graduation

2007-12-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

Graduation was fun. I enjoy historic formalities like that. My husband and his parents were there to cheer me on. Dad wasn't able to come out because of the weather -- and it did snow all day yesterday -- and Mom accidentally scheduled a trip to the Bahamas to coincide with graduation, but they were there in spirit. :-)

My most prominent emotion yesterday was gratitude. I am immensely thankful for all the professors, friends, and family who have encouraged and supported me through this challenging endeavor. I hope all of you know just how much I treasure you because I don't think there is any way for me to adequately express it.

Now, I just wish someone had told me my mortar board wasn't level so I could have fixed it!