I was asked by NextDoor, the national neighborhood group, to write a post for my business page on why I do what I do, using the hashtag #WhyIDoThis.
I was limited to 1000 characters, so I recycled part of a post from last summer and part of the opening of my studio policies, which I just put out for the 2020-21 school year. This is what I wrote:
Mezzoid Voice Studio: Why I Do This. I firmly believe that good singing coordinates natural functions in a way to ensure a sound that is natural, free, attractive, and feels really terrific. My studio name, Mezzoid, comes from being in a choir where I sang in the alto section. My choir director said, “Okay, altoids, let’s go over your part.” I said, “Excuse me, but I happen to be a mezzoid!” He said, “What’s the difference?” I said, “I’m still curiously strong, but I sing a minor third higher.” So what is curiously strong singing/performing? It is:
1. Singing and/or performing that takes risks and digs deep into the song’s text, its history, and its style; 2. Singing and performing that is confident, consistent, and constantly developing; 3. Performing that welcomes in others as collaborators, as creators, as colleagues, and as an audience.
This is what I mean by being curiously strong as a singer and as a performer, and what I want for my students, my colleagues – really anyone who is in my life. And this is #WhyIDoThis.
If you want to know more about joining the Mezzoid Voice Studio and learning more about Curiously Strong Singing, please feel free to message me here or email me. There are a few openings that have come up and I’d love to have you join us.
Christine Thomas-O'Meally, a mezzo soprano and voice teacher currently based in the Baltimore-DC area, has performed everything from the motets of J.S. Bach to the melodies of Irving Berlin to the minimalism of Philip Glass.
As an opera singer and actress, she has appeared with companies such as Charm City Players, Spotlighters Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Theater of Northern Virginia, Opera North, the Washington Savoyards, In Tandem Theatre, Windfall Theater, The Young Victorian Theater of Baltimore, and Skylight Opera Theatre. She created the role of The Woman in Red in Dominick Argento’s Dream of Valentino in its world premiere with the Washington Opera and Mary Pickersgill in O'er the Ramparts at its world premiere during the Bicentennial of Battle of Baltimore at the Community College of Baltimore County. Other roles include Mrs. Paroo in Music Man, Mother Abbess in Sound of Music, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, both Hansel and the Witch in Hansel & Gretel, and many roles in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. Her performance as the Housekeeper in Man of La Mancha was honored with a WATCH award nomination.
Ms. Thomas-O'Meally received an M.M. in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She regularly attends master classes and workshops in both performance and vocal pedagogy, and is certified in all three Levels of Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method. Her students have performed on national and international tours of Broadway productions, at prestigious conservatories, and in regional theater throughout the country.
View more posts
