Last year at this time, I felt very positive about the year going forward. I had gone through a year-by-year decade review and felt very proud of the changes I’d made and things I’d achieved. I expected even more good things to happen in 2021. Some of the things that I was expecting to do for the studio (and myself) included:
- Exploring a variety of performance opportunities
- How to audition effectively
- How to communicate in languages you might not understand
- How to create personal musical theater through cabaret
- How to re-create a piece that you might be tired of or that you might consider old-fashioned
We were on our way to doing those through the Curiously Strong Performing™ series that I had started at Roland Park Community Center, and we were supposed to do a student cabaret at Germano’s Piattini at the end of March. I was going to premiere some pieces by Irish poets that I had commissioned at a house concert on March 15. I was going to write a new Christmas cabaret to be done in December 2020 at a variety of venues.
But then…. you know what happened. Everything stopped on March 14 and lessons moved online.
But what did we accomplish?
- We figured out how to use technology (and are still figuring out new ways to make things work)
- We went beyond our own communities to work with other singers and master clinicians with national and international reputations
- We started doing regular studio classes where we thought outside the box (no pun intended) and looked how we could tweak interpretations to make songs fresh
- We learned to self-tape – and some people are really good at working with the camera
- We have had the time to learn new skills related to our craft, if not necessarily of the craft
For myself and MVS, the latter has included redoing my website, doing a studio photoshoot (and writing an article about it for an independent voice teachers magazine), increasing my presence on Instagram and YouTube with Warm-up Wednesdays, Singing in the Mask, and my 25 Days of Caroling medley, taking belt lessons of my own, writing more regularly, hosting masterclasses and workshops, and teaching courses, including the very successful musical theater history & performance course, From Tin Pan Alley to Today. I also brought on actor Matt Bender as an associate to coach monologues, which he will continue to do in 2021.
And I have more plans, including a Vocal Boot Camp next Saturday, January 9, from 12-3 pm. If you would like to register, today is the last day of the early bird discount (Code EARLYBIRD2021), and you can register here. We will also continue to do studio classes at no charge for current MVS students.
As far as what didn’t work, we all know that. No need to dwell on it.
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If you would like to start something new in 2021, why not consider voice lessons? I have room for 3-5 enthusiastic performers (either pre-professional or serious avocational/professional singers) at Mezzoid Voice Studio. Contact me HERE
if you’d like more information.