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What Worked in 2020

Posted byMezzoid Voice StudioPosted increativity, GeneralTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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?

  1. We figured out how to use technology (and are still figuring out new ways to make things work)
  2. We went beyond our own communities to work with other singers and master clinicians with national and international reputations
  3. 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
  4. We learned to self-tape – and some people are really good at working with the camera
  5. 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.

Published by Mezzoid Voice Studio

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.

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