Continuing to work BACKWARDS, today’s blogpost highlights the clinician at the middle of our 3-day series, Heather Statham!
Here’s Heather’s bio:
“Man you’ve got some pipes!” may be something you feel compelled to say after hearing Heather Statham belt out a couple of tunes for the first time and you wouldn’t be alone! Based in Atlanta, Georgia and the front woman for ThunderGypsy band, Heather has become known for being a power vocalist with a dynamic stage presence.
Her love of the performing arts was nurtured at an early age on stage in dance and musicals. Her training continued while in school at Brenau Women’s College and later took her to New York City and the CAP21/NYU Program. After several years in regional theatre, she turned her attention to live music. She is now ecstatic to be the front woman for the powerhouse quartet that is ThunderGypsy – the 2017 Atlanta Blues Challenge Winner. And if you don’t find her performing on stage belting out those blues rocking soul stirring hits of the 60s/70s, you may find her belting out her favorite tunes from many of the Broadway divas – Ethel, Bette, Elaine, Debra, Patti… and so on. [Here’s a video of her doing just that!]
As a vocal coach, she loves helping her students understand how to connect to a song and deliver a rock solid performance for an audition or show. Having just completed her advanced training in Sheri Sanders’ “Rock the Audition” curriculum, she is thrilled to be a Certified Rock the Audition Coach, helping musical theatre performers create and cultivate authentic performances of pop/rock repertoire. She also helps teachers and vocal professionals understand and navigate the world of pop/rock/musical theatre repertoire in her workshop – Pop Rock for Dummies (or those who just haven’t had time to study it.)
And that’s exactly what Heather will be doing on September 1 at 6:30pm as part of the Back to …. Whatever series that Curiously Strong Performing (the coaching component of Mezzoid Voice Studio) will be offering.
In Pop/Rock for Dummies, Heather will:
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- touch on generalities of Pop/Rock (technical and stylistic)
- talk about what to look for in choosing rep
- dig into Pop/Rock for Musical Theatre singers
AND - answer any questions that you may come up with in the Q&A to follow
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Why is this valuable?
Well, for those of us who identify as classical singers or even musical theater singers, finding an authentic voice in pop music can be frustrating. I remember one time, before I’d even started studying voice (but I was in choir and the musicals), I bought a piece of sheet music by Fleetwood Mac – specifically, “Dreams.” And as I sat the piano, singing the opening lyrics,
Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom –
Well, who am I to keep you down?
I thought to myself:
I sound stupid. And weird.
I had no idea how to sing pop music. And although now I am certified in contemporary commercial music through my training in Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method, I have steered away from teaching anything pop-ier than contemporary musical theater. Not because I don’t enjoy commercial music, but because I don’t feel like it’s my strong suit. And I’ve been afraid that my students will feel like they sound stupid and weird. (Not that I would allow them that negative self-talk, because it’s been enough for me to deal with all of my life.)
Or that I’ll give them repertoire that I feel somewhat comfortable with (60s/70s singer/songwriters), but that stuff might be too old. But I don’t really know that much about the current crop of singer/songwriters (I’m listening, I’m trying!) and I don’t know where to find their music.
And then along came Heather Statham. The answer to my oh-so-many questions. And yours, as well, I have no doubt.
This session is for you if:
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You are a musical theater singer who has to prepare a pop/rock song for an audition and you have no idea where to start
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You are a classically trained singing teacher who feels extremely comfortable with musical theater but is clueless about pop/rock (why, that sounds like me)
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You listen to pop songs all the time and sing along with the radio/Spotify/Apple Music but when you try to sing them at karaoke night, you sound… wrong
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Or perhaps you are all of the above (also like me)
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In addition, all registrants will receive a reduced rate for a Rock Out Your Rep session with Heather (both of us are members of The Speakeasy Cooperative, and it’s a little perk of collaboration!). This is a great way to get a curated, customized list of songs that you can work on with your teacher (or if you’re a teacher, with your students). More info will be available about this soon, including links to Heather’s booking page.
Remember that all three sessions will be available on replay through September 10 for everyone who registers for the full series. The cost for all three sessions is $90 ($30 each).
You may choose to register for individual sessions – the cost for that is $40 each and there will be no video replay available.
For more information about the full B2W experience and links to register,
check out the page on this site right HERE.
Next Tuesday’s blogpost will be about the first day of the series, My Favorite Sings: A Tag-Team Vocal Boot Camp, and the fantastic teachers who will be joining me.
