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It’s been a long YEAR

The end of my 2021-2022 studio year ends in about 2 hours, and I have to say that it’s been a long year.

(I was just listening to the song “It’s been a long day” from the studio showcase this past weekend, and I grimly thought, “day? It’s been a long year!” and so here we are.)

It was a rough year, and I’m not sure why. I maintained my health (still COVID-free, after 2+ years of being in a pandemic – knock on wood). I wasn’t nearly as busy as I was pre-pandemic, but I felt overwhelmed, even with a two week vacation at the end of April/beginning of May.

My students did well in musicals and in their college auditions, but somehow I still feel completely drained.

Next week I’m taking off (it’s birthday week!), and I’m not sure if I’m going to write anything or schedule anything to be re-published from past years. I’m having some remodeling done, and I’m preparing for a couple of things.

My summer schedule will be condensed into three days per week, and I’m taking off some time in July for the NATS conference in Chicago, and also to have cataract surgeries (one for each eye). I’ve been advised that the surgeries will be much easier, in terms of process and recovery time, than when I had PRK back in 2009. One of the eye doctors said, “You’ve had PRK? If you could handle that, this will be nothing.”

But I have a real phobia about eye doctors. It’s a miracle I did the PRK in the first place – and no surprise that I only did one follow-up afterwards. I think it goes back to reading Light a Single Candle when I was in junior high – about a girl my age who had very poor vision (hey, that sounds like ME) and suddenly went blind. Freaked me out (and I think I read it three times). Also the characters of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. 

Blindness has always terrified me.

So I need a bit of a break. At this point, I’m planning to teach 6/21-29 and 7/12-8/16, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I”m also hosting Emma Langford in a house concert on 8/12, and I am doing some remodeling before that, plus I want to tweak my website a bit. If I need to take more time off, I will – but I’d rather not.

The 2022-23 studio year will begin, as usual, on the Tuesday after Labor Day, and more info about that will be forthcoming.

In the meantime….

See you on the 21st.

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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