Today’s blogpost is inspired by the great Annie Lennox, one of my favorite performers of all times. She wrote an article for The Guardian entitled, “Why Everyone Should Sing.” And since this blogpost is titled Why I Sing (and you can go back and check out my very first post explaining that right here), –Continue reading “The Alchemy of Singing”
Tag Archives: Interpretation
Blaze a Trail
How do we blaze a trail as performers? As students? As teachers? What is that next step that will set us apart? As performers and students, we need to focus on things other than learning the skills needed to pass a test, win a competition, and get into college. As teachers, we need to beContinue reading “Blaze a Trail”
How Singing Mozart Taught Me To Count
[Warning – adult language ahead] Now that I have your attention: Today is Wolfgang Amadeus (although some write it as “Amadé”) Mozart’s 265th birthday (and he doesn’t look a day over 250). As a lyric mezzo-soprano, I have sung a lot of Mozart. I loved the movie Amadeus My favorite contemporary composer, Stephen Sondheim, has beenContinue reading “How Singing Mozart Taught Me To Count”
I Meant That
My husband and I working with a designer for our house because, while we’re pretty good at picking out pieces – art work, rugs, colors – we’re not so good about actually putting them up on the walls (and I get absolutely paralyzed about window treatments). When we met with him yesterday to discuss someContinue reading “I Meant That”
Golden Age Musicals Are NOT Going Away
Golden Age musicals are NOT going away. Even if things have changed and some of the themes are problematic, they still have much to offer, vocally and dramatically.
Back to 2021-2022!
Time to head back to 2021-2022 and to another year of curiously strong singing and performing! OYes, this is a reworking of the Back to Whatever graphic Last week, we had a wonderful three day series called “Back to Whatever,” in which we explored: Our Favorite Sings Pop/Rock for Dummies Exploring the Emotional Truth inContinue reading “Back to 2021-2022!”
Live out loud! (But not TOO loud)
Tonight Mezzoid Voice Studio will be covering the topic of singing dynamically – finding the full range from soft to loud and knowing how and when to use those dynamics. How do we do it? Why do we do it? How do we know how and when to do it? The composer often tells usContinue reading “Live out loud! (But not TOO loud)”
Sing me a story: Creating your backstory
Tonight I will be holding a studio class for my private students about creating a backstory. When I played Mother Abbess in Sound of Music, my back story was that my character’s name was born Johanna Schmidt and was from a relatively prosperous and devout Catholic family in Austria. She was trained in piano andContinue reading “Sing me a story: Creating your backstory”
In the Beginning was the Word (maybe)
Or was it the music? It depends on the composer. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart agreed that Rodgers would write the music first, and Hart would fit the words to the music. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II began with Hammerstein’s lyrics, with Rodgers fitting the music to the lyrics. In that case, yes, theContinue reading “In the Beginning was the Word (maybe)”
What Worked in 2020
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 doContinue reading “What Worked in 2020”