All Articles – Page 279

Many opera singers have a guilty secret they only admit to their closest friends: They don’t like to watch opera—they
only like to sing it! Here’s our favorite opera violinist, back with a guilty secret of his own!

Most singers are afraid to pick up the phone but that’s how many jobs happen and that’s one of the ways vocal studios are built. While opera companies are not enamored of singers who call, everything from booking tours to recitals to holiday parties absolutely requires that you learn to pick up that phone.

Increasingly, singers are discovering they have to act as their own managers. Even managed singers find that some managers don’t know how to sell their own clients. Selling is an ongoing job, and if no one is doing it, you’re probably not doing much singing.

Many great singers say they really learned to sing from their own voices! Here are tips to help you do just that by listening, recording and sensing. This kind of practice could save a lot of money and time spent in developing the voice.

Vocal health is a top concern on every singer’s mind. Here is a story of success after a vocal-fold hemorrhage.

How do you start with a tiny thread of an idea and end up with funding, a libretto and a composition written just for you? Ask Elizabeth Dabney.

The story of Robert Swedberg’s path to becoming general director of Orlando Opera is fascinating. Notice how often opportunities fell into his lap. But if you think about the situations, you’ll see that it wasn’t luck. The relationships and strong impressions he made on people caused “luck” to happen.

The following are excerpts from a new book by Mr. Gundlach on what it really means to be a singer. Many singers may relate to this tale of hitting the skids but then your art finds you, lifts you and makes you whole again.

If your voice isn’t round and glorious, the problem may originate in a place far from the source. Both teachers and singers need to think deeply about this article—it may change the way you think about singing and performance tension.

Alan Titus was just 25 years old and still enrolled at Juilliard when he sang the lead role in the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, beating his breast and intoning a hip “mea culpa, culpa, mea maxima culpa.”

Student Sues School and Wins Veronica Kirby, a 22-year-old British vocal student, sued The Christine Holmes Academy of Performing and Recording Arts and won a settlement of £33,000. The court

Dear Editor: This magazine is VERY oriented towards women. It would be nice to have more articles written by men and for men. —Name Withheld, New York, NY I sent