Lessons Learned

Where to begin. This week was very full and rewarding.

Of course on Monday I sang two Wolf pieces on John Mueter's lecture recital. I must say that was a lot of fun, which is the first time in a while that I have felt like that. When you get so far in musical studies, the pressure can be so overwhelming, and the analytical side of your brain totally prevents you from enjoying performing.
However, in one of my classes, my teacher Tom King said something very profound which made me reconsider how I look at performances. His advice was that "95% of performing is done before you walk on stage. All of the work that you do practicing technique and diction and interpretation etc. before you go on stage stays with you on stage. Only 5% of a performance is actually unknown and left to chance. And that tiny 5% is not worth worrying about." I thought that was very wise. And I did enjoy that performance a lot.

My master class with Barbara Bonney was very interesting. As I was watching her work with other people, I had the sense that she would like what I did, because she was all about keeping the cheeks up, keeping the tone very forward, and interpreting the music. That is something that my teacher and I have been working this whole last year toward, and so I felt pretty confident that she would like what I did. I performed the piece well, and again had fun doing it. However, she surprisingly enough did not like how forward my tone was. Well, that is not entirely true. That is of course something that you need, but she felt like it was too one-dimensional; that I need more openness in the "back of the head."
Now, such imagery does not work for me. I don't know how that is supposed to feel, or how to do it (just like the imagery of "feeling like you are throwing up" doesn't work for me, since the last time that I did was when I was 6 years old, and I simply don't know how that feels). And so, I was trying and trying to understand and do what she was saying, but I didn't feel like I was able to. So, it was a little bit of a disappointing experience for me. I watched others get up there and sound like different people after making some adjustments, but I didn't have anything so enlightening happen.

Luckily, I understand my voice teacher here, Stephanie Weiss, very well, and during our lesson on the following day we worked on making more space in the back by singing on NG (sound familiar Frau Kierig?), and something just clicked for me. All of a sudden I was singing with all my potential, the forward placement and the space in the back. It was revolutionary. I always knew that I need space in the back, but I guess that I always had a mindblock about it, and would create tension for myself by trying to create the space. And when I try to avoid that tension, then there is not enough space. But after that exercise, it was suddenly clear to me what everyone has always been saying to me the whole time about space. So, I just have to keep practicing my music on NG (and then opening up to the vowel WITHOUT over extending my jaw) until that feeling becomes second nature. It would have been nice to have learned these things before Monday's recital and the Barbara Bonney master class, but better now than never. I really am glad to be here!

Barbara Bonney

Good news!
I was selected to sing in the master class with Barbara Bonney! Hooray! She is probably the most famous singer to come to AIMS, and I am so excited for this opportunity! I will be singing Tchaikovsky's setting of the Goethe poem, "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt." (Introducing the poet along with the composer is something that I have learned is very appreciated here - especially if you ask my "Poetry of German Lieder" professor!) The master class is on Tuesday, so send positive thoughts my way on that day. :)

I must apologize for my delay in blogging. I have been so busy this last week. I have two lessons and two coachings per week, plus operetta coachings, plus German diction coachings, and I have recently been selected to sing for the Spanish song concert, so I will now be adding Spanish song coachings to that list. That is on top of classes and finding time to practice anything. Whew-pf-ta!

I don't think that I have yet listed all of the songs that I will be singing. So here is a brief overview.

Lecture Recital:
July 27th
- Wer rief dich denn? - Wolf
- Wenn du, mein Liebster - Wolf

Recital:
(date?)
- Im Frühling, im Mondschein - Stolz

Spanish Song Concert:
August 6
- Cancion al arbol del olvido - Ginastera
- El vito - Joaquin Nin

Myrthen (by Schumann):
August 10
- Der Nussbaum
- Die Lotosblume

Spanisches Liederspiel (by Schumann):
August 11
- #1 - Erste Begegnung
- #4 - In der Nacht

I am very excited to participate in all of these concerts. Thank you again for all of your support. This is turning out to be a fantastic experience!

Poetry of German Lieder

I think that I must be a masochist. There is one class that I hadn't mentioned yet, called "The Poetry of German Lieder," which I was at one time very excited about. But the teacher is an impossibly mean individual. I was very intimidated by him (along with everyone else in the class), but I tried to participate nonetheless. However, he shot down everything that I said, and I really had a hard time comprehending how he wanted us to go about reading and understanding the text.

So what did I do? I set up an individual time to work thorough one of my poems with him - this was at 7:30 yesterday morning, during which time he made me cry. I am embarrassed to admit it, but that is how his teaching method is.

Well, today not even 1/4 of the class came back to the class. But I was there. And if I didn't feel stupid enough already about my individual lesson with him, he proceeded to give examples of things that I did wrong. He didn't mention names, but I was there, and he knew that I had a rough time of it anyways. Why did he want to criticize me again, when I at least had the initiative to try in the first place?

I don't know why I am determined to put myself through that kind of abuse and keep going to the class. But I will, no matter how much I hate it. And I really hate that class.

On another topic, the "ball" last night was not at all what I imagined. There was no dancing, just a fancy social gathering with food and wine. And there were no seats, so all the girls were standing in heels for 2 hours. And in the heat and humidity. Well, at least we were fed.

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

Wow, all I do is sweat anymore. The elevation is so high here, that the sun just beats down on Graz. No matter what you do, you end up feeling sweaty and disgusting half-way through the day.

Well, now to catch up with the events of the past few days. I met my teacher, Stephanie Weiß on Sunday. I feel like I should mention that on Monday the faculty gave a concert, and she sang the rage Aria of Venus (Gelibter, komm!) from Wagner's opera Tannhäuser. Look it up, it is very difficult. I have never heard such a powerful voice! I also had my first lesson with her on Monday. We spent half of the time warming up, and she introduced me to a couple of new and interesting warm-ups. The first was an ascending arpeggio on ze ze ze ze-a-eh-o-u-a-e (descending on) he he he he-a-eh-oh-u. That exercise will help me on my u vowel, which is going too far back. Hopefully this will teach me how to keep it forward.

The second warm-up was even more interesting. I have always had issues with breath, and this warm up is designed to help with breath. Again on an ascending arpeggio, sing tro tro tro tro. Then, break and relax the abdomen without actually breathing and after a short time come back on the highest tro and descend the same arpeggio. You can also add on to the length of this exercise by then jumping up the octave again and running the scale down. She is always stressing to keep the abdomen relaxed. That reminds me of Barbara's saying that the abdomen should never be rock hard. And Bag also has a saying to keep the abdomen out until you need it. But this idea of keeping those muscles relaxed helps me to do that AND keep the air support going.

We also worked on some vowel issues in some of my repertoire. For example, I seem to like to add a shadow vowel at the end of my u vowel. (there are a lot of Du's in the german language!) She used "ng" to move placement forward (sing ng before the vowel that you are trying for) a lot like Barbara does. So again, it is good that we are on the same page, and I understand her terminology. Sometimes it can be like learning another language, trying to figure out what they mean.


And that is exactly what happened today in my coaching. My coach and I worked on Widmung, and there were some things that he suggested which truly helped. For example, the piano accompaniment for Widmung is so full and moving and this makes me want to sing marcatto, but it is much easier to sing and relaxed if you keep the legato line. Again, the u vowel was mentioned, so I guess that is really a bad habit of mine. However, he seemed to be wanting me to place the sound in a completely other place. I don't think that he meant to not lift, but he did not want me to do any of the normal things that I do to help with that. The only other way that I know how to get space is by pushing too much on the larynx (like I was before I came to Bag), and I simply can't go back to that. So, in our studio class tomorrow, I am just going to round / elongate my vowels more (I should do that anyways, and it is probably that sound that he is actually looking for), and focus on the other aspects he told me to work on. Besides that issue, he is a good, honest and hardworking coach accompanist who will definitely push me to see all the little details that make a song truly polished.

Tomorrow night there is a ball that is given for us. I get to wear a gown and dance to probably lots of Viennese waltzes. :)

Wenn du, mein Liebster - Wolf

Just a quick note.

During my hearing, I sang a song by Wolf, "Wenn du, mein Liebster." One of the professors, John Mueter, who is giving a lecture recital on composers in Graz asked if I would perform that piece on his recital. I must have made an impression. I was very happy that he remembered me.

Later today we find out who our instructors are, and sign up for classes, so I am sure that I will write again soon.

World Cup dissapointment :(

What a disappointing World Cup game yesterday. :( I was not expecting Spain to win. Though I must admit, Spain played very hard and wanted it more than Germany.
I went out on the town to watch the game like most Europeans do. There are large TVs set up everywhere - the only challenge is to find a place where you can see the game well. Interestingly enough, most of the Austrians were rooting for Spain. I guess I had assumed, because of their sharing a boarder and a language with Germany, that they would have been Germany supporters. But boy was I wrong. It was fun to watch with such a big crowd.

My hearing was today, and it went well. The room was very dead, so I had to really focus on not pushing to make up for it, and I think I accomplished that. I didn't have any technical problems or mistakes, whereas I know that many people forgot words or had other issues. And the instructors in the room did not make a big deal about that happening, so that is how laid back it was. I felt good about it, and we will see what happens with the studios on Sunday.

I am off to another lecture. These 6 weeks are going to be busy!

An amazing couple of days!

My flight went smoothly, and since I had a layover in London, the flight was only 6 hours long. That was a real treat for me, since I am used to an 8 hour flight. It is true, I had a three hour layover in London, but at least a person can move around.

Well, the first day was simply an orientation of the school grounds and the city. I met quite a few lovely people right from the start. Marco is a tenor from LA who I helped find a shoe store and buy a pair of tennis shoes. A girl named Janet is also very sweet. She speaks wonderful German and comes from Melbourne Australia. Another tenor named Christopher is already talking about what duets we should do. There are so many wonderful friendly people. Especially the staff.

Now to the guts of what we're learning. There was a lecture on breathing and a master class today. Throughout both of the sessions, I was so pleasantly surprised to find that most all of their advice was exactly what my teacher, Barbara Kierig, would say. Of course I already believed her and knew that she's the best, but it's a nice reinforcement for me.
I was giving my own prognosis (in my head) to singers during the master class, imagining what Barbara would say, and then lo and behold, Gabriele Lechner said the same thing.
**Elongate your vowels (don't spread)- Release the breath low - Think down when the notes go "up." - Keep everything high in thought - Don't work at all from the throat.**
It may have been phrased differently, but it was essentially the same thing.

In the breathing class, Roberta Cunningham almost focused more on posture than dealing directly with breath, because if one has a good posture, a relaxed throat and releases low, the breath should take care of itself. This is an idea behind Alexander Technique, which I studied this year and which Barbara also advocates. Roberta also mentioned keeping the cheeks lifted (to help keep the soft palate high) and your mouth long (not spread). That is again what Bag teaches. And my favorite similarity is that Roberta said "If you need a breath, take a breath - THE AIR IS FREE." She was practically quoting Bag there; I don't know how many times I have heard that already.

Even though a lot of this was a repeat of what I had already heard, it was so refreshing to hear good solid technique coming from other sources. Very often you will find teachers that try to sell you a bag of tricks and who just don't believe in the ability of the voice to do its thing naturally if you allow it. To watch these singers in the master class today, and to hear what a difference it made in their already fabulous voices, is a real comfort and encouragement to me. I know that I am in good hands here and when I come back home.

Tomorrow I have my first hearing to determine which professor I will study under while I am here. More on that later. Tonight, I am going to relax in front of the TV and cheer on Germany in the World Cup. Es lebe Deutschland!