Eyebrows!

One would think with a blog entry titled, 'Eyebrows', it may have something to do with eyebrows and what I think of how they look. Yes. In a sense, that is true. While in a practice room on Friday, I made a huge discovery about my singing related to my eyebrows. Now, I won't bother boring everyone with the specifics of how it effects my singing, but it hits on a point that does maybe interest everyone. That point is regardless of what field in which we work or study, every day we are given many points of focus on which to improve. Often in a lesson or coaching I find myself being given up to 30 points of focus and out of those 30, I may only be able to truly implement 2-3 of those points in my immediate work. It is only in time that we are often able to finally implement all the points of focus we may have been given in a given lesson several years before.

I found myself in this position on Friday. While singing, 'Les Pecheurs de Perles', I caught myself doing some odd eyebrow things that, while watching myself in the mirror, I was able to correct. This may seem inconsequential and a small point of the day in day out of being a improving musician, but it is rather large when you consider my very first voice teacher dating back more than 10 years now (Martha Randall) used to hound me on this point. Over the years, I have had other people pick at me over this, but never has it been something to which I could devote much time. Now, 10 years later, I find myself looking back at those first lessons and finally being able to have the, 'a-ha!' moment I never had back then. I would like to think that it doesn't take 10 years for me to learn every lesson, but I do find it rewarding to know that with enough time, practice, and patience; our work really pays off.

This also bring up my last point. NEVER forget what you are told by anyone as you progress through your field. You never know when that advice might come back and help you. This moment with the eyebrows really enforces this point which was originally said to me over 10 years ago. I often told myself that my eyebrows had nothing to do with how I sounded (and in truth when there are 100 huge things wrong, 1 little thing like eyebrows don't make much of a difference). In truth, as I progressed and improved, this point became more and more crucial and finally became a 'huge thing wrong'. All part of the proverbial, 'icing on the cake' for us singers (and trust me...most of us love our cake).

In a side note away from singing, I would like to bring peoples' attention to an article in Esquire magazine this month. It features a very interesting and touching article on Roger Ebert. For those of you have have lost people to cancer (like me), it is a really moving piece of his battle with the horrible disease. Here is the link:

http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310-7

Finally, our production of Les Pecheurs de Perles opens soon. My performance dates as Nadir are the 6th and the 20th of March. Check Center Stage Opera's website for more information, tickets, and directions to the 2 locations.

au revoir!

The Pearl Fishers and snow!

Hello all,
I am in the midst of my next production, The Pearl Fishers, with Center Stage Opera. Rehearsals have been great and the production includes some great singing. For all those interested, I am performing March 6th and 20th.

While learning this role, I had mentioned my struggles over finding a way to properly sing the Act 1 aria. After much debate, I have decided to sing it comfortably and fuller than I initially wanted. It doesn't match the text as well as I originally wanted (being that I am supposedly going to sleep), but if I sing it as softly as is intended, the audience will never be able to hear me in a big house. This is the advantage of being an opera singer. I get to sing the stuff that is normally very difficult for a singer to sing softly, with more more sound to project to several thousand people. Phew. Now that I am saved from trying to be so artsy, I can now let my voice go back to being comfortable again.

For those of you not in the mid-atlantic area, we were hit with a tremendous snow storm last week. It dropped the second most snow ever in a snowstorm for the city of Baltimore. Not to mention, as I am writing, another snowstorm is slamming Baltimore with expected snow totals of 10-20 inches. I will confess I normally hate the snow as it interferes with everything I do as a performer, but the fact that I now live in the city of Baltimore makes it not so difficult to be able to get out to food stores and get whatever supplies I need (as opposed to living in the suburbs and being unable to get anywhere). One huge downside to Baltimore in a snowstorm (and it differs greatly from NYC, Chicago, or Paris and London) is that there is no underground mass transportation. This lack of mass transit in this city does annoy me greatly and reminds me of why I am always longing to move to one of the above mentioned cities. Soon enough.

In the meantime, enjoy the snow everyone and stay safe!