SNATS

I have mentioned to some of you the possibility of starting a chapter of SNATS, which is a Student National Association of Teachers of Singing organization. As you may or may not know, NATS is the national organization that teachers of voice, like Ms. Dodd, Ms. Veazey, and I belong to, and it is dedicated to the teaching and study of voice. SNATS is an opportunity for us to have a student organization related to singing study, professional singing, professional teaching, etc. in a way that the Music Therapy and Music Education areas have student groups dedicated to their areas of study.

I know you already have a few questions, so I will answer them.

1) Will it cost me anything? - There are no national dues for SNATS, but the chapter might have to have a fundraiser or charge miniscule dues to cover small costs like photocopying etc - but this will be determined by the group and not by an outside body. Also, there might be cost associated with trips or other such activities.

2) What will we do? - That will of course be up to you in large part, but I have sent you all a letter from the SNATS national coordinator that talks about suggested activities like discussion of topics, trips to see performances, and other activities.

3) How often will we meet and how much time will this take? - That also will depend on you, but I would think one meeting a month would probably be what happens.

If you haven't already, read the letter I sent you from the SNATS Coordinator that offers more information about SNATS. We will need five members plus a sponsor (me) to start an official chapter. We will have a brief meeting after Voice Hour tomorrow (11/30) to determine the level of interest and to elect officers for the group, and then the officers will have a chance to think about stuff over the holidays before we really get rolling in the Spring.

Please email me with questions or post comments on this page,

Dr. T

Another Singing Legend Passes On...

In addition to the loss of Robert Merrill last week, the singing world lost legendary Broadway baritone Howard Keel on Sunday. You might have seen him in the classic musical movies "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "Kiss Me Kate". You can read more about him here.

Dr. T

More from Jaley in England

Hello everyone!How are you all? I hope this e-mail finds you welland in good spirits! This weekend was a good one, butit left me really tired. I am glad that I have Sundayto get over it. Friday we had a mandatory field tripto London. They drove us up in a bus and dropped usoff with a list of art work to go see and then we hadto meet back at St. Paul's Cathedral for a group tour. The paintings were amazing. I had already seen all ofthe ones on our list, but it was nice to see more inthe galleries. I did get to see Van Gough'sSunflowers. That was amazing. They had a few of hisworks on display. The only other work of his I wouldlike to see is Starry Nights. I don't know where itis located, but someday...I'll find it.St. Paul's is AMAZING! The art work in there is themost amazing thing. You all just need to go theresometime. It was built to rival St. Peter's Basilicain Rome. I'll be headed there in a few weeks so I'lltell you how well it did in the reveling. I climbedto the top of the dome though. It's over 450 steps andI made it all the way up for the most impressive viewof London since the London Eye. ...and for those ofyou who don't want to climb 1 million and a half stepssimply for a view...the London Eye is the way to go!After that I went to go see Woman in White with a fewfriends. The theatre there was so old is was raininghistory on us. I could only see Victorian Ladies intheir large gowns and men being oh so pleasant intheir tails. It was so rich with history. TheVictorians just haunt the place. It was AMAZING! Theshow was good too. They did an interesting thing withcomputers and projecting for the scenes...for thosewho are interested, I'll fill you in later.The musicians were so so and the plot was your averageAndrew Lloyd Webber plot, but it was a great show. After that I went to the place where the bus wassupposed to pick us up. There were 50 of us thereincluding 8 faculty members and the president of theuniversity and his wife. We waited for an hour and ahalf for our bus to come. It finally rolled in about1:00. From numerous phone calls between the pres andthe bus driver we found out that the bus was havingproblems starting and when it finally did start, therewas no battery left. I took shelter with three of myfriends on the steps of a church across the alley fromeveryone else. As we lay/sit there freezing, a groupof people walked by and asked us if we needed anychange. Yeah, he thought we were homeless.... But wefinally made it home around 3:30. I took a shower andat 8:00am I had to be back on the bus for anothertrip!Today we went to Cadbury World. It's the closest thingto Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory I've ever been tooand it was heaven! So much chocolate! It was divine. I couldn't imagine bringing my children there. Theybasically give you a life time supply of chocolatejust in samples while you are walking through. I wasgetting hyper a bit so I stopped but there werechildren there so wound up I thought at any momenttheir heads were going to fly off their shoulders. After that we headed to the Bullring. That's rightladies...the biggest shopping center in all of Europe.26 football fields long and 5 billion dollars tobuild. It's huge. I was excited for a whole hourabout it and then my exhaustion sat in. So, a girl andI got a while chocolate mocha from Starbucks (praiseGod for those!) and was just drank coffee for an houruntil our bus came. But, it was a good trip. Wednesday I leave for Paris! I can't wait. I loveyou all and I can't wait to see you again. Keep meposted on your lives! Much love,~Jaley

The Latest from Jaley in England

Here is the latest from Jaley, our studio correspondent at Harlaxton Manor, UE's England campus, whis semester.


Hello everyone!

I hope you are all splendid upon reading this. I also hope that you are surviving the elections and that you all took your rights seriously to go vote. I voted about a month ago. A few of you have been asking about how people are feeling about the upcoming election in England. Well, every single trip I go on, even just running to town for a bit or taking a trip 4 hours away from Grantham, I get stopped at least once on the street. They ask what state I'm from, and if I will be voting. Then they give me run down on both candidates and their running mates and proceed to tell me who to vote for. They know all about both candidates, they know that Indiana usually swings Republican, that Florida is going to mess things up again, and that they want one candidate to die and the other to become our new president. They do not hesitate in sharing their political views here. I just listen for a bit and about the time they ask who I am going to vote for is when I end the conversation.

Trust me, it's the smart thing to do.

In other news, I had a divine weekend this weekend. It was much needed after last weekend. I went to London last week to see an opera...when I got there, the only tickets were 125 pounds...about $250. I couldn't really pull that one off and neither could my friend so we went all the way to London to eat pizza. It was less than thrilling, I missed a train and we were late the entire day we were there. The good things that happened were that I was able to run to Stratford Upon Avon and see Shakespeare's Birthplace, where he is buried, his family's houses and all that good stuff.

It was a nice trip. I felt weird walking into his house. It was quite odd. I felt remarkably close to this man who causes so many high school English students grief. It was unreal to be there and to see all of the things he had written about. That was a good trip.

This weekend was much much better than the last as I went to Oxford, Bath, and Stonehenge. Oxford was great, though I did enjoy Cambridge better. I was able to tour Christ's Church Campus which was where Einstein and Lewis Carroll went to school, and it is most popular (unfortunately) now because it was where a lot of the Harry Potter movies have been filmed. So there is a giant sign that says Harry Potter and a little tiny sign you can barely read that mentions Einstein and Lewis Carroll. But it was still neat to see all of that. We also toured the Ashmolean Museum which was neat.

Bath was AMAZING!! If I had to live anywhere in England for the rest of my life it would be in Bath.

I just can't tell you how wonderful that was. We shopped on Poultney Bridge, toured the Roman Baths, and walked around the most charming town I have ever seen. The leaves are changing colors here and the landscape is unparalleled to any I've seen. The houses are all so charming just nestled up snuggly in the hills and there are so many chimneys at any moment I expected Dick Van Dike to jump out of one of them and start singing to me. I even drank the Bath Spring water while I Was there. I paid 50 pence and a lady walked up with my glass to a fountain that was obviously about 300-400 years old, and the water she put in the glass was spit into the glass by a friendly looking fish. Skeptical, I drank the 85 degree nasty water. It wasn't as bad as I had anticipates, but still, I could only drink half a glass. Now I am supposed to be amazingly healthy because of it. We'll see.

Then on Halloween, by coincidence, we visited Stonehenge. From the highway I was most disappointed, but as I walked up to it, I too was amazed by it's mystery. It just has a way of making you stand there with your mouth wide open while you ponder how it was made. It's a wonderful thing to go see if you are ever around it.

I do apologize for the length of this e-mail and I hope I didn't bore you all. It was an amazing trip.

Bath is worth buying a plane ticket to come and see.

Keep me posted on all of your lives! I miss you all so much. I can't wait until we get back, drink tea, and talk like we haven't missed a beat of each others lives. Be sure to e-mail and keep me posted. Have a lovely week and Go Vote!

Love ya',

~Jaley

Robert Merrill - the Loss of a Legend

Legendary operatic baritone Robert Merrill passed away last week. He's one of my personal musical heroes, and a real american original. In his honor, take the time sometime soon to go over to the listening library and listen to his singing, especially if you are a male singer.

You can read more about his passing here.

He will be missed.

Dr. T