Attagirl, Heather!

Congrats to Heather on a great recital. She did a GREAT job and I'm very proud to have her as a student (and how about those high F's?). Everyone please feel free to comment with your thoughts on Heather's recital on Saturday.

Opera North

I just put up a poster for the Opera North summer program that many of you might be interested in. They do good productions in New Hampshire in the summer and are a great stepping stone to bigger companies in the future. I worked with the director, Louis Burkot, earlier this year and he's a great guy and wonderful conductor. This company also has been known to hire singers your age in the past. There are lots of audition dates, but the deadline is mid-January, so get on it if you are interested. Their website is www.operanorth.org so check them out.

The Big American Voice

I saw an interesting article in the New York Times about singing that you all might be interested in. It talks about how our current system of apprenticeships, etc. doesn't really encourage the development of big voices, instead favoring light singing in pretty packaging. A good read with lots of interesting quotes. It also mentions one of your "vocal cousins", my college colleague Marjorie Owens, who studied with my teacher at Baylor (Dr. Van Cura) when I was there. She has done the Houston program and is now doing Chicago.

Anyway, the article is here.

Pinafore pics

Here are some pics from my HMS Pinafore with Opera Illinois last month - I would have posted them sooner, but the stupid junk mail filter thought they were an ad! Just FYI, that's me in the green uniform (and then the dorky sailor suit at the end).