The Art of Singing (for tenors) Part 1

Last week was incredibly exciting on many levels: I sang the Canadian National Anthem at the Sporting KC game (video to come), I was able to go to the Populous Architecture Firm and see the designing of several stadiums including the Houston Dynamo's new stadium and the 2014 Olympic Skating Center; and besides playing tennis and golf a few times, yet another exciting thing has happened as well.  I won't say the name of the person to protect their privacy, but at the Kansas City Vocal Institute - the school of voice studios that I started here in Kansas City - a very special person has applied for lessons with one of our studios.

Now contrary to the many responses I get about these kinds of things, KCVI does provide legitimate professional music education for professional singers and performers.  I started KCVI with the idea to provide the most affordable music lessons in the area and helped to raise scholarship money for children living in poverty to take lessons with our teachers.  It also provides our teachers, all of whom have received a Master's or Doctorate degree in music, with a livelihood all during such a tough economic time.

Anyway, I can't really say much about the "special person" other than that they are an Emmy Award winner and they were in a movie that was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Picture in 2010.  Good luck guessing!

I have been memorizing like mad for my Chicago trip.  But in the meantime, and to keep my promise from last week, I would like to dive into the Art of Singing - for tenors that is.

I posted this video last week:

The obvious "good singer" is Alfredo Kraus and I have no idea who the bad one is, however this was kind of mean for Kraus to do to him.  They are singing the very end of "Celeste Aida", one of the most famous arias from Verdi's opera Aida.  Of course this singer has no shot of singing this well - because he has a lot of technical issues to work out first - but let's use this to bring up some problematic issues that effect tenors all around the world.

Being a Tenor in Three Arias


Aria #1 - Celeste Aida

This is one of the greatest recordings of this aria - if you love music, you MUST listen to the entire thing.  Even for Pavarotti it is an incredibly difficult aria.  It is so difficult that one of the greatest singers of today, Roberto Alagna, had trouble with it at La Scala (one of the world's most famous opera houses).  The audience actually booed and he "flipped them the bird" and walked off stage.  Shortly thereafter, the understudy came on to finish the role.  Watch the Italian news coverage below of the incident.



What can we learn from this?  Audiences LOVE to cheer for the singers, just like a sporting event.  Opera audiences know what the hardest arias are going into an opera and wait anxiously for them to see how their favorite singers will perform.  However, it certainly gives classical music a bad reputation when an audience boos.  That was very unfortunate and thankfully, you will almost never see that kind of reaction in America.

However, the tenor must perform the hardest arias well, or of course, they will probably not be hired to perform it again.  When tenors try to sing this aria, they must be very conscious about the placement of their resonance.  This is what Alfredo Kraus was showing in the Masterclass when he pretended with his hand to pull an imaginary string from between the singers eyes.  By focusing the resonance up high in the face, it will make it easier for the singer to sing.

Resonance in laymen's terms refers to the rattle that you feel when the air that you use in making a sound vibrates in your pharynx, mouth, nose, and sinuses (you can especially feel it when you have a cold or sinus congestion).  If you talk like a ghost, you are not maximizing your resonance - however if you imitate the sound of your alarm clock going off, you are likely resonating well.

For tenors (and classical singers), they need to effectively resonate, because it actually makes it easier to sing, and easier to hear as it cuts through an entire orchestra.  You don't have to woof out a sound, like what a basset hound would make, instead it is a much smaller but poignant sound - kind of like a duck's quack.  All of this exaggerates the feeling of course.

Difficult? Well, just wait...we don't want to sound nasal either; instead it should have depth (some space in the mouth to give it a more mature sound).  If you have the "quack" thing down, combine that with the voice of an umpire calling a "strike", and you're close to feeling what it is like to be a tenor.  Opera singers rely heavily on how their singing feels, not on how it sounds.  We're too dang loud to hear ourselves anyway!

So how do you make it easy so you don't get red in the face and run the risk of pooping yourself?...come back tomorrow for more...

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

July 21-August 7 - Sugar Creek Opera - Daughter of the Regiment - August 4, 5, 7 - Watseka, IL (near Chicago)

August 8 - Audition - Kansas City Symphony Chorus

much, much more to come!...soon, I promise!

The Pied Piper

If you build it, I will come...evidently...like a child following the pied piper.

EXAMPLE #1

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will be opening soon!

As you may know, I auditioned for next year's Lyric Opera season and was not hired, however I have been in touch with them recently and they are very interested in having me with their company in the future.   I was sad that I could not perform in their new opera house this, their first season.

However, I did not give up and have talked to the Kansas City Symphony at least six times about their program with the Symphony Chorus.  Unfortunately their auditions are held at the same time that I am in Chicago in an opera production.   Well, thankfully, they are allowing me to make a special audition on the day that I return to Kansas City from Chicago - which also happens to be my 2nd wedding anniversary to my wonderful wife, Dusti.  Hopefully, the audition will go really well, and hopefully I will be able to sing on their season this coming year in the immaculate new symphony hall.

Click on the picture for a closer look!

From all accounts, it is expected to be one of the greatest halls, acoustically that is - and that's all that matters, in the entire world.  Unfortunately, I do not expect that I will be able to witness the Grand Opening Events for each of the halls.  The events will feature Placido Domingo, one of the greatest tenors in all of history (whom I had the great honor of seeing live, with my dad - by the way, Happy Fathers' Day dad - notice the correct placement of the apostrophe), and Itzhak Perlman, the violin virtuoso.  I can't go because to attend the Grand Opening of the Opera House, tickets range from $1,000 to $50,000!!! Comparably, with a little luck from under your couch cushions, you can attend the much more affordable Grand Opening of the Symphony Hall with tickets ranging from $500 to $30,000 - what a bargain!  Want the best seats in the house for both nights? Well, you get a $10,000 discount if you buy the Platinum Package - you'll get to see both concerts in the best seats for a meager $70,000. Interested? Here's the order form.

SIDENOTE

Nonetheless, I got an audition for the Symphony Chorus.  And, this week I also had an audition to do some solo work for Village Presbyterian Church, the fifth largest Presbyterian Church in the world.  They do almost exclusively major works by the greatest composers (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, etc.) as well as other chamber music of legitimate classical music traditions - which means to me that their congregation must be very well educated and cultured...just my kind of people.

I mention this because (college music students listen up!) as soon as I started the audition, they asked me first to sing a solo.  So, I did.  Then they asked me to sight sing - just like a college proficiency test.  For example: Sing the following example below - you don't get to use an instrument or piano - this is the first time you've seen the music, and you must sing it correctly a capella (alone, solo, without help)

Seems impossible, huh? Well, that is what I had to do.   In college, musicians learn tricks to help us with these kind of things.  Then I did a rhythmic dictation test - it is similar to the example above only if I clapped the notes in rhythm. Lastly, they gave me a German paragraph and Latin paragraph to read, read correctly, with correct diction, and with the correct accents (Americans are horrible at this).  Then we talked for a while about the program.  Well, I just found out hours ago that I got the job.

It should be a great thing.  I feel that they are very anxious to have me on board.  It's nice to feel wanted and needed instead of used, but I haven't felt that way in a long time; the last church I was at, UUMC in Salina, KS was a amazing place for me.  I am lucky to be hired and treated as a professional musician.

SIDENOTE OF THE SIDENOTE

Which brings me to another tangent - I am excited that the job doesn't involve Praise and Worship music!!!  Some I suppose will never understand why most musicians don't enjoy this.  The reason is that we spend years, passionately learning and perfecting music, and then we are required to perform the simplest, and sometimes the most abusive forms of it.  Wouldn't that make you crazy?  To me, art music is an education; popular music is a drug.  It is great to rapturously enjoy music (the drug), I certainly do, but in music we can also experience our mind, character, and stretch the bounds of our natural abilities (the education).

EXAMPLE #2

This last week I visited the new Livestrong Sporting Park to see the US vs. Guadeloupe Soccer match.  Like most things in life, I am wildly passionate about soccer.  And this was my first game in the brand new stadium in Kansas City and my first game seeing the US National Team...my favorite national team of course.

The US National Team won 1-0 and advanced to play Jamaica in our Continental Championship, the Gold Cup - the "World Cup" of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.  But that's not all, I will also be singing at the Sporting KC game at Livestrong Sporting Park this weekend when they play Vancouver.  And since they are playing a Canadian Team, I will be singing O Canada as well as The Star-spangled Banner.  I hope to see you at the game if you can make it - 7:30 on Saturday, June 25.  That's THIS COMING SATURDAY!

And for some special fun for any geeks like myself out there, click here to visit the virtual venue where you can view the stadium from any location.  Can you find out where I was sitting from my picture above?

EXAMPLE #3

My love of sport has begotten my love for sports architecture.  And what is the pinnacle of sports and architecture?  THE OLYMPICS of course.  Now, I have a special place in my heart for the Olympics...better yet, I have a special heart for the Olympics.  It is one of the most exciting times in my life...it is all consuming - be that good or bad - I love it.  And, many don't know this, but I was so captivated by the 1996 Opening Ceremonies in Atlanta, because it was staged almost entirely as an opera depicting the history of the South, that it inspired me to become a musician.  It is just one of those unique events, where money is almost no object, and the imagination and creativity of the world comes together to create a piece of art unmatched in scale and appreciated by everyone on earth.  How often does art effect so many, so effectively?

Anyway, one of my friends from college happens to be an architect at Populous, an architecture firm here in Kansas City.  They used to be called HOK, but they are significantly one of the world's most prestigious sports architecture firms - click here to see a list of their past projects.  And, if you notice, they have designed sports venues including Livestrong Sporting Park and stadiums for every Olympic Games since 1996.

Well, my friend offered to let me take a tour of their work on Thursday.  I am not sure what I will be seeing but I am incredibly excited.  I know that they have been recently working on the Olympic Stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  They may be working on a different project now, but I will find it all fascinating!

EXAMPLE #4

Dusti and I went to Shakespeare in the Park, in Kansas City and saw Macbeth last night.  It is packed with people and runs for 18 straight days, until July 3.  I am loving the culture of our metro area.  It is so energetic compared to many other places in the US.  

And, lastly, next week we'll take a look at the Art of Singing for tenors.  Here's an example of the glory to come...

UPCOMING PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

June 25 - National Anthem - Sporting KC vs. Vancouver - Livestrong Sporting Park - 7:30pm
July 21-August 7 - Sugar Creek Opera - Daughter of the Regiment - August 4, 5, 7 - Watseka, IL (near Chicago)
August 8 - Audition - Kansas City Symphony Chorus

much, much more to come!...

Lyric Opera of Kansas City Auditions

I had my audition for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City on Saturday.  I auditioned for the chorus, comprimario roles (non-starring roles), and for the tenor apprenticeship.  I have been looking forward to this audition for a long time for several reasons:  the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will open later this year and will be the new home for the Lyric, next year's opera season will feature some great operas, this could be my first opportunity to sing with a professional company outside of a summer program, and I am excited to be auditioning for the tenor apprenticeship.

Anyway, the week leading up to the audition was very odd.  In the past, I have lost my voice twice during this time in February.  I don't know if it is because of allergies or perhaps it is just a fluke, but I was worried earlier in the week that my voice would not hold up until Saturday.  I took all the opportunities that I could to rest and drink water.  By Friday, I still was pretty tired and had a rough voice, but I prepared throughout the day on Friday as best as I could.  I got plenty of rest, sang just a little, and drank tons of water.  By Saturday, I felt very well.  After my morning pot of coffee (yes, that's right - a whole pot) and allergy medicine, I had several hours of opera rehearsal before my audition.

I was in opera rehearsal for several hours, singing sotto voce (meaning "under voice") - we call it marking as well, but it is just light singing compared to full voice operatic singing.  Then I headed downtown for my audition.  The audition was at the opera center which doesn't look very impressive on the outside, but is actually a large building designed for all the rehearsing and set building (I'm assuming) etc.  The room I sang in was very large, kind of like a basketball arena, or an indoor football practice facility.  It was VERY live (to put it another way, my voice echoed profoundly).  As the singers left the "arena", many were complaining about their tendency to oversing, and saying that it sounded like they were all in a giant shower.  I don't think that this changed the way I approached singing one bit, since I rely a lot on how my voice feels instead of how it sounds.

I was one of the last singers of the day, and one of only a few tenors.  After the singer before me finished (and she was SPECTACULAR) I took the long walk to the piano at "mid field".  They were still debating about the previous singer, so I just stood until they welcomed me.  I said, "Hello", and then waited awkwardly long for a response that never came, so I then said, "I would like to begin with Lenski's Aria", and we immediately began.

This is one of my favorite and most successful arias. I thought it went really well. Perhaps it was hard to tell in such a live space (many small details can be lost or muddled in an echo-y room...this is also why karaoke machines have lots of reverb - it can cover a myriad of singing sins, which you can blame for why your Aunts feel like their tipsy rendition of INSERT COUNTRY SONG TITLE HERE is the best thing since sliced bread), but many of the technical issues I have been working on went so well during this aria.  The notes past the passaggio rang true with ease (these are the highest notes that I sing).  I was very proud about the lower resonance as well, which is one of the great attributes of my voice (it is a more mature sound than many other light tenor voices).  This aria brought out many of the things that I do best and I thought it was one of the best times that I have performed it.

After that aria was over, they asked what other arias I brought with me.  All the arias that I bring to auditions are generally in different styles and languages.  The one I began with is in Russian.  So the other four I brought were Dies Bildnis (German), Il mio tesoro (Italian), En fermant les yeux (French), and Here I Stand (English). They chose to listen to Here I Stand from The Rake's Progress.  I am always surprised when they pick it, because it is kind of weird.  It premiered in 1951, so it isn't that old, but it just requires a good mind to stay on track and it lies in an interesting part of a tenor's range.  It also is full of speech-like patterns and sounds, a far cry from any classic romantic aria. Some people love it, and some hate it.  Actually, the company that gave me the gig in Chicago this summer also chose to hear this aria.  Take a listen and make your own conclusions (the aria begins at 5:25 - if you are already annoyed and want to fast forward)



How interesting, isn't it?  Actually, this staging really is distracting...the music is really ingenious and this opera is considered one of the most important pieces of Neoclassical music ever.  Neoclassicism developed in the early 20th century and was a new approach towards the old classical era structures of music.  In other words, they wanted new sounds, but they kept it simple and uniform.

I don't speak/yell as much as this performer did, but I will tell you that my performance was certainly not my best.  Fortunately, the large and reverberant room was probably somewhat kind to me - but I laid some big fat eggs.  In my personal critique, I was too choppy, I wasn't precise enough on my entrances, I rushed the aria - and for that I offer my most sincere apologies to my accompanist, I am SO sorry I put you through that - and the last note was poorly placed.  I manage the tone and vibrancy of my voice by feeling the resonance (or the vibrating air) crashing through all the sinuses and cavities in my face, mouth, and the rest of the skull.  I am very technical about this, but this resonance can be moved around to vibrate in any of these spaces.  So when I say that the last note was poorly placed, it means that I didn't use the right resonating space in my face and mouth so it sounded closer to Bette Midler than an opera singer.  On the bright side (pun intended), I had a good high A right before it.  But, I could have looked like I was passing a kidney stone - I'm not sure.

After the aria, the artistic directors called me to their table on the "side line" to talk.  They asked me a very interesting question.  Why do I have a Master's with two emphases?  I explained to them the situation and my studies at K-State and what I am doing now with my Doctorate, which is just in Voice Performance.  They thanked me for singing, and now I am just sitting back and waiting to hear from them.  Hopefully, it will be an opportunity to perform.  Afterward, I went right back to opera rehearsal without dinner and we practiced until 9:30 or 10.  It was a very long day for sure!

I also had a concert last week with the Conservatory Singers, which went well.  This Saturday, I have another one where I will be the tenor soloist for Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass.  It should be amazing!  There will be a 200 person choir, with orchestra, and it will be held at the Community of Christ Temple - one of the most amazing churches you'll ever see.

Also, last week I had a private coaching with the great American opera singer Diana Soviero.  It went great and she was so kind and encouraging as we worked with many of my release issues with my highest notes.  There are other technical things that we tried to do, that do not seem to fit right with my voice and technique, but it is always great to learn from the best and to hear their stories.  She talked about singing with many of the greatest tenors of the past generation like Alfredo Kraus and Franco Corelli.  I am so thankful for UMKC for providing us with these opportunities at the Conservatory.

State Senators in Kansas are getting close to voting on rescinding the Governor's executive order to end public arts funding, however it may be a close vote.  I have tried very diligently to not make political statements here.  I am just standing up for my profession and passion in life.  I do hope that this era of political antagonizing ends soon.  The "American Dream" for many artists and educators are on the line in many states now.  I hope there is an understandable way to resolve a fight we shouldn't even be fighting.

One more addition to my schedule - I will be singing the National Anthem (the correct way) at the US Department of Energy's 12th Annual Small Business Conference & Expo, which will be here in Kansas City this year.  And in case you are wondering (and "I honestly don't know" is my answer) but the agenda for the opening address includes "Startup America" - the White House's Small Business Initiative to Promote Entrepreneurship.  I am hoping for a very special guest speaker.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

• Tenor Soloist - Lord Nelson Mass by Haydn - Operation Breakthrough Benefit Concert at the Community of Christ Temple in Independence (where Jan Kraybill is the Principal Musician - she's one of my favorite people in the whole world) - 3/5 7:30pm
• Don Giovanni - Conservatory Opera - 3/17-20
• Wichita Symphony Orchestra Naftzger Young Artist Auditions - 4/2-3
• Conservatory Finale  - Poulenc Gloria (probably on my top 10 favorite pieces ever) featuring the Conservatory Choirs and Orchestra - 4/23
• National Anthem - DOE Small Business Conference & Expo - Kansas City Convention Center - 5/10
• Administrative Director of the 33rd Annual Summer Choral Institute - 6/5-11
• Sugar Creek Opera Festival (Chicago) - role: tba, opera: Daughter of the Regiment, maybe Little Women as well - 7/20-8/7
• Kansas City Symphony Chorus Auditions - tba