KCVI Celebrity Charity Auction

The KCVI Charity Auction is underway!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT WE HAVE UP FOR AUCTION!

Our most exciting auctions include an autographed Star Wars score signed by John Williams, two autographed posters from La Scala signed by Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez among others, and an autographed Zubin Mehta baton.

Other items up for bid include several Melissa Etheridge Autographed CDs - other autographed CDs include Chanticleer, Stephen Flaherty, and Gregory Porter.

Autographed Photos include: Betty White, Kronos Quartet, Donald Trump, Norah Jones, and Stanley Clarke.

And there's Autographed Music from Morten Laurdisen.

100% of the proceeds will go toward the artists' respective scholarships through the Kansas City Vocal Institute.  We provide lessons for over 800 people in the Kansas City Metro Area including many free lessons and scholarships for 230 underprivileged children and families.

For more information, please visit: www.kcvocalinstitute.com

Doctoral Recital - The Volga German Genocide

I have had an amazing and heartbreaking week.  There are many stories that I would love to share, but alas this is a very public forum.  Unfortunately, I will wait a few years to tell some of the lessons that I have learned this week - not all good things, but great life lessons and professional lessons.

Tonight, I will be singing in the Conservatory's production of Carmina Burana.  I know you all know it - CLICK HERE TO SEE IF YOU DO.  We will also be performing some exciting world premiere pieces including one by the current Pulitzer Prize winner in music, Zhou Long, who is an instructor at the Conservatory here in Kansas City.  You can watch it live on the internet here at 7:30: http://www.umkc.edu/ia/streaming/live-streams.cfm

I have to say that all the time I've spent this weekend in Helzberg Hall has been absolutely incredible.  If you are a choral music person, there is no better place on earth to sing than Helzberg.  I guarantee it will be a religious experience - it's the perfect place for singers.  It's no wonder why many of the greatest singers in the world have scheduled performances here in the coming year.  For example, Juan Diego Florez, the most famous tenor in the world, sang a recital here yesterday.  He only scheduled recitals for Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and Kansas City!  This place is for real...if you are living in the area, and haven't seen it, you are missing one of the world's greatest performing venues.

But, the biggest event for me this week is certainly my Doctoral Recital:

"Wir wollen Deutsche bleiben"

7:30 PM

THIS SATURDAY

February, 25, 2011

White Recital Hall

Kansas City, Missouri

It should be, hopefully, one of the most unique recitals that you have heard in a long time.  I have waited several years to put this particular recital together.  Watch the video below and I'll explain some of the really unique things that I will be doing.

The phrase "wir wollen Deustche bleiben" or "we want to remain German", was a phrase that the Volga Germans used to solidify the importance of their ancestry in the face of this horrific slaughter.  They were influenced by many cultures and governments but they desired to peacefully live in their agricultural society with a simple but vibrant Germanic society.  Knowing their sacrifice and that their struggle, known as the Forgotten Genocide, completely obliterated their world, I too feel that it is important to keep at least this small portion of their story and culture alive.

I will begin the concert with "Ach, wenn Mutter Wolga" by Cui.  Cui was a famous Russian composer and this is a patriotic hymn to the Tsar.  It was originally written in Russian, but I will sing it in German.  The Volga Germans were forced to sing these in the early 20th century.  It sounds very "Russian" with a somber mode, but if you understand that the point of this concert is to celebrate the Volga Germans, you should know that this is about the darkest and saddest of all songs.  Tsar Nicholas II initiated the genocide on the Volga Germans, so to sing a patriotic song in German, would be the equivalent of Jews in Poland being forced to sing a song praising Hitler in Polish.  It is gut-wrenching.

Then I will sing some songs that highlight the many cultures of their part of the world.  They lived in an area that was filled with many cultures because of the trade routes between Asia and Europe.  They were influenced by India, China, Persia, Russia, and Western Europe.  So, I will sing the first movement from Ravel's Scheherazade.  Scheherazade is a famous Persian tale, and the first movement is called "Asie" or Asia.  It talks about China, India, and all the wonders and dangers in the Orient.  It is normally sung by a mezzo, but is written for high voice and clearly with tenor in mind.  However, I will be making one of the only tenor Scheherazade recordings that I know of existing, so it should be very unique.  I will follow that by singing an aria from the Russian composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, called "Chanson Indoue" or The Song of India.  Both of these selections are in French.  How perfectly multicultural!

Then I will sing Respighi's "Nebbie" - a tenor favorite.  Respighi was an Italian composer, and this piece is in Italian describing the fog rising and setting, a very spooky allegory to life and death.  Respighi was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and was the principal violinist of the Russian Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg.

I will also include some selections that highlight the cultural history of the Volga Germans, which obviously includes German music - so, I will sing a short lied by Brahms and a tenor favorite by Wolf, both German/Austrian composers.

Then I will sing Lenski's Aria from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin.  It is in Russian and certainly one of the most famous Russian arias of all time.

Lastly, I will sing the World Premiere of John Mueter's "Three Volga German Folk Songs".  I contacted the library at the conservatory in Salzburg where they have a massive collection of folk songs of Germanic peoples.  They were very kind to allow me to search high and low for songs with their origin in the lower Volga river region.  I found about 30 and they sent them to me over the internet and I sent some of them to John, who was very eager to work on the project.

He composed three songs "Abschied", which is a beautiful song of farewell, then "Soldatentod", which tells the story of a soldier's death on the battlefield with gruesome depictions of the dead scattered under the moonlight, and finally "Der Zecher", which is about a drunk that is sitting at home drinking when Death shows up at his door.  The drunk offers Death a drink, but Death pours it out as a toast to his cousin, Plague's, health.  Death then asks "do you think I can be sold with a drink?" but the drunk pleads, "I'm trying to become a doctor, and if you let me live, I'll give you half my patients."  Death agrees to let the drunk live as long as he is his obedient servant.  So, the piece ends with the drunk, drunkenly singing the joys of living forever because of his deal with Death.  All of these are in German, natürlich.

I have been wanting to do a program like this for several years, and I am very excited to present it this Saturday.  It means so much to me because this is my ancestry, its culture is dying very fast, and it is the 70th anniversary of the mass deportation of the Volga Germans to the GULAG labor camps.  After the genocide, most of the Volga Germans either fled to the United States or Germany or were assimilated into USSR, losing their language and with it, much of their culture.  Today, the most vibrant culture is in the middle of the United States where they still cook, speak, dance, and drink like they did in the Volga region.  However, with the loss of their language in recent generations, there just aren't enough decedents to promulgate their culture further.  Sadly, it all was irreversibly destroyed in the genocide.

SHH!!! Silent Auction!!! & My "Hollywood" Debut

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season, and the best of luck to you all during the new year.

I had an interesting last few days with my family.  A girl caught her hair on fire while singing on stage at the Christmas church service I went to.  I sang Schubert's Ave Maria after that but abruptly following me was the congregational hymn Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  How's that for church?

Also, this coming Monday, I will share some great news about a new gig I got with film director and Senior Vice President of Talent for MTV, Randy Sosin.  He is casting something for the NFL that will involve me and we will be filming early next week!  I'll let you in on some secret info then, so be sure to check back.  Amazingly, I will be paid as part of the Screen Actors' Guild!

Anyway, this is the final blog entry for 2011 and I wanted to give you a peak at the KCVI Celebrity Auction that will begin next month!  If you don't already know, one of my biggest passions is the Kansas City Vocal Institute.  We provide free or greatly discounted music education to children and families in Kansas City.  Also, it is a free service for all of our teachers to use to acquire students during this tough economic time.  We have 19 teachers and all are either earning or have earned a graduate degree in Music.

I am so very proud of everyone who have given their time and talents to this, and part of keeping the price of lessons at significantly low or free of cost is with the use of our scholarships.  Last year, we had 24 scholarships created and sponsored by some of the world's greatest artists and musicians including: Angelina Jolie, Maya Angelou, David Cook, Melissa Etheridge, Yo-Yo Ma, Randy Newman, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, and many more.

Last year, I asked our donors if they would provide any autographed items that we could auction and have all the proceeds go to their respective scholarships.  Because of how successful it was, we again asked our donors to do the same.  Many donated items once again toward their scholarships and we created several new scholarships as well.

This year, we will have a private and public auction.  The private auction will be a special silent auction for some items and the public auction will be utilized with ebay.  More information will be made available on New Year's Day at www.kcvocalinstitute.com.

So, here is a list of items for our second annual KCVI Celebrity Auction.  Some of these items may only be available in our silent auction, so if you are interested in any of these, be sure to apply for our silent auction online starting January 1.

List of current donors entering items into this year's auction:

John Williams (5 Oscars, 4 Golden Globes, 21 Grammies) once again has graciously donated the front page of the Star Wars orchestral score!

Eric Whitacre (world-renown composer, Grammy Award nominee) is donating a handwritten, autographed manuscript of one of his pieces to be selected by the highest bidder

Morten Lauridsen (National Medal of Arts recipient) donated an autographed score of "O Magnum Mysterium" and autographed CD of "Sure on this Shining Night" and a "Lux Aeterna" score

Zubin Mehta (former Director of the New York Philharmonic) donated an autographed baton.

Stephen Flaherty (Tony Award winner) donated autographed CDs of "Suessical: the Musical" and "New York Pops"

List of new donors and their items entered into this year's auction:

Joyce DiDonato (world-renown operatic soprano) donated two autographed posters from her production of "La Donna del Lago" at La Scala.  It is signed along with others in the production including Juan Diego Florez, one of the most famous opera singers in the world, as well as, John Osborn, Daniela Barcelona, and Roberto Abbado.

Kronos Quartet (Grammy Award winner) donated an autographed photo and an autographed CD "Rainbow"

The Kansas City Royals (Major League Baseball) donated four premium tickets to any game during the upcoming season.

The Lyric Opera of Kansas City donated 2 redeemable certificates for two seats to any upcoming operas this season or next season in the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Esperanza Spalding (Grammy Award winner) donated an autographed CD of her album "Chamber Music Society"

Chanticleer (Grammy Award winner) donated an autographed CD of their album "A Portrait"

Betty White (7-time Emmy Award winner) donated two different personalized autographed photos 

Donald Trump (business magnate) donated an autographed photo

Martina McBride (4-time CMA "Female Vocalist of the Year") donated an autographed photo

George Porter (Grammy Award nominee) donated an autographed CD of his album "Water"

Neil Armstrong (First Man on the Moon) donated a photo

Stanley Clarke (Grammy Award winner) donated an autographed photo

And there's still more to come! So, be sure to visit www.kcvocalinstitute.com on January 1.

The Art of Singing (for tenors) Part 2

Aria #2 - Pour mon ame


So, this trio wouldn't be complete without Pour mon ame - famed for its 9 high C's.  Here is a clip of one of the most famous singers in the world today, Juan Diego Florez...it's a short aria; you should listen to it all.



Besides the obvious high notes, this is a great show of technique.  There is actually a large community of opera fans that do not care for Juan Diego's voice.  He lacks depth and is considered to have somewhat of a small voice compared to most tenors.  But I would argue that he has probably the greatest technique of most any singer alive today.

There's not much we can do to change our voice.  We can cover and mask it with muscles in our mouth and throat and change its timbre (how it sounds), but that all causes tension and stress.  And to sing 9 high C's, you cannot have much tension.  Actually, to sing 9 high C's well, you cannot have much tension.  The less tension/physical stress you make, the better your vocal health is, and most importantly, the better you are at maximizing the potential of your voice.

There have been great singers however that use a lot of tension - most any pop singer you can think of.  That is what makes it sound like pop music and the same thing goes with all the other styles of singing.  However, that is not how we approach the highest art of the voice.  Anyone can sing with tension and bad habits; it is mightily impressive when someone can take that away and sing free.  But with that said, let's see how others fare.



Andrea Bocelli - He certainly has potential in his voice, however he has significant trouble with this aria.  The biggest reason for this has little to do with his high notes, but rather his vowels fall way back (not resonant) as he is manipulating his sound to appear more mature - he ends up pumping his way through and probably was a little hoarse after singing it.  That's never a good thing.  Also, he always covers his neck, but I bet if we could see it, the veins would be popping out and you would be able to tell that he stretches his chin out, literally stretching his vocal chords to make a high sound.  That's quite a lot of tension.



Rockwell Blake - This recording will make most opera singers throw up.  A good kind of throw up.  No one can argue that this is a very impressive example of this aria.  Blake is known for his power and perhaps that got the best of him in his career.  It ended sooner than most, probably because of the years of powering through things like this.  He will say in his masterclasses that most of his power came from his abs, pumping the air through his very gifted vocal instrument.  He kept the throat relaxed and used his air to support the sound. This technique is called appoggio - and most of the greatest tenors practiced it.

Appoggio literally means "to lean" in Italian - to me, I think of it as if someone's fist is pushing my gut in.  I resist their fist when I inhale as my body fills with air from the bottom of my rib cage.  An easy way to think about it is when you see a bunch of dancers finish a routine and you see them in their final pose smiling with jazz hands, but their chest is radically moving up and down because they're out of breath - this is a bad example of appoggio breathing.  Instead, it is the idea that most will find when you lay on your back on your bed and watch your belly move up and down as you breathe.  It is not necessary to force your belly out like your pregnant with a food baby, it should be more natural than that.

If you can get that down, you will have a great chance at letting yourself sing with significantly less stress - and don't forget the proper resonance either - and you will surely be on your way to being a great tenor!

If you are in the mood to watch a Normal Joe have his luck at this aria, let's hear what Lithuania's Got Talent, has to offer...



That's not all...this brings us to the last aria.  More to come tomorrow...

I'll Sing Louder

I saw a production of The Last Five Years in Wamego, KS last week.  First of all, the cast did very well, and I love seeing a small company in Kansas do modern musical theater productions.  In my humble opinion (and experience mind you - for those who want to fight with me in an email), many of the acclaimed new musical theater productions have much more interesting plots than the "golden oldies" of yesteryear.  They are more real and involve real life emotional conflict, much less corny and melodramatic.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of awful musicals (Cats) that aren't ancient, but I am just generally speaking.  This musical is no exception, it is incredibly depressing (in a good way).  It tells of a newly married couple who separates after five years.  The perspective of the husband (a writer) is sung starting from year 1 to year 5 and the wife's perspective (a singer) starts at year 5 and ends at year 1.  The entire thing is a bunch of solos, with one duet at the convergence of their time lines.  Above was my favorite part, a lighter moment, when the woman sings a song about what she is thinking when she auditions.  It is completely true in many ways!

In a related comment, I golfed with the male lead of this show on Friday.  He shot the worst 9 holes I have ever seen anyone shoot.  He chipped-in for a 16 on the first hole, shot 108 for only 9 holes!

In opera news this week, congrats to Juan Diego Florez - one of the world's most famous tenors.  He and his wife, had a baby only thirty minutes before he sang the leading role at the Metropolitan Opera's production of Le Comte Ory this past weekend.  The production was broadcast live across the world in movie theaters.  For opera singers, this is the biggest stage in the world - at the Met for the live broadcast - and to do it without three days sleep and just minutes after becoming a father is quite incredible.

Next week will be pretty busy for me, and I will be recording what I will be doing to turn into a video blog in a couple of weeks - and for internet newbies out there, that's called a vlog.  I will be premiering a new piece of music from a composition student for their recital.  New music is one of my "specialties".  Education is REALLY important when it comes to most new music because of how difficult it is (nothing sounds familiar - instead it's kind of random).  Then, I will be singing the National Anthem at a Royal's game and on Easter Eve I will be singing a one measure solo in the Conservatory Finale concert as we perform Poulenc's Gloria.



I finally heard from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.  They are going to let people know about their casting at the end of April.  Hopefully I will hear something good, but really I try not to think about it.  Just like the first video, it's pretty easy to go crazy if you think too much about things.

This week's new opera review will cover an opera by Michael Ching and will be premiering at Center City Opera in Philadelphia.  It is called Slaying the Dragon.  Based on the book Not by the Sword by Katheryn Watterson, it's a story about repenting, forgiving, and change.  It's based on a true story of how Larry Trapp, the Grand Dragon of the Nebraska Ku Klux Klan in the early 1990s, transformed into a compassionate person, denouncing hate groups, and became a Jewish Rabbi.

The opera chronicles how he was abused as a child, lived in an orphanage, went from the KKK to Judaism, and how he reconciled his past by promoting tolerance before his death from diabetes.  It is set in Lincoln, Nebraska, a place that I have been to many times.  I feel like I understand this part of the country very well.  The midwest is filled with incredibly loving and generous people, but there are small undercurrents of intolerance as well just like anywhere in the world.  Some people who live in this part of the country turn a blind eye to it, but for many it effects how they live, interact, politicize, and worship.

Generally individuals tend to keep their thoughts to themselves out here, which makes the world a simple and polite place.  This can be a problem for people who "break the mold" and are different.  I was protected from these problems growing up until I came to college.  In college, unaware of extreme thinkers, I was recruited by a Christian group that preached extreme prejudices and thought that tolerance was "of the devil".  Their extremism was not like the KKK in any way, but it still scars me today - I feel like I have damaged the world somehow.  I still feel completely ashamed.

When I left the group six years ago, I left many of my "friends" at the time and it was pretty traumatizing (but a relief as well).  Since then, I have learned the importance of living genuinely and thoughtfully. I have learned how fragile my mind is, how easily it can be biased.  It has challenged my thoughts on religion and what actually is virtuous in this world. And equally as important is that I have learned just how essential education is.  (It is incredible that an opera that I have never seen would invoke so much pain and thought in my own life!)

As for the rating - on a scale of Two Pav Hankies to a Susan Boyle, this opera gets:

One Pav Hankie

(The content is awesome, but it will remind me of Nebraska - yuck!)

Last week's performance of Handel's Passion of the Christ went very well.  I had several solos in it and sang with two of the best tenors that I know of in this part of the country.  I will likely never forget it, maybe because of a certain optional high C sharp.  If you give a mouse (tenor) a cookie (high c sharp)...

And on a final and completely unrelated note, I have an odd problem in that I am still getting taller.  I am almost 26 and have an embarrassing problem in that most of my pants are becoming a little too short.  I was 5'10" for quite a while, but now I have passed the 5'11" mark.  

UPCOMING PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

• World Premiere - "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" by Betty Liang - 5pm, Grant Recital Hall, Kansas City, MO - 4/17
• National Anthem - Kansas City Royals vs. Cleveland Indians - 4/18
• Conservatory Finale  - Poulenc Gloria (probably on my top 10 favorite pieces ever) featuring the Conservatory Choirs and Orchestra - 4/23
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Nursing Commencement - 5pm 5/5
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Computer & Engineering - 10am 5/6
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Arts & Sciences - 1pm & 4pm 5/6
• National Anthem - Bloch School of Business and Public Administration - 7pm 5/6
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Education - 10am 5/7
• National Anthem - UMKC School of Pharmacy - 1pm 5/7
• National Anthem - Kansas City School of Dentistry - 7pm 5/7
• 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
• National Anthem - Sporting KC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - 6/25
• Sugar Creek Opera Festival (Chicago) - role: chorus/cover, opera: Daughter of the Regiment - 7/20-8/7
• Kansas City Symphony Chorus Auditions - tba