The Rolodex

Wow.  It’s amazing the difference acoustics make on how well I am singing based on what I hear, which directly correlates to how well I am singing based on what I feel.  I practice for an hour, with moderate success, in my living room, where my piano is; this room is carpeted with drapes.

Then while making my dinner in the linoleum-tiled kitchen, I continued to whimsically sing the recit I am working on and WHOA.  I feel like a real opera singer.  WTF living room.  You suck. 

MYIF 260 - making a recording….gotta look spiffy. #wiwt #whitehouseblackmarket #opera #gradschoolapps

i realized recently that the piece i was using for my Italian art song, which I just memorized this week, is actually from the opera Orontea.  read: it is not actually an art song.  fook.  that means i have to use the only italian art song i’ve ever sung (excluding ones from the 24 italian songs and arias book) which is Donaudy and it is stupid and i sang it six years ago.  wah.

I did some research tonight because I have been putting it off and putting it off….

but I think I have determined six schools to apply to.  God I hope I can afford it.

New York University/Steinhardt, Rider University/Westminster Choir College,and New England Conservatory are all top choices because they offer, in their own ways, some sort of combination of Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy, which is ideal for me.  I want to get the performance experience but also the pedagogy knowledge.

Boston Conservatory is only on my list because it has vocal pedagogy….

Boston University/College of Fine Arts and San Francisco Conservatory are for vocal performance only (don’t offer any Master’s level pedagogy degrees).

And I have to live audition for all of them.  The only one that will really be difficult is SFC….because I would have to buy plane tickets, lodging, hope that my mom/accompanist would be free on the audition day, possibly take time off from work (I wouldn’t mind it but it would be a wasted personal day)….etc.

Speaking of, I am planning a “sick day” next Thursday, the day after Yom Kippur…..huzzah day off.  I have twenty-nine sick days and since I don’t plan to be in this job next year I need to use them stat.

No fair :(

(Source: turtlemoments)

Trolling all classical and opera singers and teachers of singing — I am currently reading the book with the above title, by James C. McKinney but have somehow lost the accompanying CD before getting to listen to it.  Is there anybody who has it and could send me mp3 files of the tracks?

Please and thank you!!!

(my NATS hashtag has nothing to do with baseball, but rather the National Association for Teachers of Singing)

I am about to say something TERRIBLE.

I just spent…well, I won’t divulge how much time….clicking through the new (and old) pieces of clothing on my store’s website and for the first time ever, I had the following thought:

“This is making me depressed.”

I curse the day when clothes make me depressed.  They’re supposed to KEEP ME happy.  Maybe it is because I am already depressed about jobs and boyfriends and life and for the first time ever clothing is not making it better.

My next resort is classical music.  I need to figure out how I am going to ornament the A section of my Da Capo aria the second time around.  That should keep me occupied.

Last official day of work.  No kids, and I will only be there for a few hours because my opera programs start at 1PM today!

I accidentally practiced for two hours tonight.  In a row.  BUT at least I have ALL my arias memorized, and all of the selections for the scenes program I at least can sing confidently enough to sing them for the music run-through tomorrow.  Hurray.

I AM SO EXCITED.

Preparing “Chacun À Son Gout” for my aria package and coaching with Sondra Kelly and Michelle Alexander in a few weeks, but singing it in English instead of German.  It is from the opera Die Fledermaus  (The Bat) by Johann Strauss.  Here is an excerpt of the English version of the aria: “I do not care for music much, not even Johann Strauss.  The operetta I hate most is called ‘Die Fledermaus’.”

Don’t know that I can sing this with a straight face.  I am sure Strauss didn’t write the German or English librettos, but I bet he would have laughed at this translation.