Voice Masterclass - October 14, 2009

One of my personal goals for this calendar year was to become a better singer, and continue to study voice during the remainder of my graduate work. I've been quite fortunate in this area. In the past spring semester, I studied with Professor Richard Kennedy. This semester, I've been placed with Amelia Rollings, a graduate student in the voice department. A graduate student studying with another graduate student isn't unusual, but it doesn't happen often.

I'm learning many different things this semester with my new teacher, Amelia Rollings. The first thing that I'm learning is how to REALLY belt in a healthy way. One of the other interesting things that I'm learning is that classical singing style is not disconnected from belting style. I'm also learning how to execute both styles equally well. Amelia's teaching style is grounded in some pretty current research and I'm looking forward to bringing as much of this back home as is possible.

As part of the requirements for voice lessons this semester, I had to participate in a voice masterclass. The selection that I performed for the masterclass is "I Am What I Am" from the musical, "La Cage Aux Folles" or "The Birdcage". The graduate student-teachers were quite helpful to all the students that evening, and it was fun to listen to all of the different music that everyone's been working on since the start of the semester. The clip is here for you to view - - not the best quality, but what can ya do when servers have limits, right? Anyhow...

I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester and all that I will learn from my upcoming lessons with Amelia. I hope that you enjoy the video and if you're in the area on the evening of December 2nd, that's when we're having our studio recital!