Sunday, July 14, 2013
Michael and I are standing in front of Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, Australia, with Mimmi Fulmer on the last day of the 8th International Congress of Voice Teachers. More than a year ago, I had been asked to contribute a chapter on ornamenting Classical and Bel Canto arias to a book edited by Scott Harrison, who teaches at the Queensland Conservatorium. He was also involved with hosting the conference, and he suggested that I give a talk on the material from the chapter. Continue reading
The Music 214 concert was last Saturday night, and it was a huge success! During the Fall semester, harpsichordist Wendy Young and I were co-teaching Music 214 – projects in vocal performance, as a Baroque Solo Cantata class. 
I finally have some time to write about Dragon Mother. The whirlwind of the Fall semester has settled a bit over the holiday break and I can look back on the whole process of bringing this project to life. It started almost two years ago in the interval between semesters when I felt restless without enough to do. I decided to ask various composers to write pieces for me in the coming years. 
I have seen David five more times since the beginning of May. It has worked out to about 3 or 4 weeks between lessons, with various non-singing vacation/retreat weeks in there as well. Each time, he gave me new and different exercises. Usually I had just about gotten used to the previous set of exercises when it was time to learn others. 
I was a special guest of the Tennessee State Chapter of NATS for their Fall workshop, and spent all day Saturday, Oct. 29th, working with 16 college age singers on a variety of repertoire from Bach to Strauss. In the picture, Tom King is accompanying one of his students singing Ombra mai fu.