Monday, October 31, 2011

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. The event was hosted by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, and Christine Isley-Farmer did a fantastic job organizing everything so the day went very smoothly. Christine and I had a great time sharing stories of studying with Ellen Faull in our NYC student days. It was also nice to connect with Stan Warren, whom I had known at Aspen in the early ‘80s, and other voice teachers whom I had met at past NATS gatherings. Teachers from all over the state brought students to participate in the three Singing in Style geared masterclasses. I tried to present some general information about style and performance practice from my book, and then see what specific issues came up in working with each student. We had a baroque class in the morning, followed by a bit of Italian Bel Canto, and then a generous helping of German Lieder in the afternoon. I found these student singers to be not that different from my undergraduate students at Princeton in terms of vocal talent. The big difference is that these students are voice majors and have much more time to devote to their vocal studies. It was a real pleasure to work with them. I was starting to get a little tired by the sixth masterclass hour, but one singer after another presented some of my favorite songs including Ganymed, Alte Liebe, and Zueignung. The beautiful music and heartfelt effort of the students kept me energized. It was a fantastic day!