My good friend, the amazingly and multi-facetedly impressive Sarah Jebian, recently asked some of her colleagues if they'd be willing to write blog posts that Sarah could share with her voice and acting students in her monthly newsletter. Here's mine:I saw it coming. I knew a solid 8 bars before the high G♯ that it wasn't going to come out. We had learned the notes and marked the breaths and...
Today at UUCV we'll be commemorating National Transgender Day of Remembrance. (What's that? Take a look, but not if you need to put on your happy face any time in the next few hours.) I am pleased about one thing: I've used Namoli Brennet's music in worship enough over the last year that I feel okay about using more of it today. (I try not to fall into the trap of using Jewish music only on...
Once a year or so, Rev. Aija lets me take the reins (and the pulpit) for what we call "Music Sunday"—a worship experience that's all about music, except when it's not. Coming up with a theme for Music Sunday is always pretty easy—there's always a song I've wanted to find an excuse for the choir to sing, or a topic I've wanted to write a song about, or a story I've wanted to tell. Except for...
You'd think, for all the times I'd shouted "STRONG AND WRONG!!!" at my students with clenched fists in the air and mock rage on my face, that I'd be better at it. But every time I get ready to upload a new recording to my Demo Recordings page, the script starts again: "Is this really ready to share? Shouldn't I listen through again to be sure it's okay? Couldn't I hit that note a little more...
My good friend Jeremy Patterson has a new YouTube interview show called the Capital Area Theatre Show. Guess who he invited to be his second-ever interviewee? Tune in below or on the show's YouTube channel to hear our milkshake-fueled conversation about art and life and idols and dreams and fears and insecurities, and why we do all that we do. (And he eventually was able to steer me back...
Have you been waiting anxiously for the other—er, third—shoe to drop? Rejoice! The third and final movement of the Mozart 4-hands piano sonata I've been serially sharing is here at last! I'm still mulling over an additional piece to include in the “Piano Covers” section of my Demo Recordings page (a Chopin, a Mozart, and...?), but in the meantime I'm getting antsy to get some solo vocal work...