Month: September 2014

It has been a busy start to the term and I feel that I have hardly stopped.  It has become quite normal for me to collapse in a heap when I return from school, and my (already fairly early) bedtime is moving even earlier!

There is much excitement however as the ‘Night at the Opera’ concert looms on the horizon.  Last term at the Junior Academy all the first study singers collaborated to perform a staged version of the whole of Act 1 of Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’.  After the stress of trying to rehearse these singers over the course of a whole term, I should have known that tackling four different scenes, with four different casts in half a term was likely to be somewhat stressful!

Having said that, the girls are rising magnificently to the challenge, and I leave almost every rehearsal buzzing with inspiration and pride at their achievements.

Nearly half way through the rehearsal period, we have completed large sections of the blocking, have planned the sets and costumes and are well on the way to having all the music learned by heart.   The girls have started to appreciate why I asked them to learn the notes over the summer holidays.  Standing still and singing is all very well and good, but it’s amazing how much harder it is to move AND sing simultaneously!  Some of the scenes require less movement, making it somewhat easier for the cast on a physical level, but all members are required to interact with others, respond to the action on stage and be involved in a much more significant way than when singing solo.  The music is demanding and they have to use all their knowledge of technique as a primary concern, but this must not come at the cost of their dramatic engagement. 

Part of the reason for doing this concert at all was to allow some of the more advanced singers in the school the opportunity to experience these challenges for the first time, so that they are prepared for the demands that are made on performers in the ‘real world’.  Many of the girls perform regularly in the Musical Theatre Productions, as well as soloists, but have learned that the Opera requires another set of skills, in addition to those already ‘mastered’.  

It’s great fun working with such a talented group, who are all so committed and excited by the project.  The concert should provide real variety, and so there really is something for everyone – especially for people who don’t know much about opera, or think they don’t like it!  

I certainly don’t want to wish my rehearsal time away (still lots to do!), but I am really looking forward to the end result of all this hard work.  I think it’s going to be another fantastic night of music and drama.

I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but of course, it has been the summer holidays for all my students – and for me too!  This week saw the return to work, and this is always a hugely exciting time for me.  Naturally there is interest in meeting my new students for the first time, assessing their potential and starting them on their singing journey, but there is also great reward in hearing ‘old’ students after the summer break.

I always encourage my pupils to rest their voices during the holidays.  Whilst I don’t really want them to forget all their technique, and lose muscle tone, I firmly believe that the young voices in my care need time to relax and recuperate after the busy term.  For musicians and singers the end of term is inevitably jammed with concerts and productions, and the students are physically as well as mentally and emotionally exhausted by the time they get to the holidays.

So, one might expect that the return to the start of term is full of bad breath control, croaky voices and frustration for the students, and for me.  Actually usually the reverse is true.

After a long period of R&R, it is fascinating to hear the relaxed and free sounds of the voices.  The girls are often very surprised that they haven’t forgotten how to sing – and in fact seem to have made progress by doing nothing!  Of course, in voices this age two months can see a huge change in sound quality.  The younger students with small but perfectly formed voices can suddenly quadruple their sound with very little effort.  Older students voices may have shifted in range, and those who were in the middle ‘comfort zone’ can suddenly plummet to hitherto unknown depths, or reach for stratospheric soprano notes.

This shift can be quite alarming to students who have been very used to a particular sound, and I have to spend quite some time convincing them that this is a normal and natural phenomenon.  Female voices break, just as male, but the change is usually far less dramatic, and is therefore easy to miss if you’re not listening for it.  The trick is to be constantly aware of where each individual voice is ‘comfortable’ and work within these remits.  Sometimes this means having a song to work on in a number of different keys, so that the student can work on a piece wherever the voice is comfortable ‘on the day’.  Usually it’s not so changeable, but shifts gently over a series of songs to rest in a new tonal area.  

It’s so wonderful to have given a student a piece to look at at the end of the summer, and for them to return able to achieve new levels of technical security and tonal colour.  Sometimes I am quite astounded by the changes I hear!  Despite the stresses of organising a timetable and the inevitable paperwork which has to be done at the start of term, it is definitely one of my favourite times of the year,  Welcome back, everyone!