Day 9 of #ASQoD*, coming to you from our home base in Vienna, VA, where we are starting two days of auditions at The Barns!
“At the still point, there the dance is.”
T.S. Eliot
Calm can imbue your music-making, and a helpful and healthy cycle can result. But it’s hard to “go there” when the music is your livelihood and brings with it so much worry and fear.
Try.
Find a place in your singing that is yours alone, not subject to the criticism or guidance of others. Practice calm, and it will feed everything else you do. If not, you will run out of fuel regularly and dangerously.
When you are constantly putting yourself out there – for teachers, panels, producers, judges – it’s frighteningly easy to forget who you are. What we want to see and hear in the audition room is a person who is confident, relaxed, energized, and calm, all at the same time.
Find the still point, then sing.
The Audition Season Quote of the Day is a month-long series brought to you by Wolf Trap Opera.
Photography by Doug Pensinger
Kim,
Thanks for the “still point” message. It’s not just for singers. I’m up to my ears in
my Huddle group’s campaign to bring sanity, trust, knowledge, justice, etc. back to our government. I’m going to use your still point technique –aided by your husbands beautiful photo–to calm me when I get blazing mad and my BP skyrockets. Both Ward and I enjoy your blogs. Thank you ..Barbara Morris