Posts Categorized: Auditions

One of our Chicago audition spaces prides itself on “self-regulation.” That’s a euphemism for having a lot of signs on the walls. (this year’s haul at left) Being surrounded by rules brings out the order-obeying conformist in me, thrusting me back to my school days. (In which I was a straight-A student, not because I

We just finished up three days in Houston. Great colleagues, amazing singing, and absolutely beautiful weather! Day 3 came complete with a fire drill that forced us out into the sunshine for an extra half hour. We didn’t really mind :)  (Photo right above, during the evacuation; and right at bottom, after the two opera

It’s Saturday, and it’s CVG-DFW-IAH day. We’re leaving chilly Cincinnati for toasty Texas, and doing so from an almost completely deserted airport. (We’re 2 for 2 this week, as departure from Dulles on Wednesday was also eerily lonesome.) Cincinnati was only chilly temperature-wise, for the way that CCM embraces us is always heart-warming. Many thanks

Heaven help me, I’m podcasting. Now in addition to reading my blog rants, you can listen to me ramble… If you’re a podcast nerd (as I am), you can subscribe to the feed and get updates whenever they’re released. Click here. If you want to listen to one of the first few audios, you can

Guest post by Lee Anne Myslewski “I’ll always love you, though, New York” is the final line of one of my favorite pop songs (The singer is Ryan Adams, for the record.) And now that we’re here, that line rings through my head at intervals – pushing through a crowded street, looking out of the

We’ve heard some exciting singing here on the west coast; probably more “big” rep (Verdi, Puccini, Wagner etc) than we’ll hear the whole rest of the tour. (No judgment, just an observation.) Great work from folks in young artist programs in San Francisco, LA, Seattle, Portland and more, as well as terrific singing from students

Stuck in the Seattle airport, waiting out a weather delay. Grant (Loehnig) is teaching us about Xhosa, the language he learned while studying abroad in South Africa. It’s a great language to sing in. The vowels are completely pure, like in Italian. And there are three different “clicks” represented by the letters C, Q and X.

Fourth in a series of audition season posts inspired by a recent re-reading of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. “When analytic thought is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process… But what is less noticed in the arts – something is always created, too.” How loathe we “artists”

Third in a series of audition season posts inspired by a recent re-reading of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. “No matter how hard you try to hang onto it, this stuckness is bound to disappear. Your mind will naturally and freely move toward a solution. Unless you are a real master

While I’m reviewing the last 100 applications, you may fill the hole left by my blog absence with this great audition season article by colleague and former WTOC coach Laurie Rogers: The Singer-Pianist Audition Relationship. :)