Blogging from the train – when friends are generous.
This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a concert made possible by a grant that the Media Theatre received (theatres can only apply every 2 years) in order to put on a concert to feature an artist singing with their theatre. The artist for this concert was Elisa Matthews (www.elisamatthews.com) who has starred with them in My Fair Lady, Oliver, and an upcoming production of Showboat. I finally feel prepared enough to audition for them myself and hope to have the same opportunities one day!
One thing that people seem to hear (or think) is that the singing business is competitive and cut-throat. I know it’s competitive but in my several years on the east coast, I’ve never experienced this cut-throatness that people talk about. I’ve experienced friendly auditions and friendly singers in the waiting room, eager to trade information. Now sometimes there was a bad apple, but it was never the norm. The norm was friendly and outgoing people who were happy to help you. Elisa Matthews is one of those people. I first met her in the waiting room during an audition for the when we were both auditioning for the Philadelphia Opera Company and have sung with her for years when we both got in. She has always been very generous with information, helping when she could, and being encouraging at every step; even to the point of offering to help me write my BIO. Have I just been lucky? Is my experience not really the norm? Are people that are telling me that this business is horrid and brutal the same people that are happy with what they are doing? Are they bitter? Are they being “realistic” or just making themselves feel better by trying to make someone else uncertain? Notice this the next time someone is eager to share every horror story they have instead of being supportive and then run the other way. There is no point to that and not what you need.
I think the world is benevolent. People in general (and my music friends in particular) are supportive and generous. I’m happy to have those people in my life! Brava Elisa! And Bravi to all of us.
Michael Jackson – Finally off the wall
I had only been back in the country for 24 hours, after having lived in Venezuela for the last six months. I remember being in the mall or a store with my mom, excited to finally be procuring Dr. Pepper and Milky Way Bars (my favorite snack combo at the time) once again after not having either for months. I saw the huge stand with Thriller on it. Apparently, it had been released while I was gone. The cover was striking with Michael in his white suit laying propped on one elbow, soulful eyes…you remember.
Rewind for a bit – the first album I remember from Michael was “Off the Wall” - I believe the first album he did unleashed from “The Five.” The first thing I remembered was that his voice was as high as mine, meaning I could sing along with his songs, which made me extremely happy. I also remembered how great the songs were and how I comendeered my mom’s LP and played it until the needle wore out (for those a wee younger, the needle was the to record player) – remember those?
Finally back in the country, I remembered the pleasure of having someone actually ask me, “What? Were you out of the country?” when I told them that I didn’t have my own copy of Thriller, and my being able to replay that, “Yes, in fact I was.” I did however ask mom to buy the cassette (for those a wee younger – that was the little rectangular thingy that you put into a tape recorder with two spools..). AND, I played it until it disintegrated and I had to ask mom for a second copy. I loved that album – especially the “B” side (for those a wee younger…the B side was….oh, forget it). One of my favorite songs was “Human Nature” I remember how that album (and puberty) converged on me in a major way. I knew all of the songs, the Thriller choreography, and Billie Jean, which made me, and every girl around my age, swoon. He was an icon to me at that time. Seeing in concert was an amazing experience.
AND, who could forget seeing him (for me for the first time), on the MTV Music Awards performing Billie Jean. I remember sitting there eating Nachos with my mom around the coffee table, just casually watching the awards show, and then, having the fork fall out of my mouth when he performed as he brought the house down. We just hadn’t seen or heard anything like that – we really hadn’t.
One thing I keep hearing from people around me this week is how talented he wasn’t. How Quincy Jones produced him, and he didn’t write his own music, bla, bla, bla. Is that the only thing that makes someone talented? I dont write my own songs – am I a fake and lacking talent? Has anyone forgotten how he could sing circles around most singers sharing the industry with him, but being a third of their age, or performed and danced enough to bring a house of cynical MTV music award attendees to their feet? I’m listening (at this very moment) a recording of him singing “Aint no sunshine when she’s gone” – and it’s better than the original – his voice is flawless – and he’s, like……10 or 11 years old.
I know about the media, the controversy, the allegations, the weirdness. I know about his weird family, the domineering father. I know I was sad to see a talented performer layered in so much extraneous crap that the talent was lost at its core. I know that. What I’ll remember, however, is his voice.
…and now all we can do is remember.
Featured Friend Feed
I wanted to mention another singer, Melissa Kolczynski, who sings with the Voices group and also sings awesome cabaret (I recently saw her perform at a fundraiser for another Voices friend Tom Baust) and was terrific so I wanted to mention her performance here (and quickly!) because it’s this weekend!
Melissa is singing a concert in a series of many other cabaret concerts as part of a Series of Cabarets (Full House), which takes place over 4 nights (6 performances) at the Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse from June 25-28. Advance Ticket Sales can be made by calling (215) 923-0210 or purchasing online at www.quinceproductions.com.
This is a very cool idea. – along the lines of what the Fringe does for local playwrites. Totally Brill. If you love Cabaret, this will be your chance to see several concerts in a short period of time. Sounds Fun! But since I’m bias on this one, I’ll urge you to FIRST get tickets for Melissa’s concert….and then the rest! She is performing this Saturday (see info below) and it sounds saucy! Click the Quince Productions link above to get full details of all concerts in the Series.
Saturday, June 27, 7:30PM – Melissa Kolczynski presents “Pants on Fire,” songs about “liars, lust, and flaming pants.” Melissa and friends sing songs from the 1920’s to today, about betrayal, deception, passion and fire. “She’s tone perfect,” says the Inquirer, which also comments “<Melissa> sings with feeling, spirit, style, and humor.”
Featured Friend Feed – Jeanette Berry
The group I sing with, Voices of the Pops is a collection of very talented singers who sing a variety of different genres of music when not singing with the Pops. I hope to feature each of them here on my blog. Jeanette Berry is one of them and I just had to tell you about her because she is way cool and generous as a person and OMG, talented! Get your butt over to her myspace page and listen to her tracks…..I’ll wait.
The track, “Walking Alone” cued up as I hit the site and oh how I heart it. Sultry and soulful – really good stuff.
She recently sang a set at Philadelphia’s Chris’s Jazz Cafe (which is a favorite jazz hub of mine!) and I’m sure she has engagements in New York where she resides. I have to digress here for a moment to say that I have a special admiration for people who can compose their own music, which she does.
Upcoming gigs include:
July 10th Independent Woman Show in Brooklyn NY at Club Europa
July 16th @ Camp Bisco with Tuphace (a hip hop/pop/rock/electro band she sings with)
…..and several Summer weddings – I hear you on that one!
Blogging on the train
Hello, everyone out there! I wanted to take a minute to let you know that I will be performing with The Voices of the Pops and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops on Friday, July 3rd on Independence Mall. It’s fun and it’s free and hopefully not stinking hot like it was last year. I will be featuring, in a future post, a singer who sings with me in the Voices who is incredibly talented. Look for that soon!
In other news, and I tweeted about this, I saw a pregnant women (she looked about 6 months along) smoking a cigar today as I was walking out of the gym. Really? When I think I have seen it all…..which reminds me – don’t smoke if you are a singer! I know. I KNOW. I sing with several people that do smoke so they will be getting upset. Right. About. Now. But, it’s smoke. Going through the vocal folds and into the body. This can’t be good from year to year. And if you are a pregnant singer …..well….!
Friday Fermata – Sweet Dreams
Me in costume with a fellow "actor"
Happy Friday everyone! What a way to end the week than with a picture of a cute puppy! This was taken during the Philadelphia Opera Company’s production of Don Giovanni. The dog was very popular and we all waited patiently to pass him around for photos.
My Friday Fermata for today is the importance of REST. I don’t get enough of it, and I’m sure that most people reading this post don’t either. I don’t know about you but I’ve GOT to find a solution to this issue of NOT getting enough sleep. I get MAYBE 5 hours average. Until I am “living the dream” and singing full-time, I have a job that gets me out of bed at 5:30AM. If I have a concert that night, I won’t walk back in the door until close to Midnight. When on vacation, I notice that my natural cycle is really from 9:00AM until about 1:00AM, which I will fall in to after a couple of days. The nasty thing about biorhythms is that even though I need to go to bed at 10:00PM to get adequate sleep, and even though I’ve woken up at 5:30AM that morning, my brain will “turn on” at around 10:00PM and I will catch the dreaded “second wind.” I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that when one gets enough sleep, they are a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON than when sleep deprived. This includes the singing voice. I sing better with rest. Which scares me because I’ve probably been sleep deprived the better part of a decade. Maybe I could be winning my second or third Tony award by now if I had enough sleep! LOL!
As a singer, I know that in my current state, the Matinees are my favorite because I’m actually rested! During a recent performance I did with the Philadelphia Singers, as we sat in the Conductors Circle during The Damnation of Faust, I turned to the person next to me and said, “I can’t recall an evening performance in my career when I haven’t been exhausted.”
Some of my coping mechanisms have been:
1. I will take vacation time around the time of a concert run so that I can sleep in – it’s a whole new world when I do this.
2. Ok, well, that’s really the only mechanism I have.
How do you cope with this? How do you get enough sleep? I would love to hear your secrets.
Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the extra sleep!
Top 10 Revisited
This is the one I use and I heart it.
Last Tuesday, I wrote a Top 10 Tuesday post from the train, traveling back from one of my marathon, late night rehearsals. I was in the throws of a head cold or allergies or BOTH. It seemed as if, by the time of the concert, half of the group was in the throws of something mucus-related and sinister. Singing is unlike any other in that since the instrument is inside your body, it is affected by EVERYTHING! What you eat, drink, breath, how you speak, if you get sick – everything! As a follow up to that late night post, I asked some of my fellow singers to share with me their all-time favorite remedies for this very problem. I’ve listed some of them below and will update often as I get more:
Anh Truong writes: “…as for soar throat and mucus: have you ever tried ginger tea? Basically, boil ginger and strain out the ginger pieces…add lemon or honey if it suits you…..Mucinex is GREAT for congestion”
Thanks, Anh! I have to admit, I did not know about ginger tea – that sounds interesting. Mucinex I have definitely heard about, and had used it a while back and had completely forgotten about it until now. Thanks to Anh, I will be picking that up from CVS. I will also try the ginger!
Carol Latimer writes: “1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup boiling water, 1 TBSP honey – it is a MIRACLE CURE!”
Thanks, Carol! I have all of these ingredients at home! It sounds kind of scary and kind of cool!
Susan DiLorenzo writes: “I’m not a singer but my grandmother always did honey + Lemon + Jack Daniels with a peppermint to make it taste good.”
Now, if you’ve read this post, you know that I don’t condone drinking before an audition! However, at home or in a place where you are NOT DRIVING, you can try this remedy! However please heal your throats in moderation!
My remedy: Excellent question and thank you for asking! I love the Neti Pot! My favorite brand is the one you see in the photo here. Now, it’s weird, I admit. My mother actually bought it for me and it sat on my shelf for months before I finally got up the nerve to use it. Because shooting water up your nose, on purpose and then letting it drain out the other side is totally wicked weird. When I did finally use it – wow, the stuff that came out – let’s not get in to details…but needlesstosay, I was a new woman afterwards and could breath again! I’m not old school (the actual pot that you pour), but I use the little squeeze-n-squirt bottle with the pre-packaged salt packages. After you get over the initial sensation of drowning that you experience, you’ll never go back! I’m also a believer in pharmaceuticals but am not a believer in feeling so dry that I sound like I smoke 4 packs a day and/or ”stoned” 24 hours a day. These symptoms seem to accompany every allergy med that I try….and I’ve tried them ALL! Every time a new drug comes out, I’m first in line to give it a try! I’ve noticed that I didn’t have allergies until I moved here. Hum…go figure!
Thanks everyone for your suggestions and please send me any more in the comments!
When to say “no thanks”
Mic table backstage at Pops concert.
It is Monday, isn’t it? I had a great weekend, but ended up NOT doing an audition this weekend because my voice was fried from a long run of rehearsals culminating in a fulfilling if not exhausting concert that would fatigue my voice a bit and, timing was 2 days before an audition and I just couldn’t get the voice back in time. Years ago, this would have been a huge upsetting thing for me. Cancel an audition? What, am I crazy? What is crazier is going to one and then hacking your way through it when you really should be resting. First impressions are so important people! If your voice is down for the count, cancel. Really, it is the best thing. Many a career, I’m sure has been, and can be, run off the rails from singing one concert or long role on a soar throat. Head colds are one thing, but soar throat, hoarseness? Is it worth it?
Friday Fermata -It’s been awhile…
Updated to Add: Good Review in the Philadelphia Inquirier: http://tinyurl.com/mrapuw
Words that I would use to describe our concert last night range from nerves (that I haven’t felt before a concert since college), to excitement, hard work, pride, and emotion. I’m not sure what it was and had been thinking about it all day. Maybe it was the difficulty of the music, or my commitment to it, or the emotions and appreciation to the music that David Hayes displayed when conducting us (it was my first experience with him on the podium since the Philadelphia Orchestra wasn’t involved). David was proud of our work-we were all in this together and he conducted his heart out as we sang ours out too. I’m not sure what it was when I was riding home and my husband who was driving was surprised by my quiet behavior where I am usually chatty and wired after a concert. .Maybe it had something to do with the fact that during the “Eternity” (my translation) movement of the Martino of the concert, where the author talks about how death will finally end his suffering, I would think of my grandmother who died of Alzheimer’s who happened to be my biggest fan and how I wished she could hear what we were doing and how she should not have been robbed of her beautiful life and how death bites, and how I quickly realized that I couldn’t lose focus like this during the singing of it but how it brought something more to the experience – all within a few measures. And how I allowed myself to feel it just a little. I’m pretty sure it had something to with the difficulty of the music and how I finally experienced (just in time) the transition from academic study to aesthetic experience and I could enjoy what the piece was. Maybe it was all of these things combined with other things going on in my life to create an experience that was moving if not fulfilling. It’s been awhile so I must remember these moments and make sure more days are like that and not void of it.
Hello!
Currently a singer with the Voices of the Pops, the featured vocal ensemble for Peter Nero and the Philly Pops with performances at the Kimmel Center and the Philadelphia Singers, the featured choral ensemble for the Philadelphia Orchestra with Performances at the Kimmel Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Saratoga Music Festival. Past engagements have been with The Kantorei Singers, Opera Colorado and the Denver Opera Company, to name a few.
For a full resume, visit LinkedIn site at the following Link: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amyarmstrong
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