Blog: Open Intervals

Practice Yoga from Anywhere in the World

This article used to recommend one online yoga resource and now I've updated it. While I use Grokker.com for yoga and exercise at home and on the road, and it's so far my favorite, down-to-earth exercise video resource, I receive no money for recommending it to you.

As you've discovered in the first 3 posts of the Yoga for Singers series, yoga can help you release tension, zone in on your best performance practices, calm you, and it can also energize yo…

What My Yoga Practice Has Taught Me (Besides to Stand on my Head)

We all have a common desire:  to feel good about ourselves and what we are up to in the world.  Many musicians choose to go into this field because they couldn’t imagine themselves doing anything else.  Anyone brave enough to say a wholehearted “yes” to make their true passion their living knows there are ups and downs along the way.   I know that I am living my yoga when I’m able to gracefully receive a rejection email and say to…

Beginner's Yoga Sequence for Singers

Let’s be real.  Starting to practice yoga can be intimidating.  Perhaps this is because of its inherent connection with having to be flexible (which you don’t) or needing to twist yourself into a pretzel (which you don’t).   A very wise yoga teacher once told me that yoga is a breathing practice, and the physical postures are there to facilitate a deeper connection to your breath.  One of my favorite singing teachers told me instead of thinking of singing wel…

Confessions of a Singing Yogini

One frigid January evening when I was not even 20, I stumbled into a hot yoga studio and took my first yoga class.

I hadn’t the slightest clue about body alignment in postures, no grasp of Sanskrit and its place in in the yoga class, and definitely no concept of just how much water I would have to drink afterward to rehydrate.

Here’s what I did know for sure:  I was hooked.  Something about the dance-like nature of the yoga postures, the focus and stamina that cam…

Yoga is becoming more and more popular and singers are no exception. We must be aligned in our bodies and in tune with what our bodies are telling us to really create incredible music and yoga is a fantastic tool to help us do just that.

Mezzo and Yogini Krista Costin has written several articles about her journey as a singer who discovered yoga and received some incredible gifts along the way.

So join us tomorrow through Saturday for Yoga for Singers, right here on Open Intervals!

Virgil Thomson was a pillar of 20th Century American music and a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. Although he looks a bit grumpy in this photo, rest assured he was a productive, creative individual, producing 8 books in addition to his numerous compositions. He also earned 20 honorary doctorates. 20!

All that before the computer and "the internets."

1. Thomson was a paid organist at the age of 12 and attended Harvard on scholarship. (Link)

Having a regular gig from the age of 12 is pretty spect…

On August 3, 2014 I'll be singing at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and it will be the World Premiere of "Kaksi vanhaa suomalaista virttä - Two Old Finnish Hymns" by Finnish composer Olli Kortekangas.

This is pretty exciting...well, actually it's thrilling!

I'm happy to introduce you to him! Here are 3 questions for Olli Kortekangas.

1. Who are you, Olli Kortekangas?

I'm 59 years old, and I've been writing music seriously since I was a teenager. I studied at the Sibelius Academy in Hel…

We need to talk.

You and your phone...you're together 24 hours a day. You've got Facebook and Twitter and Google+ and Instagram and apparently you have email and hey, look--that thing even makes phone calls!

Yes, that computer in your pocket--you can use it to actually talk with another person!

What I mean when I leave you a voicemail that sounds like, "I need a pianist/conductor/recording engineer/graphic designer/web developer/photographer for this project I'm working on, so please call me …

The Teatro del Lago has posted a video about the Academia Internacional 2014 and it gives a fantastic impression of the work we did on the St. John Passion, the lectures and concerts, and how much we were all moved by this experience.

The video shows clips from rehearsals, interviews with participants and audience members, and a few shots from outside rehearsal (and lots of laughter, of course!). And several breath-taking shots of the Lago Llanquihue and the Teatro del Lago, of course. Loads of …

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Confession:  I'm an office supply geek.

Having the right writing utensil is a goal for me (and I know a lot of other people who are like this, too). Having just the right pen or pencil is part of every-day writing, not just for letters or for signing contracts, but for making notes, writing down blogging ideas, marking scores, everything. And now I've fou…