In 2004 I started teaching voice. It was the last thing I wanted to do. Long story short, I thought I was too good for it, that I should be singing, not teaching, and I was soon proven completely and utterly wrong.
I LOVED it. My first student was an attorney who sang in the concert choir in the Musikverein Lippstadt and took voice lessons to enrich her life and so that she might enjoy her singing more. Other students followed, from teens who wanted to sing the choir music arrangements from Harry Potter to rock singers to adults who only wanted to sing classical music.
Since then I've taught hundreds and thousands of hours of voice and I'm happy to share with you several of the things I've learned. Here's Part 1.
1. Your students will always show you their utter humanity.
There isn't much more bittersweet than a teen telling you how much they really want to do well at contest or how frustrated she was that something went wrong in an audition. Teens (and adults) come to lessons as whole beings, which means they have all their hopes and their dreams and their own perfections and lack of perfections. Somehow I thought teaching voice would be really nice, fun, and somehow cute, yet students come to their lessons with every emotion you can possibly imagine--I am continually changed by the stories they share, how they connect with the text or with the music, and how much they seek my undivided attention. It is an honor to give it to them.
2. Your students will crack the funniest jokes you've ever heard.
I have a blog post started on this, and I'm still collecting the funnies. Stay tuned for this.
3. You will be witness to the most beautiful music... and no one else will ever hear it just like you heard it.
This is one of the toughest things I've learned and I learned it again yesterday. A student came in with a piece with a solo that she's auditioning for so we worked on it--by keeping it simple, and by focusing on the story and the perfectly written melody, her voice and the music, the story flowed out of her. The room (at the school) was hot so I had the door propped open and a teacher walked passed us--when the teacher heard her singing that song, it stopped him in his tracks. He looked at me, his eyes wide, and he just stopped and listened.
She was singing the story.
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Sunday, March 29, 2015
2 p.m.
The Phipps Center for the Arts
109 Locust Street
Hudson, WI 54016
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Teresa Tierney, soprano
Nicole Warner, alto
Roy Heilman, tenor
Aaron Engebreth, baritone
Heather Tank, piano
Ezelda Yacoub Hasapopoulos, piano
The Phipps Oratorio Society
Tom Dahle, director
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Tickets: $20 for adults $10 students & youth. Buy Tickets Here.
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Saturday, March 14, 2015
6:30 p.m. pre-concert talk
7:30 p.m. performance
Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church
1900 Wellesley Avenue
St. Paul, MN
Sunday, March 15
2:00 p.m. pre-concert talk
3:00 p.m. performance
Central Lutheran Church
259 W Wabasha St.
Winona, MN
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William Hite, Evangelist
Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano
Nicole Warner, alto
Roy Heilman, tenor
Jon Ten Brink, bass
Bach Society Chorus & Orchestra
Paul Boehnke, director
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Adults $25, Seniors $20, Students $10
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The Bel Canto Chorus is now accepting applications for their 2015 Regional Artist Competition. The postmark deadline for applications is Thursday, March 26, 2015.
The 26th Annual Bel Canto Regional Artists Competition is Saturday, May 9, 2015.
From the Bel Canto site: "The competition was established to support and encourage singers with strong oratorio experience of any age who reside in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio. Adjudicators come from a wide variety of performing arts organizations from throughout Southeastern Wisconsin. The winner is awarded a solo performance contract with Bel Canto Chorus in the following season, which includes a $1000 cash award. Past winners have gone on to sing with recognized organizations throughout the United States and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera.
The 2014 Regional Artists Competition winner is Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Osowski will perform with Bel Canto Chorus in March 2015."
Read more and get application materials from the Bel Canto Chorus website here.
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I had a wonderful experience meeting the folks at the Bel Canto Chorus for the first time back in 2010 and I'm very happy to have worked with them every season since. It's an honor to be in their national ad this year, advertising the Regional Artist Competition, and I wish them every success and loads of fun listening to the singers on May 9!
Get your application in now!
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Every audition is a job interview. It's a chance to get one step further in your career, to get another contract, another paycheck, and another business relationship.
It's a chance to practice your skills and to prove to yourself what you can do.
It's also another opportunity for rejection. And it can sting. But it doesn't have to sting as badly as it might--here are 3 rules of thumb to keep in mind to prepare yourself well and, if need be, to take the sting out of the rejection.
1. You can only control what you can control.
You audition to have a chance at something--in actuality, an audition is no more than this. You cannot make them give you a gig. But you can control how you present yourself, you can have your pieces so well-known that you could sing them backwards with candy in your mouth and still be understood. You can control how well you respond when the pianist loses his place or the pages stick and you keep going like the prepared, professional you are.
At some point in some audition somewhere, things will go wrong, strange notes will come out, you'll feel pressured to take that earlier time slot that's open because someone else didn't show up, you'll realize your right shoe is pinching in a spot it has never pinched before.
So what. Notice it, let the thought pass through, and move on.
2. Realize that an audition is exactly what you've always wanted: a performance!
That's all you really want to do, right? PERFORM! There's a captive audience, a pianist, and you looking fantastic, with beautiful material prepared. If you think it's anything other than a performance, think again.
Plus, a director once told me that when she was casting one particular show, she sat there, watching auditions for two days, praying that someone would walk in the door who would fit the parts they were casting. She wanted someone to really show what they could do, to really perform for them. (Someone did it finally 3/4 of the way through day 2 and she was happy.) Show what you can do. Directors are waiting to see you present what they are looking for.
Hopefully you will have your own goals for this performance, perhaps it's to add two gestures you haven't done before, to try moving around the stage more, or simply to make sure you nail those 2 difficult measures at the top of page 87. If you achieve those things, then you've achieved your goals for this performance and you'll walk out the door, knowing what you have done.
3. Either you'll get it or you won't.
If you don't get it, take time to lick your wounds if you need to. And then get up and go do it again. For whatever reason, you didn't get this part, this gig, this opportunity. Leave it at that one--it's just this audition. So put yourself in line for another opportunity.
If you do get it, great! Have a little celebration and feel that excitement. For whatever reason, you got this part, this opportunity. Leave it at this one--this audition. And put yourself in line for another opportunity.
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How do you deal with rejection? How do you measure your own successes and goals--the things you can control? Comment below! (No registration necessary.)
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Rule #1: You have to be doing "big stuff" all the time.
Rule #1 broken: No, you don't. You need to be doing the real stuff--engaging with people, doing the best you can do on any given day. That's it.
We don't *always* need to be doing the big concerts, having the "big career," which by the way, doesn't exist in the same form it did even 10 years ago. It's changed.
New Rule: Make your best art as often as is appropriate for you.
Rule #2: You have to suffer to make art.
Rule #2 broken: Nobody actually likes a martyr. So quit beating yourself up for following rule #1 and taking crappy opportunities because you "need the money" or "maybe it'll lead to something else." You know what comes from low pay? More low pay. And more bills. And a reputation that you'll put up with a lot of crap. Don't contribute to the Wal-Mart economy of music and start requesting an appropriate fee. (Notice I didn't say "high fee." I said appropriate.)
New rule: Figure out
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It's time...to take a break.
2014 has been quite a journey.
This year I've:
- finished and announced this new website
- traveled to Patagonia (Chile), Oregon, Milwaukee, and Virginia, MN (yeah, you know it's awesome up there)
- started my own voice studio
- started teaching in the after-school programs at one high school and soon will teach in another
- sang my first World Premiere
- sang "Les Nuits d'été" for the first time
- rehearsed "Jesu, meine Freude" with my friends' infant cooing on my lap (that's a career highlight, by the way)
- sang the German National Anthem for the first time
Not to mention blogging for the entire month of August, sending Nicole's Notes monthly, adjudicating Solo & Ensemble a few times, a few big changes in my own life, and keeping up with it all.
So I'm calling it a year for Open Intervals; I'm done blogging here for 2014. I have pictures to post, pages to update, I'd like to practice what I preach and actually make a smashbook of musical inspiration, not to mention having some freetime and getting together with some great friends.
Without rest, we are all work and no fun. So it's time to give it a rest.
So have a very happy holiday season--Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! See you on the flip side!
Best,
Nicole
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Wouldn't it be awesome to stand up in front of thousands of people in a packed hall and give an amazing speech saying thank you to everyone who has affected your life and career? And for it to be televised? And then jet off to your next destination, ready to take the stage, film the scene, give the next lecture.
That would be SO COOL.
Just like it would be SO COOL to win a big award like a Grammy. And then people start calling YOU.
That would be so awesome.
And it most surely is so awesome to be one of "those people" who gets to stand up there in a designer gown, hair coiffed, wearing jewelry so expensive it requires its own security team...
...it's an awesome dream. Dreams keep us fueled, dreams keep us motivated, dreams are what we strive for.
Sometimes we see glimpses of dreams in our work, and we find they are anything but dreamy--they are hard-core, standing-right-in-front-of-you, on-the-screen-right-there, honest-to-goodness dreams-come-true.
So say thank you right away. Look that person straight in the eye and say thank you. Some people won't accept it, some people will feel self-conscious about it, some people will feel a bit silly that you took the time to give them your thanks. Do it anyway.
Some people won't give you a chance to say thank you--they will give you a huge compliment and then turn and walk away--and it's ok. Think of them, write out what they told you and put it up where you will see it. Remember them.
So few singers will ever "make it" into the "big career," and have the chance to give that speech. The tear-jerking, Adrian Brody-style "I'm only ever going to get to do this right now," Fred Rogers-like genuine exercise in gratitude.
So just do it now.
In the spirit of Thanks-giving and in the determined decision to walk my walk:
Firstly, thank you to my family for your enduring support. And for teaching me cribbage. And poker. (These come in handy.) :) So do all the stories we tell.
Thank you to my friends for your enthusiasm, your excitement, your caring, the way you incite courage in me. It is an honor to call you my tribe.
Thank you to the churches, the organizations, the schools, the parents, the businesses with whom I work on a daily basis. Nothing can take the place of genuinely good working relationships and the sheer effort it takes to create lesson space, to make a concert series happen, and to make sure everything happens.
To my students: It is an honor to be your teacher. There is no other way of putting it: you are all unique, wonderful human beings and I get to see you undertake the creative, physical, musical and emotional process of making music once a week for weeks on end. One of my students recently called me "The Moral Voice Teacher," as she found she goes home every week with a moral or a lesson learned. I was quite surprised when she told me this, and then I realized I really do want every single one of my students to take a morsel of human knowledge with them every time they leave a lesson. And this student helped me see that I do this because I cherish my students and the opportunity to work with them. I do not take this for granted.
To my students' parents: You are rockstars in an age of over-busy, over-scheduled, demanding tasks and time, yet you still get your kids to lessons on-time, ensure they are practicing, you communicate clearly, and follow-up when you have questions. You respect the payment and cancellation policies, which helps me do business well. You ask your questions and make sure your kids understand what needs to be done. Awesome. Well done! And thank you.
To the conductors and artistic directors: Thank you from the very bottom of my heart. It is because of you that I am working in this industry, that we can make such beautiful music, and that we can make long-term plans for success to ensure this part of our culture stays alive, relevant, and part of the human experience. We make history every time we make this music.
Related, and just as important: Thank you to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and for the Violence Against Women Act, both of which enabled me to leave an abusive marriage and to start recovering. Without them, my life story could be very different, but it isn't. To my fellow survivors: you are an inspiration. Some of you share your stories, some of you don't. Remember it is always your choice. I am grateful--so very, very grateful--to know that you are there, whether we know each other or not.
Lastly, to the audiences, the listeners, the concert-goers, the download-buyers, the blog-readers, the tweeters, the commenters, the newsletter-readers, the hosts: You're simply amazing. I'm blown away by the stories you tell of how music has touched you, why you love music, how music is a part of your life and what it means to you to listen to the music I make. You've told me stories of your parents making music, the teachers that have touched your lives, you've told me how deeply music has moved you, you've shown the tears as a result of music stirring your heart--each story and comment is a gift that I cherish because you have shown me a part of your soul.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor. I wish you a happy, safe, warm, well-fed Thanksgiving; may you know no end to the blessings in your life, and may you bless others selflessly, that they might know the same.
Amen. And a lot of woman.
In Deepest Gratitude,
Nicole
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This post was inspired by the lasting impressions and experiences from last weekend's concerts of Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights) in Chisholm, and Virginia, MN with the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra. From the gems of auditoriums in which we performed to the stories from audience members to the generosity of my hosts and simple conversations in passing, it was a dream-come-true kind of weekend. Forget the "big career." It's all about the big experiences.
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November 22 & 23, 2014
Sergey Bogza, conductor
November 22nd, 7:00 p.m.
Chisholm High School Auditorium
301 4th Street SW
Chrisholm, MN 55719
November 23rd, 2:30 p.m.
Goodman Auditorium at Virginia High School
411 5th St. S
Virginia, MN 55792
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Sunday, November 16th, 2014 at 3 p.m.
Ode for St. Cecilia's Day - Henry Purcell
Magnificat - Franz Schubert
Christmas Cantata - Daniel Pinkham
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Kristie Tigges, soprano
Nicole Warner, alto
Richard Joseph, tenor
Mike Schmidt, bass
Patricia C. Connors, director
Choral Society of St. Catherine
Admission $10/$5
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The O'Shaughnessy Auditorium at the University of St. Catherine
2004 Randolph Ave
St Paul, MN 55105
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To accomplish this major feat, you need to know a few things. Because learning this shouldn’t take longer than the actual application, here it is short, sweet, and to the point.
1. Decide if it’s really worth it.
Sit down, and for five minutes think about what this application could lead to—what are the possibilities? If it’s worth a lot later, then it’s definitely worth a few hours of intense work right now. If you don’t care very much, then don’t do it. You’ll only be annoyed with yourself later if you simply think you “should.”
2. Write a list of everything that needs to be done AND a second list of what needs to go in the envelope. Use brightly colored paper, as chances are everything else will be on white paper.
To keep things organized, you can keep this checklist paper-clipped to the “completed” materials until it goes in the mail. Make sure you this paper gets tossed when you’re done so it isn’t in the envelope when you mail it off!
3. Find out where the closest post office is and how late they are open.
If you won’t make it during regular business hours, find a post office that is open late. Find this out now if you have applications coming up.
4. Drop everything.
This really means everything. There is no cooking dinner while you’re doing this, no talking to your best friend via Skype. It’s PB&J, a phone on silent mode, and sign out of Facebook, Skype, and whatever else floats your boat. This is not boat-floating pleasure time, it’s hard-core crunch time for you to show what you’re made of.
5. Keep it simple.
Your best bet, whether it be the cover letter, updating your resume, or other additional materials is to keep it simple. No bells, no whistles. Rely on the good, solid work you’ve already accomplished.
And speaking of updating your resume, this is not the time to do a major overhaul. Make it work the way it is, and when you’re done with this application, go back and do the major overhaul right away. That way, you’ll have it easier the next time you do an application at the last minute. You know this last-minute thing will surely happen again, so just do it. You will thank yourself for it later.
6. Get any 3rd-party materials, like recommendation letters, ASAP. Call in favors.
Also, make good on the favors you owe others when they need last-minute help. People remember this and they remember it well. Being reliable in the favor department makes you memorable to good people.
Exception: when disorganized Darla needs materials from you for an application for the 5th Friday in a row and you have a hot date: say no. Good fences, good neighbors. ‘Nuff said.
7. Trust that you will get it finished on time. Having faith that you will get it done makes it so much easier--and it will be stellar!
When you’ve heard back, whether your application is accepted or not, be sure to say thank you to the people that helped you. It does matter that you say thank you; people have spent their valuable time helping you and they deserve to be recognized for it.
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October 19, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Tracey Engleman, soprano
Nicole Warner, mezzo-soprano
Luke Grooms, tenor
Jeffrey Ray, bass
Richard Hynson, conductor
Order your tickets here.
146 Green Bay Rd
Thiensville, WI 53092
Gioacchino Rossini (pictured above) wrote the Petite Messe Solennelle (Small solemn mass) in 1863 as a salon piece for two pianos and harmonium, calling for only 12 singers; the soloists should sing the chorus parts and the solos. Rossini orchestrated the piece from 1866-1867 and the orchestrated version was performed for the first time in 1869 with full orchestra, chorus, and soloists. Rossini never heard it orchestrated; he died in 1868. (Source)
Don't miss an update--sign up for my monthly eNewsletter below (look for the CD symbol) and subscribe to the RSS feed above!
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Kaksi vanhaa suomalaista virttä - Two Old Finnish Hymns
1. Me uskom' yhden Jumalan pääll' - We Believe in One God
2. Herra siunaa meit' ja auta - Lord, Bless Us and Help Us
for mezzo-soprano and organ, composed by Olli Kortekangas
I'll also be singing "Simple Song" from Bernstein's Mass during this service.
Sunday, August 3, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.
with Mark Sedio, organ
333 S 12th St.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
More information to this World Premiere, composer Olli Kortekangas, and the pieces will appear on my blog on Thursday, May 29, 2014. Don't miss an update--sign up for my monthly eNewsletter below (look for the CD symbol) or subscribe to the RSS feed above!
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1. Music isn't for kids--it's full of sax and violins.
2. If I told you I loved you, would you love me Bach?
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