Day 340: Mrs. Doyle

One thing that always frightened me about classes here is the fact that I had to take voice lessons but now I have one year of them under my belt and am excited about another year of it. While voice will never be my primary instrument, I understand it more and not afraid of it. This newfound vocal confidence is completely thanks to Mrs. Doyle, my fantastic voice teacher. She is a doctoral student who is a vocal teaching assistant but is as excellent as any of the primary faculty. On day one I sent her a terrified email about my fear of voice lessons and at the end of the school year I'm singing in front of the studio class with sheer casual confidence. I am so grateful for everything I learned from Mrs. Doyle and while she won't be my teacher next year she has made me prepared for another year of voice lessons. I love it here!!!

Day 339: Last Week

It's hard to believe that this is the last complete week of classes of my first year of SU. There is still a week after this for finals and juries but classes end this week. I look back at all and think of all the things I've learned in the classes this semester and last. I couldn't even begin to talk about it all. The educational value of being here is extraordinary. I love it here!!!

Day 337 and 338: Hairspray

This weekend I had the opportunity to play one of the most energetic shows I know of: Hairspray. My good friend Matthew J. Pool music directed and made a keyboard book for me just for the production. It was quite genius how much color he created with 4 people. It was at a local high school and brought back so many memories of playing for high school musicals in high school and even going back to help while going to community college. It also reminded me that high school productions aren't the best. However, they are still a lot of fun, friends are made, and that is the most important.

Day 336: The Birthday

The day that this blog applies to, April 24, is a very important day in the musical world. For those of you who know anything about me or have read my blog posts, you should know that my favorite singer is Barbra Streisand, aka Babs. Today is her birthday. Happy birthday Babs. That is all.

Day 335: Sondheim

Today we started our final composer discussion in AMT. Our final three classes will be spent talking about Stephen Sondheim. Even if you've never heard his name, I'm sure you've heard of some of his shows: Company, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd. He is the favorite composer of Dr. A and I'm slowly growing to appreciate Sondheim because of our class discussions. His music is a bit atonal and not hummable enough for my preference but based on things I'm learning about him and his shows he definitely is a genius and musical theater legend.

Day 334: Ms. Temple

After the funeral, I received an email from my piano teacher who was having a difficult pregnancy was in the hospital and had to be on permanent bed rest supervised until delivery. Therefore, our teacher couldn't finish the semester with us, but our teacher found us the best substitute to fill in for the final three lessons. Her name is Ms. Temple and she is kind of like the temple of the piano department. She has so much wisdom and so many ways of teaching so she gets her point across no matter how you learn it. She's so incredible because she has a lot of experience. She has been here for over forty years, the longest of any faculty. She even taught my current teacher Dr. Chen when she was a student at SU. Of course, she has finally decided to retire and this past month was her last working at the school. I'm so grateful that I got to work with her before she left and that I could learn so much even in three short lessons.

Day 333: Recital

Finally, I can catch up on these. Today I played for my first vocal recital at SU. Kevin Michael Jones, an incredibly talented tenor and graduate vocal pedagogy major took me on at the beginning of the school year and has let me go on a musical journey with him. All year long we worked on his recital which consisted of one theatrical song cycle called Songs from an Unmade Bed. It's basically one guy singing several contemporary musical theater (known here as CCM) that are tied together by a common theme. It's just a pastiche of the early song styles of the romantic era. Because of the title and the topics of the song it was not for children and was very relaxed. It was more like a performance slumber party. The cycle revolved around a gay man's unsuccessful love life because of his failed relationships that were based around sex or one night stands rather than romance. However, he makes it to the end and realizes he wants a romance and is ready for it. The recital was a definitely raw, emotional but I'm so glad I got to be a part of it and can't wait to play for a variety of recitals here at SU.