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How to provide awesome photocopies for your accompanist

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I can usually play an entire day of vocal auditions and encounter only one or two singers who don’t provide music in a binder. Loose pages can fall off the piano, and books rarely lie flat, so binders are ideal.

Pro tip: If you frequently use an anthology book, I highly recommend taking it to a copy shop and having them replace the glue binding with a spiral binding. My shop does it for under $3.

Laying out pages to minimize page turns is by no means necessary, but if you’re striving for a perfect audition, it’s one detail you can take care of with minimal effort. You know what they say: “Happy accompanist, happy life!” (OK, I made that up.)

Two pages

Lay out pages side-by-side, not back-to-back. You laugh, but it’s happened.how-to-copy1

Three pages

Tape pages 2 and 3 together with scotch tape.how-to-copy2

Four pages

There are two possibilities for four-page pieces. The first option eliminates page turns entirely, but occasionally this layout doesn’t work if: a) the music stand isn’t wide enough, typically on an upright piano, or b) the piece requires playing at the extreme ends of the keyboard.how-to-copy3

The second option is acceptable as well. Pages 2 and 3 should be double-sided or taped together. how-to-copy4

Five+ pages

Anything more than four pages should be double-sided.how-to-copy5

Notes from vocal masterclasses

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© Eileen Huang 2014
Jayne West working with Lawson Daves, with Tim Steele at the piano. Jayne is my teacher, so all my notes from her are filed away in my head — sorry!

I have a lot of notes from masterclasses this summer scribbled here and there — in the margins of programs, the back of sheet music, and even my phone — and thought I’d share them while I organized them. My intent is to share advice that singers can apply broadly, so these notes are not comprehensive nor representative of what each clinician taught during the class.

Kayo Iwama and Alan Smith

Practice tips:

  • Practicing speaking, then singing, each phrase in one long sigh.
  • Practice runs from the end to the beginning, e.g., sing the last 4 notes, then the last 8 notes, then the last 12 notes, etc. That way when you sing the run normally, you are always moving towards something more familiar.
  • Establish a vocal warm-up routine for every performance.

Auditioning:

  • Always offer an aria in your native language.
  • Your face is your theater. Keep your hair off your face.
  • Never sing your biggest challenge in an audition. Demonstrate what you can easily do now, and leave the jury wanting to know if there’s more.
  • Present your repertoire list in columns (composer, title, larger work) and sorted by category (opera, song, oratorio, theater).

General good singing:

  • Lead with text, not sound.
  • Breathe with emotion.
  • Be careful with gestures. Don’t mime.
  • Support messa di voce with emotion and thought, so it’s not just an exercise in dynamics.
  • Motivate the idea across rests.

David Kravitz

Five tips for a successful career:

  • Know your music.
  • Take every gig seriously.
  • Be nice to people. Everyone.
  • The recitative is often the first impression you make. Spend as much or more time preparing it as you would the aria.
  • Control what you can, and let go of what you can’t.

Additional advice:

  • Plan how to get out of each gesture, e.g., if you raised your arms, when and how do you put them down.
  • Everyone gets bad reviews. If you want to believe the good reviews, you also have to believe the bad reviews.

James Maddalena

  • Breathing is not phrasing. Breathe where you need to, as long as you maintain the line.
  • Sing the A’ section of a de capo aria as though you’ve experienced something during the B section.

Ryan Turner

  • Use the inflection of words to guide your phrasing.
  • Don’t rush after cadences and periods in recitatives.
  • Think dramatically. Every phrase needs a character.
  • No appoggiaturas on one-syllable words.

 

Reflections on Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

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Last summer, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and PALS children’s chorus performed Mahler’s third symphony with Maestro Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. After one of the rehearsals, John Oliver addressed the children. They listened attentively, perhaps expecting one of his usual quips, but John had something serious to say:

Kids, I want you to watch this conductor carefully. He’s very old — older than they say he is, which is 80.

The kids’ eyes widened while the adults chuckled. John continued.

His health isn’t as good as it once was, but when he’s conducting, he comes alive. Music is what keeps him going. Some of you will find, as you get older, that music is what keeps you going too.

This story came to mind when I learned of Rafael’s death, a week after he announced his retirement. He lived to make music until his body would no longer allow it, and what glorious music it was.

My favorite performance with Rafael was Beethoven’s ninth symphony, a piece I’ve heard and performed so many times, I almost take it for granted. Usually during the third movement, the slow one, my mind starts to wander. My bottom has started to go numb, the temperature on stage is too hot, and the bugs are creeping me out. But that year, I was awestruck when the third movement began. The strings produced a sound so exquisite, even in their consistent greatness, I’ve yet to hear it again. It was one of those tingle-inducing moments when I knew, too, that music is what keeps me going.

Last week, the BSO and TFC dedicated the Verdi concert to Rafael, who was originally to have conducted the performance. But in our hearts, many of us sang for him the night before during Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, a much beloved piece for a much beloved conductor. Was entstanden ist, das muss vergehen! Was vergangen, auferstehen! What has come into being must perish! What has perished must rise again!