Jeanie’s Blog

How does this strike you…… I don’t really do the Argentine tango, but I have seen quite a bit of it, and I have taken a few lessons here and there. I went to see Forever Tango on Broadway, and I have some really nice tango CDs and DVDs. I consider myself an expert ...

In this month’s issue of Opera News there is an article about belting and the Sweetlands, (it’s called “The Family That Belts Together”) voice teacher and accompanist aged 90 and 95 respectively, and their son, middle aged. I have heard from more than one person over the past years, as I lead various workshops ...

Are the songs of Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, Rodgers, Kern, Arlen, and all the others who have given us our “standards” as good as the songs of Schubert, Schumann (both of them),Brahms, Faure, Ravel and the other classical composers? How does one judge? What makes a song “good”? Is it that is is ...

A lyric voice is one that is light, supple, and usually, pretty. Lyric voices have never been as impressive as the “bigger” voices…..the lyrico spinto, the dramatic …..the voices that make so much sheer sound that one wonders how human beings can do that in the first place. The lyric soprano, the most ...

We all know that singing teachers make up things, images (mostly), but ideas and concepts, too. Some actually base what they come up with on reality, but many do not. “If I create it, it must be good” is a point of view that singing teachers often have, even if sometimes they don’t ...

For the past 30 years, at least, the music education system of the public schools of this country have gradually been reduced or eliminated. Children who used to hear classical music, at least at school, were exposed to something important. Children were taught to sing in groups, not just in choruses, but in ...

When it gets to be 2:00 am and I’m still up, my mind gets very busy discussing all kinds of things. One of the recurring themes is this — how does one account for all the truly talented people who never get seen or heard and the many not very talented people who end ...

I saw two Broadway musicals today, “Jersey Boys” and “110 In The Shade”. Both of them were terrific. They have all the ingredients that musicals on Broadway are supposed to have…talented performers with great voices, good stories, wonderful direction and excellent sets, lighting and costumes. The audience at both performances jumped to ...

Is American music as good as European music? Do the Chinese sound good singing rock songs? Is classical music better than rock and roll? Is country music better than rap? Are these questions ridiculous? The history of many of the styles of CCM are rooted in America. While every country has ...

How does one approach working with a skilled singer with years of professional experience who cannot sing on pitch? Is it just that the person has somehow forgotten how to breath correctly, or has lost their resonances or ideas about correct resonance? Is it because the person has somehow forgotten how to hear ...

Why are some people “hard” to teach? What is it about them that makes them difficult? Fortunately, I no longer have much of a problem with this, as I teach mostly professional singers who are out working and come to me by choice to willingly take my guidance. In the past, however, I have ...

We have a new video clip for you to see. It’s an edited version of the interview I did with Theo Bleckmann. The entire video was 40 minutes long so this is just a little tidbit but it contains both vocal exercises and shots of Theo’s vocal folds during some outrageous sound-making. ...

For every Renee Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson, Anna Netrebko, Stephanie Blythe or Juan Diego Flores, there are hundreds, no, probably thousands of wanabee opera singers who don’t make it. There is also a group of people who work constantly in opera, sometimes in leading roles, who are not stars. Some of these ...

Now that Peter Gelb is at the helm of the Met, we can expect that opera is going to go in new directions, whether people like it or not. Expect electronics to invade the Met, and all opera, and by that I don’t mean just amplification of the voices. I mean composers from ...

Classical students at colleges and conservatories are still giving graduate recitals as a pre-requisite to getting their degrees, both as undergrads and graduate students. They still do recitals in traditional forms. Perhaps some of them are allowed to put in a music theater piece or two, most likely in a “legit” or “mixy” ...