Jeanie LoVetri Sings

 

This is a live recording, made on July 18, 2015, at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia, at a recital given on campus. The first piece is “Ah, non credea mirarti” from Bellini’s “La Sonnambula”, the second clip is Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael, and the last piece is sung to the karaoke version of “Joy To The World” by Three Dog Night from the 1960s. All three pieces were made on the same night over a period of about 45 minutes. Jeanie LoVetri is creator of Somatic Voicework™ and was the creative founder of the Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute in 2002. At the time of this performance she was 66 years old and had a left vocal fold paresis which was diagnosed in New York City in April of 2013 by Dr. Peak Woo

Guest Post – Review

Review of Jeanie Lovetri’s Video Performance
By Cate Frazier-Neely, M.M., B.M

What are we to make of this video of Jeanie Lovetri, made in the summer of 2015 at the Contemporary and Commercial Music Institute at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia?

Please permit me to give some background on Ms. Lovetri and on the various styles of music she performed.  It will shed light on what you are hearing and why it is important for singers and voice teachers of all styles of music to understand.

Ms. Lovetri is 66 years old. In April of 2013 she was diagnosed, by a prominent New York medical voice specialist, with a partial paralysis (paresis) of her left vocal fold that badly damaged her ability to sing at a professional level in any style. Doctors, surgeons and speech language pathologists in the medical establishment currently have very limited remedies for this kind of neurological dysfunction. But without help from anyone else, she recovered her voice and sang in this live concert an excerpt of a Vincenzo Bellini opera aria, a Hoagy Carmichael jazz standard and a Hoyt Axtons’ rock song made popular by Three Dog Night. This was done within the same performance, within a 45-minute period.

That this is possible is truly amazing to me. That it was done very well is a miracle. Unfazed by her vocal fold pathology, her age or the difficulty of her repertoire choices and their conflicting technical requirements, she stood before an audience of her faculty, colleagues and students, and received a wildly enthusiastic standing ovation.

How did she do this? Read More…

Comments:

“In the above video clips Jeanette LoVetri demonstrates, among other things, a mastery of all three types of registration used in singing today: head voice, mix, and belt, and she does this at a time in life when many classical sopranos are in retirement, and with a medical diagnosis indicating limited mobility in one of her two vocal folds. In “Ah, non credea mirati” she demonstrates a seamless legato, consistent placement across all vowels, faultless Italian diction, and exemplary breath control, not to mention artistry and expressivity, upholding the ideals of the bel canto style. In Stardust we hear the natural, speech-like quality of the light mix appropriate to most jazz and much musical theatre repertoire. The registration lightens easily with mounting pitch, giving no signs of transition, but rather a unified tone from top to bottom. In this range one might hear a pronounced “flip” into head voice from a less skillful singer, but LoVetri makes the adjustment so subtly that it is entirely imperceptible to the audience, and this is done while communicating the sentiment of the song with honesty and simplicity. Making the extremely difficult seem easy is the height of artistic achievement. In Joy to the World she uses a raucous full belt which is the antithesis of the bel canto aria with which she began. For a singer to have this kind of versatility is rare, but what is most important about her versatility is that it is born of technique. The system she has developed engenders versatility, and versatility is required in the multifarious music marketplace of today. Furthermore, this vocal pliability keeps the voice both young and healthy, as Jeanette LoVetri makes clear with these video clips, and also with her many students engaged in long and successful careers.”

Andrew R. White, BM, MM, AD, DMA
Associate Professor of Voice and Diction
University of Nebraska Kearney

“Ah non credea: I find this performance very moving. Very emotionally connected and vulnerable.
I also love your legato line. Not to mention that gorgeous pianissimo on quite a few high notes!
Your voice is silvery, buoyant and sweet.

Stardust : Also touching, emotional. Charming.
It is not belty jazz but rather sweet and soft, which is, I think, appropriate for this song.
Nice mix all the way up there to the top notes! Somehow your voice is shimmery, but in a different way from the opera performance.

Joy to the World: So fun! Your voice holds up and it sounds like you’re singing rock but not shouting.
I love your energy and spirit. You work the crowd!

Successful singing, from opera to rock!”

Delia Zielinski
Voice Teacher
Maryland Music Studio,  ArtStream