January in New York
I traveled to New York last month for an audition and recording session. While I was there, I met with a couple of trusted vocal coaches, one of whom commented on how much my voice had changed since last spring. They assumed it must have been my time in Italy.
"What changed?" they asked. If I had to summarize what I learned last summer it's that the only person who's going to "figure out" my voice is myself. The only person who's going to have the answers is me. That's not to discredit the countless hours my current teacher has very graciously invested in me. There's just something about the nature of this industry (at least currently) that can trick a person into not trusting their own, inner, voice and I'm just not going to do that anymore. And honestly, that helps me hear and apply what my vocal teacher and coaches are communicating to me.
So, my voice has been changing. It's getting bigger and more comfortable with meatier roles. Which means I've had to update my audition package and recordings. Which is a big part of why I planned this trip. Here are some of the video clips from my session. It felt so good that I decided to release these songs as an EP, an album of three songs. I'll update again here when the CD is available later in March. This will be my second released CD.
A day or two before the recording, when I was leaving a rehearsal session with my pianist, a woman held the elevator door for me and rode with me downstairs. "Are you the opera singer? You sound amazing! You should be on TikTok!" Thank you for your kind words, MJ! Thanks for the push universe. 😃