Maggie - 10/26 - VRH

 This week, I did not have a voice lesson because I was out of town. However, I did sing through my music and work on memorization as I was on my trip. I worked primarily on the Ned Rorem pieces, but also worked on memorization of Sono Unite a Tormentarmi and Voglio Amar just speaking in rhythm since those are in different languages.

Voice recital hour was so great today! We had so many wonderful singers and the one that really stood out to me was Madelyn Hamilton's performance. I loved the way she was using her voice to add characterization and emotion to the song. She had a couple of glottal onsets or even breathy onsets that were placed in strategic spots to convey the story. Something that I love about these artistic decisions is hearing singers taking a technique that is commonly frowned upon, but using it correctly and briefly to sing the feeling rather than just the notes. Madelyn did a really great job at using these to her advantage and not letting it affect the rest of her tone or resonance. I could hear in her performance the beautiful space she created in her oral cavity, how relaxed her larynx was, and how these factors allowed for her breath energy to be even stronger and flow easily. She had a very pretty and freely controlled (if that makes sense) vibrato because of that support and resonance. Something that I thought was very interesting that happened was seeing in real time how confidence affects our production of sound. At the climax of a song, she hit this beautiful belt note that I really enjoyed and thought was executed very well but at the end of the note, she lost confidence in herself despite how well she was doing and the breath energy fell and almost hitched which caused the note to taper off right at the end. It just proves how much confidence plays a role in how we are engaging our body and our breath by allowing ourselves to release tension. Even though she may have thought differently in that moment, I loved her performance very much and thought it was beautifully done!

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