Are you like me— dismayed by the overwhelming retail push of Christmas as soon as Halloween is over? The trick or treaters were barely home and counting their candy before the TV commercials started blaring their holiday shopping ads. The Hallmark Channel actually started showing their annual marathon of Christmas movies before Halloween, on October…
Anyone who knows me well and has been to my home knows that I LOVE holidays, and I LOVE to decorate for them. Halloween is no exception! My voice students have learned to expect seasonal and holiday decorations with every turn of the calendar. So, too, I love to change up the music I listen…
If you grew up back East like I did, (or even if you didn’t), there is something magical about the coming of autumn. The air feels different, the light changes, there’s a cool tinge to the air, and the days quickly grow much shorter. Summer things get put away, and school days begin. The leaves…
Can you believe that it’s almost July 4th?! Independence Day is just around the corner, and that makes it the perfect time to talk about our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”. Oh, Say, Can YOU sing the Star-Spangled Banner? Ask almost any singer about performing this song, and a look of fear, or…
Have you ever had an opportunity to sing African-American spirituals? Have you ever heard of Jester Hairston? If not, you’re in for a treat! I am one lucky girl, because I had the greatest high school choral music director ever, Ed Brahams. Now, it would be hard to pinpoint the greatest moment I had in…
It’s hard to believe that next Sunday is already Mother’s Day! Wasn’t it just Christmas?! Mothers are very much on my mind these days, as mine is going through a serious health crisis, and my husband’s mom is having her health challenges as well. Mother’s Day takes on an even more special meaning now. So…
“Has anyone ever heard of the famous American composer Cole Porter?” I hopefully asked my college Voice 1 class last week. I was met by utter silence and blank stares. “How about The Great American Songbook? “ I tried again. “No one?” I followed up, even more wistfully. “Really?” I cried one last time. Nada. Zip. Zero….
Celebrate Women’s History Month! Clara Schumann’s “Liebst du um Schönheit” is the perfect way to spotlight this virtuoso pianist and composer, by featuring one of the most famous and lovely German art songs of the Romantic era. Clara Schumann was the wife of famed composer Robert Schumann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann but carved out her own place in…
St. Patrick’s Day is drawing near, and if you learn one song to celebrate the Irish and Ireland, it has to be THE St. Patrick’s Day song– “Danny Boy”! This is a song that makes grown men weep (I’ve seen it myself, and have had to hold back a few tears of my own), especially…