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From:  "SMSchneider" <smschneider@e...>
Date:  Sat Feb 16, 2002  5:16 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Strange experiences-question for Karen

> > So what did you do when he said THIS??? What are you supposed to do
when the
> director wants you to do something that you know is not correct or even
> harmful?
>
I refuse to do it. At a master class, a well-known stage director, whose MO
was humiliation at every opportunity, demanded that I shout loudly in chest
voice through a sonnet I was declaiming. I refused and he told me to sit
down, saying that if I knew how to sing correctly, I could do it without
hurting myself. Maybe so, but I wasn't about to try.

My favorite strange competition experience was the 3rd time I took the New
York Singing Teachers Ass'n competition. The 2nd time I took it, I made the
finals, so this time I really hoped I'd win something. Well, I got nowhere.
The various judges' comments came back: 1. Your French is terrible - you
shoudn't sing in a language you don't understand (I studied for 8 years. In
other circumstances, Nico Castel had told me my French was "perfect" and Tom
Moroco had thought I was a native Frenchperson.) 2. Your French is great. 3.
Your German is terrible. 4. Your German is great. 5. You look terrible. 6. I
love your dress and your hairdo. 7. Your high notes need work. 8. Your high
notes are beautiful.

Needless to say, that was the last time I took THAT competition.

Susan Schneider





  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
17568 Graduate and Doctoral ProgramsMorgan Godfrey   Sat  2/16/2002  

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