There are only two ways in which I think you could return to your old
teacher ethically:
1) Tell him/her the truth about the fact that you've been working with
another teacher for the past few months. This, in fact, is your only
option if you plan to keep working with that other teacher.
2) Stop working with your new teacher altogether. Then go back to your old
teacher. It's up to you whether you confess that you worked with another
teacher during your absence. I personally wouldn't want to have to keep
track of the dishonesty-by-omission...particularly if there was any chance
that Teacher #1 (old teacher) might ever run into Teacher #2.
I suggest that you have some other options, both of which I think are less
"fraught":
3) Talk to your current teacher about increasing the number of lessons you
take with him/her, at least temporarily in preparation for your auditions;
4) Talk to your current teacher about temporarily seeing a second teacher,
and - in fact - ask him/her for a recommendation. My current voice teacher
is very supportive of my working, occasionally, with other "master
instructors". She isn't self-delusional enough to think that she and only
she holds the key to all vocal wisdom.
5) Instead of working with another teacher, work with 1 or more expert
vocal coaches on your audition repertoire. GOOD vocal coaches should be
able to help you work out MUSICAL and DICTION solutions for what are, in
truth, technique problems. This is NOT the same as the self-proclaimed
coach who is, actually, a voice teacher in disguise. This is a coach who
is very experienced with working with singers - who has the sensitivity to
(1) recognise where you are in terms of maturity of vocal technique; (2)
know what can be done through musical interpretation to capitalise on your
vocal strengths and minimise the "glare" of your vocal weaknesses; (3)
recognise specific diction problems that may directly cause some of your
technical difficulties, and help to fix them; (4) be honest enough to
advise you against singing repertoire that you really aren't ready for,
not just in purely technical terms, but in musical,
emotional/interpretive, and diction terms as well. For example, I might be
able to sing Handel arias beautifully in terms of technique and general
musicianship, but I admittedly am a novice when it comes to Baroque style
and ornamentation - so I would be ill-advised to include many (if any) of
these Handel arias in my audition and competition packages - particularly
if there's a chance that any of the auditors/judges are Baroque experts.
Finally, I suggest that you do what you can to stop your slide down the
slippery slope of half-truths, deceptions, and lies-by-omission. Life is
much simpler, and self-esteem is much higher, if one just goes ahead and
tells the truth at all times. It may be easier, if you decide to leave
the new teacher and go back to the old, to say nothing about having
"strayed" (to the old teacher) - but again, such an omission may come back
to "bite" you in the long run, if your old teacher finds out from someone
else that you've been less than honest. Of course, it's quite possible
he/she has found out already, in which case he/she may not be all that
keen to have you back. Or maybe he/she won't even care. The only way you
can find out for sure is to 'fess up.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
________________________________
I want to know God's thoughts...
the rest are details.
- Albert Einstein
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