The Singing Revolution?

Can singing cause a revolution? The answer is yes! When 1 million Estonians sang for their freedom, it happened. Well, at least that's what the people involved in getting a documentary (of the same name) screenings say. I'd love to see this movie, but somehow I don't think I will be able to. They are doing a campaign to get screenings around the USA and Canada and if they get at least 1500 requests they will organize it. So far, it is or will be shown (for a week long run) in 25 cities around the US and Canada. They have a map on the site where you can see how many requests have been made in cities all over. Madison, WI has only 73 requests... :-(

Go have a look and make a request! Click on the title of this post!

14th Annual Free the Voice Seminar

I just got back from Frankfurt yesterday, where I attended the voice seminar offered by Carol Baggott-Forte. This is the same seminar that was once taught by my mentor, Cornelius Reid. The work is the same: Functional Voice Training. And let me tell you - it was FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, I only had 4 lessons myself (I thought I was going to have 6, but there you go), but they were so good. Carol is so amazing. I feel like I took another huge step towards vocal freedom. At the same time, I listened to her teach throughout most of the seminar 10am - 1pm, 2:30pm - 5:30. It's the most fascinating thing to listen to these people singing and hear what she does with them. Her explanations are always clear and concise and I learn soooo much. The progression of the singers is phenomenal, even in the course of one lesson, but especially at the end after they've had 4 lesssons. Now I just have to incorporate what I learned into my own teaching. My first course of action is going to be to be more adventurous with my pupils. I hope that I can inspire them to sing better, more reflexively and to trust their bodies and their ears!

Want to know more about Functional Voice Training? Go to Carol Baggott-Forte's website: www.liberatedvoice.com

Singing and Short Stories

So, things are flowing nicely around here. I'm up to 4 pupils now with the possibility of a 5th in a couple of weeks. I'm off to Frankfurt next week for 9 days - I'll be attending a voice seminar with Carol Baggott-Forte and seeing some friends. One of the stories I narrated for the StarShipSofa's BSFA series - Lighting Out, by Ken MacLeod - won the award! Congrats, Ken! I have a couple of more narration projects in the works - Tideline, by Elizabeth Bear (which is up for the Huga Award in the short form category) still needs to be edited and then I'll do my biggest project to date: Three Days in a Border Town, by Jeff VanderMeer. Eventually, I'll get around to doing Storm Constantine's The Green Calling and then I'll be doing a recording of some Dr Who FanFiction (by Jeri Massi). After that? Who knows. Hopefully, I'll also be singing before too long now....

The Sledge-maker's Daughter, by Alastair Reynolds

For those who are interested, My 3rd story recorded for the StarShipSofa (as stated in the title of this post) has been posted to the Sofa's website. It is another of the nominees for the BSFA Award in the Short Story category.

It's a great story about a girl living on the banks of the Tyne river in a far, far future Northern England, which is engulfed in a seeming endless winter. She is given knowledge and a tool with which she is meant to preserve the memory of what happened to the earth and how to protect its people from a threat they don't remember, but which looks as though it might return soon.

Junior Elysium member No. 4!

Noam Zev Spincemaille was born to Elysium member Anna Levenstein and her husband Pascal Spincemaille on March 12, 2008!!! I'm very excited to welcome another junior Elysium member (so far now we have 2 girls and 2 boys)! From the pictures it looks as though mother got through the ordeal OK. She looks a bit tired, but otherwise happy and serene!

Voice Studio

What a joy it is to be teaching again! I didn’t realize how much I missed it really. I spent most of my time in London trying to find singing work, or a teaching job, that I didn’t really try hard to find private pupils. So, as a consequence, I didn’t teach much at all. I had a couple of people call me (they saw my entry in an online teachers list) asking for a lesson to prepare for an audition they had coming up. But they weren’t interested in learning how to sing. Later, close to the end of my stay in London I took on 2 pupils, one a Canadian who I met at Carol Baggott-Forte’s course in Brighton, and the other a woman who’d found me through the internet. I was very sorry to leave them in the lurch like that, having only just started teaching them and leaving town just a few short months later.

But now, here in Hannover, I have tried a little harder to find pupils right away, but not much. I hung a few notices in Libraries and such and put up entries on various classified type websites, but that was it. And as of now I have 3 pupils who’ll come regularly and one who’s coming after Easter for a trial lesson, but who seems keen! Not bad.

Now if I could just find someone to hire me to sing sooner rather than later, I’d be happier than a clam.

Lighting Out, by Ken MacLeod

So, the StarShipSofa has posted the next short story that I've narrated: Lighting Out, by Ken MacLeod. You can go listen to it by clicking on the title of this post.

It's been short-listed for the BSFA award for 2007 and the SSS is releasing each of the 5 stories in audio form, one each day. This is the first of 2 of the nominated stories that I've narrated. It's an interesting far future story, which extrapolates on what life might be like if the internet and computer technology we have today keeps evolving at this rate.