Know Your Voice. Established teacher Florence Birdwell gives expert advice on crossing over.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Know Your Voice. Established teacher Florence Birdwell gives expert advice on crossing over."

Cynthia Tate
5 years ago
Views:

Florence Birdwell relaxes for a moment between lessons. Know Your Voice By Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh Established teacher Florence Birdwell gives expert advice on crossing over.

1 Florence Birdwell relaxes for a moment between lessons. Know Your Voice By Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh Established teacher Florence Birdwell gives expert advice on crossing over. about the love of singing, Florence Birdwell says, It s summarizing her entire teaching philosophy. No matter what you re singing opera, art song, musical theatre, pop, rock you must love performing and, above all, communicating. Birdwell has not always taught musical theatre. She started as a performer and teacher of classical voice. In fact, I didn t know what good musical theatre was in those days, she says. But when Oklahoma City University introduced its musical theatre program, she adjusted her curriculum. Now, with a list of former students that includes Kristin Chenoweth, Lara Teeter, and Kelli O Hara, Birdwell long ago established herself as a master teacher of musical theatre performance. She shared with Classical Singer her advice, from breathing to diction, about giving musical theatre a chance. What is the very first thing you tell a classically trained singer who wants to sing musical theatre? I find, and I believe so strongly, that good music theatre is based on classical technical understanding of the voice. For a long time music theatre lost a lot of voices to incorrect technique because they did not choose people that had been taught the techniques of correct singing, which also means saving the voice. If you have a safe technique and a good technique, you can sing. I will tell you, you can sing anything. And I really mean that, because what opera has learned from music theatre is the meaning of conveying words. If our students are taught the importance of the meaning of words, you can therefore portray meanings to audiences that never before could be done. Not only that the important thing for me as a teacher is that a [singer] knows what he means. It can mean a lot in the quality of the tone. A student needs to know his voice. If he understands his voice his voice, not yours, not mine, but his then he can take his voice and his heart and succeed wherever he puts the amount of work into succeeding. Both elements take tremendous work. That s what students don t all understand.... My students who have succeeded greatly... work so diligently and so hard without ceasing. And it is a tremendously difficult job. Understand yourself. Learn to know thyself. That s another thing that I work all the time toward is for my students to know themselves. Don t pretend to be somebody else. Everybody comes out of high school saying, Oh, my grandmother thinks I have the most wonderful voice. I think I better learn to be a singer. And so forth. And that s very difficult to overcome, the expectations of the young singer, til that person and this is the hardest thing of all learns to know himself. Must classical singing come before musical theatre singing? You learn both. Not at the same time. photo by M J Alexander 28 Classical Singer / April 2012

Know Your Voice You start with the fundamentals of the physiology of singing. I don t care whether you re majoring in opera or whether you re majoring in music theatre.

Then, when the student understands the instrument, his instrument, then we can move into where his passions lie. A good pianist can also play jazz, sure. A good violinist can play fiddle.

2 Know Your Voice You start with the fundamentals of the physiology of singing. I don t care whether you re majoring in opera or whether you re majoring in music theatre. The fundamentals of the singing voice are the fundamentals. That s where you start. I start with how to sing healthily. Then, when the student understands the instrument, his instrument, then we can move into where his passions lie. A good pianist can also play jazz, sure. A good violinist can play fiddle. But he first knows his instrument. Then he can take on other desires, other fun things, other necessary things. But if he doesn t understand his instrument, he s going to get in trouble. Do you teach classical and musical theatre in the same lesson? I will say that I separate it but remind the student how what he s working on can be used in the other [style]. You know, I can say, See how you feel about that same statement in English. Now translate the French statement and find the same feeling in the French that you have in the language you know, that you ve grown up with. So there is a comparison many times. [It is] so difficult to convey what the song means when you re not familiar with [another language]. But in music theatre it s equally difficult because people know music theatre songs and they want you to sound like Eydie Gormé, [for example]. To find your own self is the challenge, and that s what I work on in both music theatre and in legitimate [style repertoire]. What would be a good song for someone new to musical theatre? I always try to choose the legitimate feeling in music theatre, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein.... Sondheim is all words, so I don t give them Sondheim the first year they re working in music. Group shot from March 30, 2007 tribute to Florence Birdwell. (Back row) Kelli O Hara and John Sawyer. (Middle row) Brian Tidwell, Billie Thrash, Caitlin Belcik, Florence Birdwell, Joel Levine, and Barbara Fox DeMaio Caprilli. (Front row) Jane Jayroe, Kristin Chenoweth, and Lara Teeter. Do you give different warm-ups when you begin teaching musical theatre pieces to classical singers? No, but I add certain warm-ups. I always make sure that they have a healthy introduction to the belt, which too many people misunderstand. A belt has to be physically correct or you will hurt yourself. You have to have tremendous support to belt correctly, and a healthy belt oftentimes increases the quality of the operatic voice, amazingly enough. photo by M J Alexander AIMS IN GRAZ AUDITIONS for Singers & Pianists See for required audition repertoire and registration information. Recorded auditions are accepted. Live auditions are scheduled in the following cities: Atlanta, GA Saturday Feb 25 Baltimore, MD Sunday Feb 12 Bloomington, IL Tuesday Feb 7 Boston, MA Wednesday Jan 25 Chicago, IL Sunday Feb 19 Cleveland, OH Saturday Feb 18 Columbus, OH Saturday Feb 18 Decorah IA Sunday Feb 26 Denton TX Friday Feb 17 Fort Worth, TX Thursday Feb 16 Greensboro, NC TBA See website Houston, TX Wednesday Feb 15 Iowa City IA Tuesday Feb 21 Kalamazoo, MI Tuesday Mar 20 Summer Vocal Institute & Collaborative Piano Program in Graz, Austria July 9 - August 19, American Institute of Musical Studies The 43rd Year of AIMS in Graz Become a part of the AIMS Legend Kansas City MO Wednesday Feb 29 Las Vegas, NV Saturday Jan 28 Los Angeles, CA Saturday Mar 3 Lubbock TX Tuesday Feb 14 Nashville TN Sunday Feb 26 New York City NY Saturday Jan 28 Philadelphia PA Monday Feb 13 Pittsburgh PA Thursday Feb 2 Rochester NY Sunday Feb 5 San Francisco CA Sunday Mar 4 San German PR Saturday Dec 3 Seattle WA Thursday Mar 1 Tallahassee FL Friday Feb 3 Washington DC Friday Feb

Know Your Voice Birdwell with Kelli O Hara Kelli O Hara on Teacher Florence Birdwell From receiving a BM in vocal performance to performing Clara in The Light in the Piazza, and from winning the

3 Know Your Voice Birdwell with Kelli O Hara Kelli O Hara on Teacher Florence Birdwell From receiving a BM in vocal performance to performing Clara in The Light in the Piazza, and from winning the state Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions to acting in Sex and the City 2, Kelli O Hara gives credit for her Renaissance career to her teacher, Florence Birdwell. I would say that [Florence Birdwell] is absolutely the sole reason why I have a career. And the reason I have a career through her is that she taught me to sing and to not put any limits on a voice. I ve made a career out of fitting into what I need to fit into. It s my voice, of course. I don t change, I don t imitate the way I sing but [Birdwell] told me a long time ago that it s only one voice. You know, it s hard when you are working in musical theatre because it s a little bit of schizophrenia for your voice, because I m singing to get ready for my new Broadway show right now. I m starting rehearsals. But I m also preparing for [a] concert of The Mikado. You know, Mrs. Birdwell always taught that we have only one voice. So I m just trying to keep it healthy and agile so I can do both things. I remember having to sing something that was more pop-y, which is just something I don t do a lot of ever, still, and she said, Let s get it done. Do it. If this is what the role calls for in your professional life, you re going to do it, so let s do it. She just wasn t a snob as far as musical genres go. She felt like you could bridge those gaps and make those transitions between genres. And I know not everybody feels that way but, for me personally, that changed my life. Because knowing that and coming up here to New York gave me the chutzpah to think I could do it. And if ever there was an audition for something that was a little bit not in my comfort zone, I would just do my best and do it. Kelli O Hara Read more of O Hara s insights on singing musical theatre as a classically trained singer on p. 32. How is that? Because the belt demands absolute support, and the opera singer has to have absolute support. And sometimes an opera singer gets so engrossed with the head [voice] that they forget all about support. And to really support an operatic voice, you have to be able to lift the piano. My students lift the piano all the time, and I mean lift it not just stand there and hold onto it. You lift the piano to get that support from your feet and your thighs and your butt. Do you think an opera singer can learn to belt in a healthy way without compromising his or her range? Yes, if they are doing it physically correctly, absolutely. Look at the opera singers that are singing in music theatre now. There are lots of them. The ability to use the low part of the voice is very valuable because it has textures that you can create from an emotion. Many sopranos have to sing an A below middle C. Many sopranos can, because the voice itself is very flexible, but it has to be taught. It s coming from a free instrument, not a tight instrument. A healthy belt has absolute support, and that s the same support that goes up high and supports the very high legitimate, sometimes operatic, sometimes coloratura even. Now, a coloratura, you just want to touch in order to keep the voice free those [low] notes when vocalizing, but you re not going to sing down there, not a coloratura. But a lyric soprano many times has to face the ability to sing a few notes below middle C. So you have to know your voice. Know what it takes to produce free sound. If you try to sing or belt without support, what has happened? The throat tightens, the jaw tightens, the tongue tightens, everything, the shoulders tighten. I get so weary of people s shoulders going up when they sing. Especially opera singers. That s tension! What is the function of vibrato? Vibrato is a natural function, not a forced function. [However], a lot of vibratos come from tension. A vibrato has to come naturally from the breath. Do you think removing vibrato is acceptable for musical theatre songs? Well, certainly.... The emotion of the word, that creates a certain type of vibrato. Vibrato is a gift; don t manufacture it. The breath brings photo by M J Alexander 30 Classical Singer / April 2012

Know Your Voice the vowel into play, and the emotion brings the color of the vowel into play. When the vibrato comes out of the emotion of the word, it s not manufactured.

4 Know Your Voice the vowel into play, and the emotion brings the color of the vowel into play. When the vibrato comes out of the emotion of the word, it s not manufactured. But now, a lot of teachers teach [to create] vibrato, and I ve tried sometimes in the past, but I find that it creates a difficulty because they re manufacturing it. I approach it from a different direction a direction of beauty. Now sometimes a straight line is good because you want that straight line sound. Lots of choirs use a straight line. Lots of composers use certain things with straight lines, and I love it. I love the sound of it. Do you believe words are more important in musical theatre? Whatever you re teaching, whether it s opera or music theatre... it s the same devotion to word, it s the same devotion to correct vocal production. The production might be varied a little because of the difference of the height of the opera singer and the languages required. But our problem in music theatre is it s American. So what are the things I have to teach a new student? It s to learn to speak correctly. If you don t change the speech habits, that s how you ll sing. There are so many beautiful songs that are just musically learned. But they don t pay much attention to the words, even in music theatre. No they just hum [hums The Sound of Music theme]. But then they find out the importance of the words on that familiar theme. You learn the importance of what those words meant in that song. You see, it s always a continual learning job. It s very difficult. Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh is a soprano and journalist in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She recently received her master of music degree in vocal performance and works as managing editor of a national magazine while freelancing for other publications. Talent. Passion. Community. VOICE FACULTY Christopher Arneson Claudia Catania Lindsey Christiansen Margaret Cusack, Chair Elem Eley Rochelle Ellis Faith Esham Thomas Faracco Zehava Gal Katherine Johnson Julia Kemp Robin Massie Mark Moliterno Carolann Page Laura Brooks Rice Julian Rodescu Guy Rothfuss Elizabeth Sutton Sharon Sweet Nova Thomas Charles Walker Sally Wolf Amy Zorn COACHING AND OPERA FACULTY Susan Ashbaker Dalton Baldwin William Hobbs Rachelle Jonck J.J. Penna Debra Scurto-Davis No other school compares to Westminster Choir College s focused and collaborative approach to musical excellence. Guided by a world-class faculty, our students work together to prepare for the challenges of professional performance. With each student success, our reputation soars. GRADUATE Master of Music in: Voice Pedagogy & Performance Piano Accompanying & Coaching Master of Voice Pedagogy UNDERGRADUATE Visit our Web site for a complete program listing To learn more, visit our Web site: Princeton & Lawrenceville, NJ 31

No Limitations By Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh Three-time Tony-Award nominee and Broadway star Kelli O Hara stays true to her voice as she explores a diverse performing career.

5 No Limitations By Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh Three-time Tony-Award nominee and Broadway star Kelli O Hara stays true to her voice as she explores a diverse performing career. From receiving a BM in vocal performance to performing Clara in The Light in the Piazza, and from winning the state Metropolitan Opera council auditions to acting in Sex and the City 2, Kelli O Hara has had nothing short of the performing career of a Renaissance woman. O Hara has acquired an understanding for what is expected of a singer and actress. She shares some of her experiences with Classical Singer. Did you study any musical theatre as an undergraduate, or was your focus in classical singing? My focus was classical singing. That was my major. I did some musicals and I took dance class and acting class, and we sang theatre songs occasionally. But my focus had to be on opera and vocal performance and art song. What was it that made you decide to switch to musical theatre? At the time when you re young you can be very impatient. And at the time I felt like I was ready to go perform. I had applied for a master s program in vocal performance and I was too anxious. I wanted to move right to New York. The other thing is I have a great passion for acting. I m not saying that opera singers don t act; I just mean straight acting, no singing. So that was a huge pull for me away from opera studies. I wanted to move to New York and study acting, which I did at the Strasberg Academy Institute. And you know, that was just more important to me at the time. I m glad I did it, obviously. It sent me in the direction I needed to go. I had too many loves, I guess. Do you still sing classical or operatic music? I do. I do quite often, yes. I plan to do more opera in my life, so I haven t given up on it. Are you currently performing opera professionally or are you preparing to do so? Definitely preparing, [but] I m actually doing Yum-Yum in The Mikado at Carnegie Hall [this month], so that [is], I guess, professional.... What other classical music are you working on at the moment? I m still working on my coloratura and trying to keep things healthy. It s been a long time since I ve been doing a lot of languages, so right now I m working on some English operas and operettas. What differences have you discovered when singing classical music versus musical theatre? Well, it s absolutely technically different. In fact, I sometimes liken it to, you know, if you re a runner, you use your quad muscles and they get very tight, and you can t do ballet anymore. You know what I mean? If you do both of them, you kind of keep everything loose in a way. But it s definitely using different parts of your muscle. What about breathing? You have the same breath support or you should. I m as guilty as anybody at, you know, faking my way through things, and of course I use microphones more than I ever thought I would onstage in musical theatre or concerts. I basically have the same idea of support, the idea of breathing, but it s a terribly different technical beast to do both [classical and musical theatre]. 32 Classical Singer / April 2012

O Hara as Nellie Forbush in the Lincoln Center production of South Pacific, 2008 No Limitations photo by Joan Marcus Is it difficult to switch back and forth from classical singing to musical theatre

6 O Hara as Nellie Forbush in the Lincoln Center production of South Pacific, 2008 No Limitations photo by Joan Marcus Is it difficult to switch back and forth from classical singing to musical theatre singing? I don t belt a lot. You could talk to a person who is a true musical theatre belter, and that s a different thing, but I don t think they probably switch back to opera quite as easily. I m a different kind of musical theatre singer. I m more open, I think... I m one of your kind of belters. So that means where I m creating sound is in the same place, it s just I resonate different and that s a technical difference, you know? And it s hard to come back from that. You develop certain muscles and then other ones get tired or looser, you know, they re not quite as strong.... So there s a major difference. Would you consider belting? Well, you know what? I don t think I need to do any belting. I m obviously not going to ever be on American Idol, and I m not going to be in Rent or anything like that, but I feel like any song you give me, I will sing it. I think there s a misconception about [belting]. We feel like it may not be as piercing or as loud or chesty as the next person, but... if you re actually communicating the song, no matter what [style] it is, I feel like you can present it in a very valid way. If someone stuck me right now in Wicked as Elphaba or something like that, I could still sing the songs. It may not be as thrillingly belted, but I would never scream it to try to do something that wasn t in my voice. [For instance], an E for a belter is going to sound for me just as much in a strong place, but it s not going to be belted. Because over the years, I ve developed a mix. Some people call it a mix, some people call it one voice; whatever it is, I ve tried to bring the chest [voice] up and I ve tried to bring the head [voice] down, and I ve combined everything so that it s one voice. What advice do you have for a classical singer who is studying his or her first musical theatre song? In musical theatre, the best advice I can give is to communicate the words. [If a young female wanted to sing] If I Loved You from Carousel or something some round, soprano-y song [I would say] don t sing it in a big beautiful gorgeous bel canto breath-connected, no-wordsmeaning-anything kind of way. Break it down to what it really means. Make it simpler. Make it more intimate, and that s all you have to do. It s honestly all you have to do. They want the spin, they want the sound, but they don t want you to turn off from the emotion of it just to make a beautiful sound. I think the difference is it s about putting a little more spoken word into song. Would you recommend staying away from belter songs as a first choice? You know, I had the same fears. Even now, you see a song and you say, Uh-oh, that s not really a song for me. But then you sing it the way you can sing it and all of the sudden it becomes a song that anybody can sing. So I would say, yeah, pick a belting song, and let s figure out how you sing it best. If you sing something softer where it s hard for you to get a lot of strength there and then really bring the strength out where your notes are money notes, you can take a song and make it your own every time. I would tell a young girl [to] pick whatever her favorite song was, and I would make her figure out a way to make it the most unusual, special version of that song we ve ever heard, and I promise you there would be some strong parts in it. We d find them. We wouldn t put the cliché ones there. We would make the ones that were best for her to sing it. The fear of belt songs versus soprano songs, I think that limits all of us, and it s taken me a long time to figure that out. But I ve realized, after a long time, nobody cares as long as you do it. As long as you mean it. One of the reasons I learned this, and I m still learning every day, was when I was doing South Pacific. I used to belt meaning it was so low that I could kind of put a lot of it in my chest [voice] and after I got pregnant my voice completely changed. I came back and learned a different way to sing these songs that I knew so well and knew how to communicate, and no one noticed. That weirded me out, because I was working so hard before and I came back and was doing it in a much easier way, but no one noticed. So that s when I learned that as long as you mean it, as long as you are singing it, people are going to enjoy that part of it. It s so much better than someone trying to scream notes because they think they have to belt them and they re cracking and worrying and things like that. That s not what singing is about. See Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh s bion on p

USA WESTBOUND LCL SAILING SCHEDULES

USA WESTBOUND LCL SAILING SCHEDULES RECEIVING CUT A WESTBOUND LCL ROUTING / FREQUENCY SAILS SAILING ALBUQUERQUE NM Via New York / Weekly Saturday London Gateway 25 days New York ATLANTA GA Via New York / Weekly Saturday London Gateway 20