Tag Archives: live performance

Performing with Opera Australia

I had the pleasure of preparing the children’s choir for the touring production of Don Giovanni with Opera Australia. It was a lot of fun working with a group of 15 enthusiastic young singers, a lot who were my vocal students. They had a very short rehearsal run, with me teaching the music and the actual stage rehearsal was with Opera Australia for 1 hour the day before, and 1 hour the day of the performance. The children learnt so much and it was an awesome opportunity for them to work with a professional company.

If you are interested in learning to sing, these sorts of opportunities are what make it happen.  Some of my students have already performed multiple times this year.  With Opera Australia, with local music theatre groups, with their school choir, and some will be performing next week in Singing Strong’s mid year showcase.

These children are getting out there and raking up the many hours of practice that it takes to learn their craft.  As I have said many times, the only way to get better at performing is to practice performing.

Taylor Swift has been performing since she was 12 years old.  Her parents were very helpful in getting opportunities for her to perform, but it still took the effort of getting out and practicing performing. She wrote over 100 songs before she even started going to record labels to get a deal.  She practices her craft.

How are you practicing your craft? When was the last time you practiced singing?

Here is an exercise video to get you started right now:

 

 

Sienna Spiro and nodules

Sienna Spiro is a new artist that is making her mark on the music scene at the moment.

She is British, and still young, just 20 years old.

She might be most well known with her song “Die on this hill”, and she also has a song in the movie Devil wears Prada 2 “Material Lover”. Her pop, jazz, funk style is great to listen to and she is great at writing her songs.  She is influenced heavily by the musicians of the 60’s.

Sienna has nodules.  This is usually something that singers are concerned about getting, as it does affect your singing. When I first heard Sienna speak, I was genuinely concerned about her voice. It is incredibly husky, but I would think people find this sound appealing. As a singing teacher I would be concerned about this damage to the voice.

However Sienna doesn’t want surgery and is making the most of what she has got, saying she is working with a vocal coach so that she can continue to sing safely.  You can hear it in her singing at times, the voice simply fails.  Sienna is using this to her advantage, creating a very unique voice with her vocal style. She has great delivery of her music, singing with emotion and passion.

Sienna just released a live recording of her song “Pure” and you can hear the rawness of her voice.

What do you think? Watch and listen below.