News – UPDATE

[Update: the new CD, Forever Sing, was released on May 7 by Affetto Records (distributed by Naxos), and is available at iTunes, Amazon, and all other download sites.]

​I am relieved, gratified, and excited (don’t forget tired) as we completed all but one of the recording sessions for the upcoming CD – as yet untitled, but devoted to Psalms, with a short final group of Gospel music and hymns, to be captured next month with the help of Donald Dumpson. Last month, we recorded Sowerby, Freed, and MacDermid, with the wonderful organist Noel Werner. This week, my long-time, peerless piano collaborator JJ Penna and I completed Psalm settings of Dvoràk, Honegger, Rubbra, and Laurie Altman. The brilliant Sam Ward engineered the sessions for John Baker’s label, Affetto Records.

I’ll admit to bias, but this project is perhaps the most exciting of all, everything considered. I am so grateful to be in wonderful voice these days, better able than ever before to serve the art and imagination. Singing is surely a joy!

Singing Today

Sensations and levels of awareness must be constantly updated, as they change according to degree of energy/fatigue, emotional attitude, vocal condition, physical health, etc. What does not change are the essential truths of physiology and acoustics. Let your daily warm-up be guided by consistent goals based on those facts, and your most basic engagement of technique – not to over-control and create tensions.

Determine to be aware of how it feels to sing today. You will then be able to coordinate your vocalism based on today’s variables. Over time, you will gain more and more consistency and skill. You will also become a more effective and imaginative artist, less distracted by the struggle of wrongly applied techniques, due to operating on yesterday’s assumptions.