Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 11:51:05 EST
Subject: Open letter/was: Re: Vocalist Topics/lengthy
To: DANIaka007-at-aol.com, vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>


In a message dated 1/28/00 9:55:30 AM, DANIaka007-at-aol.com writes:

<< i THINK that teenqueen is right. I really really really Like Mariah
Carey,
Celine Dion, and people like them!!!! I think they VERYVERYVERYVERYVERYVERY
talented and worht SOME credit...even if you don't like them at ALL!! >>

Dear Danielle and other young singers and posters,

You and TeenQueen are as welcome to your opinions as anyone else on this
list or anywhere else in the world. No one here is upset by whom you like or
don't like. You very well may not admire those whom others admire. That is
called being human. This list, as I understand it, though, is not for that
sort of discussion -- but rather for more intense conversation about singers'
technique, etc. -- whether pop, broadway, classical recitalist, or opera.

The reason I am writing this to the list and not just to you privately is
that many of us here are singers AND studio teachers AND school teachers. I
teach students in a school, as well as private students in a studio. Every
day I have whole roomfulls of singers from ages 12 to 18. All of them are
"regular" kids. They have their own opinions about everything...and of
course they have opinions about music and singing. My focus with them is to
use their own voices with as healthy a production as possible, whether they
are singing alone or with a group. Some of them adore the same singers that
you do, but they come to me with questions about how those singers do what
they do, and I am honest with them. I ask them to observe what happens when
some singers perform, and to see when they are tense or seem to be pushing
too hard. These kids are smart -- just like YOU -- and they know what to
look for. At the same time, I am an adult who remembers what it was like to
be younger. I respect their choices in music, as I do the way they feel
about clothes or books or movies or religion or politics. But my work is
singing -- as it is for the folks on Vocalist. Therefore: when our work is
singing, and our objective is good, healthy, in-tune singing, that's what we
talk about. I can enjoy listening to someone who occasionally does something
wrong vocally, but I know enough not to imitate. That is what this
discussion is about. In class with these students, I would never get into an
argument about who is whose "favorite". What would that prove? As budding
adults, my students need to learn tolerance for others' opinions and
discernment where their listening is concerned. I'm proud of their growing
maturity in those areas. They are creative and talented. They ask terrific
questions, and asking questions is a good use of this list, as well.

Talk about diverse tastes -- My daughter is 20 years old and is studying to
be an opera singer...but I know that her CD shelves are filled with Ben Folds
Five and old Joni Mitchell CDs, as well as with Renee Fleming and Sumi Jo.
My belief is that she learns from all that she hears.

Here on Vocalist teachers and singers can ask and answer questions about
singing and repertoire and performance and all the related topics...and those
of us who sing and teach for a living can read to our hearts' content when we
come home from those pursuits. Perhaps it is because of that philosophy of
thinking (learning and studying and teaching) that many think that saying who
"likes" and "dislikes" whom without going on to make it a technique,
repertoire, or performance discussion seems somewhat unproductive here.

Wishing you and all young singers who post here much luck in your singing,
listening, and enjoyment of music!

Sincerely,
Lynda Lacy, Soprano, St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral
Director of Choral Activities, Jackson Prepartory School *(out for ice today)
Jackson, MS
LYNDA313-at-aol.com