Dear Listers,
I had an interesting experience yesterday as I judged a NATS competition for the first time. It was a last minute decision by Steve Austin(who was very ill)to ask me to judge in his place. I was honored that he asked me and glad to allow him some needed rest time.
The students I heard were all males from ages 17-22. I heard several excellent young baritiones with tons of potential. For the most part they all sang with a pretty stable laryngeal postion and good vowels. This was great to hear from young voices- and says that there is some fine teaching going on around here.
One of the contestants did however surprise me. He was a young man (I think 18)who announced that he was going to sing "Che faro." So, I thought great, he'll sing it in the regular key an octave lower like Tito Schipa used to. Well, when he started the aria on e natural I knew he would be singing it as a countertenor-and I became excited at this prospect.
Well lets just say that he sang MANY wrong notes(often way out of the key) and had a pronounced wobble which got worse as he added intensity and pitch. By the time he was done I still had not started writing because I didn't know WHERE to start. I was concerned for the vocal health of this boy. When he bid us goodbye he could barely phonate the words and was extremely raspy.
I wrote on his comment sheet that he should train his 'natural' range first- before moving into countertenor rep. And that in order to be a countertenor musical skills must be exceptional. In the most diplomatic way possible I wrote that his top voice was unsteady and unhealty. Each of us who judged this guy gave him a rather low grade and told him that the technique needed much improvement.
As I said, I heard many fine voices. But, since yesterday I have not been able to get this countertenor-gone-wrong out of my head. He's probably just following his teacher's instruction, trying to be a good student. I'm sure we've all be in these situations before. If so- please share.
Take Care All,
Taylor L. Ferranti Doctoral Candidate in Vocal Pedagogy Louisiana State University
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