Mary Beth wrote:
>Any suggestions on how to deal with this director would
be greatly appreciated.
I'm going to be completely useless on this score, as I
think a choral conductor who goes so far as to un-
recommend a teacher because of the result of solo voice
studies on "his" choral sound is unlikely to be swayed
by logical arguments about vocal health.
I think this is such a very important issue, though. I
know plenty of singers who have compromised their solo
voices by doing lots of pro choral gigs and being asked
to blend all the time. This is especially true in this
day and age of "historically accurate" (yeah, right -
prove it) performance styles and the excessive requests
for straight-tone singing.
Do your students have to be in the choir? I don't deny
the benefits to musicianship and the joys of music-
making that can take place in a choral context. I have
had lots of wonderful choral experiences in my time;
indeed, I have sung with some of the very best here in
New York. But there is no getting around the fact that,
in blending with other voices, one is doing exactly the
opposite of what one ideally does when one strives for
one's unique solo sound complete with squillo and a free
vibrato. If some of these students (especially larger-
voiced ones who have to compromise their sound more)
plan to go on to be voice majors, they might want to
think hard about the tradeoffs of being in the chorus.
And, for the record, I do very little choral singing
these days, even though there is good money to be made
at it, just for that reason.
Robin Lynne Frye
Mezzo-Soprano
Voice and Piano Teacher
New York, New York
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