Updated: Feb 26, 2022
Story of my life.
I am infected by a Great Idea. Enthusiastically run toward it with my tail wagging. Slam into a wall and get knocked down. Sit on the ground for a while and consider just staying down there where it’s safe. Haul my ass up and start moving forward again.
It happened with the Independent Voice Teachers Conference we were planning. I was so excited to have a conference for my kind, after 30 years of going it alone, that I let my enthusiasm get the better of me.
After running into the wall, and while sitting on the ground, I called my opera-singing friend Sheri to tell her I was depressed. She said, “At least you tried. Most people never even try."
That got me thinking about students I’ve had who have taken voice lessons forever and never taken the leap to actually get on a stage. And that got me thinking about how I went to college to become a singer because I thought that, somewhere along the way, the college would tell me how to be a singer.
It didn’t.
But after college, armed with my vocal performance degree that, it turned out, absolutely nobody gave a rip about, I soldiered forward with the intention of becoming a professional singer. I made a lot of mistakes. A lot of mistakes. I worked in a soul-sucking accounting office so I could sing in