There is a shortness to my breath. A bead of sweat drips down my forehead. My throat closes up. A pain appears in my chest. It’s tax season. Nothing stresses me out in this world more than doing my taxes. I would trade singing the most difficult baritone aria on opera’s biggest stage any day! … More Taxes for Musicians: A Beginner’s Guide for 2018
Nothing is as easy as it seems. Especially a career in the performing arts. It took me a long time to get to where I am today with the success that I have, and I worked my ass off. What we see in a performing artist is the end product of a long journey of … More That Time When I Was So Poor I Stole Food To Survive (and other starving artist stories)
Compared to other opera languages like French, German, English, Russian, Czech, etc., Italian seems easy. The language itself consists of only pure vowels, some of which are open and closed. There’s no mixed vowels like French or German, and no crazy consonants like Czech or Russian. And unlike English, for the most part, what you … More The Ultimate Hack for Singing your Best Italian
Life as an opera singer is hard. Our voices are precious instruments that can be affected by many unforeseeable factors. The pressure of performing complicated pieces of music in front of an audience can be overwhelming. Couple that with the treacherous life on the road, and you’ve been dealt a tough hand. Anything to make … More 21 Things Every Opera Singer Should Own
After 12 productions and 57 performances, I’ve come to learn a lot about Figaro, Figaro, Figaro. And yes, we’ve all seen the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Largo al factotum Boom! Singing Figaro is like getting shot out of a cannon! It starts out with the most challenging—and most recognizable—aria for baritones in the repertoire. Five sustained … More How I Role: Everyone’s Trusty Barber
You spend hours every day practicing. You put yourself out there for any and every opportunity. Your determination never falters and you have the drive to push through even the toughest moments. You experience a few setbacks as well as a couple of hard-earned accomplishments. You sacrifice things that most people don’t understand. And you … More What No One Tells You About Success As An Opera Singer
You’re about to sing an aria. Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy (cue “Lose Yourself” by Eminem), and even though the high note is minutes away, you’re already thinking about it. You loosen up your body and set up good posture. You begin to focus deeply and slip into character. Your pianist … More My Weird (But Effective!) Trick For Singing High Notes
From all my years of singing, conducting masterclasses, and listening to other singers, I’ve noticed a prevalent mistake that affects almost all singers. And there’s no judgement from my end because I was guilty of this mistake, too, early in my singing. So I’m only here to help and sympathize! Drumroll please… The biggest mistake … More The Biggest Mistake Young Opera Singers Make
My first audition for the Met was such a failure. I originally had a time slot for 3pm and the night before I was feeling under the weather so I planned to sleep hard. I got a last-minute call with my rescheduled audition time of 10am—yikes! I felt like I couldn’t say no. The audition … More Everything You Need To Know About Singing and Sickness
My Met debut was General Rayevsky in War and Peace at 29 years old. There were 52 soloists on stage, 346 people total, and I was given the option not to bow because there were so many people involved in the show. I never took it. I bowed every night with the cast stretched out … More What It’s Like To Sing At The Metropolitan Opera
The Baritone Blog 