Consider the following scenario: you decide to try out for your school musical. They announce that the auditions are just days away. They either give you a few excerpts from the show that they’d like everyone to prepare, or they tell you you can sing whatever you want. You’ve never had a voice lesson […]
We’ve all done them, or at the very least, heard them before: the endless patterns, scales, and weird noises that singers use as vocal warm-ups. While, to the untrained ear, we may sound like dying cats or like we’re screaming bloody murder, any experienced singer will tell you that warm ups are absolutely essential to […]
It takes a village, as they say. To make an artist, that is. These days, it’s essential that young artists have their “team:” the voice teacher, the rep coach, the acting coach, the dance instructor… the list could go on. In addition to comprising a great cheering section, each of these instructors and mentors […]
In our last post, we discussed the ins and outs of choral auditions – what to expect, how to prepare, and what directors are looking for. We discovered that one common aspect of choral auditions is that experience that virtually all singers dread: sight-reading. What is sight-reading? Sight-reading is when you are handed a […]
Have you ever seen those sketchy-looking Internet ads that pop up on those less-than-reputable websites? The ones that entice you with titles like, “Get rid of belly fat with this one weird trick!” or “The secret about preventing [health problem x] that doctors don’t want you to know!” It’s obvious to anyone with even a […]
Have you ever sat there in the audience, listening to a singer who maybe *sounds* good enough, but whose stage presence is just… awkward? I’m talking hapless, seemingly random gestures, a deer-in-headlights look, a wild lack of visual focus, and/or an obviously huge emotional disconnect from what they are singing about. Yes?
Summer is our favorite season here at Rising Stars – it means our camps and theater intensives are just around the corner! This year, we’re very excited to run THREE musical theater programs – the first, our Musical Theater Intensive for Homeschoolers, runs June 11-15 in Beverly, MA; the second, Rising Stars West, runs June […]
It’s no secret that it’s hard being an artist. What we do requires study, practice, discipline, self-sacrifice, emotional engagement – all things which are often absent from our instant-gratification-loving, technology-driven, modern, American culture. In a time when our society seems to consume ever-increasing amounts of cheap, thoughtless entertainment, the fine arts and the artists who […]