From Our Teacher I want to congratulate all of you singers for a wonderful performance recently, “An Opera/Music Theater Cabaret”. It was stunning with lovely costumes/ set, creative staging and beautiful singing! The audience loved it! Thanks, to all! Our summer session consists of lessons when you are here and I am available. I should be here most of the summer, so feel welcome to come when you can. I encourage at least 4-6 lessons during the summer.We are working with muscles, so it is important to keep these muscles exercised and strengthened thru summer lessons. Note: Fall lessons will begin Wednesday, September 19th. Happy Summer! -Karolyn Student Resources: Supplemental Warm-Ups for the Practice Room As promised in a previous issue of our Voices Unlimited Newsletters, we present to you a list of vocal exercises as recommended by Classical Singer magazine. Part of the fun of singing is experimenting with our voice (in the healthiest ways, of course) to unlock our truest and most beautiful sounds. Karolyn has given us many fine exercises for our individual voices, and these videos are here to supplement our warm up repertoire. Overall warmup & tone production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Q5hS7eukUbQ Work on the sound your singing voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtM2EM8HMdY Improve your breathing for singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvb9jQm_GVs Clarify your vowels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QREIsiCVWWI Intonation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBPPOCPByTE Vocal range: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwC4qfpZLoo I hope you find these links helpful. Happy practicing! Student Spotlight: Margie Camp Margie is the Administrative Director and directs the TrebleMakers and Choristers for Young Voices of Colorado. She is on the music education faculty at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she teaches the music methods classes and supervises student teachers. Mrs. Camp taught public school music for 30 years and retired from the Cherry Creek School District in 2004 after spending 15 years as choir director at Campus Middle School. Mrs. Camp also served the Cherry Creek School District as the music coordinator. Margie is SWACDA Past President and has been Program Chair for the SWACDA 2008, and 2016 Conferences as well as for the 2018 and 2020 Conferences. She has served both Colorado ACDA and Colorado Music Educators Association in many leadership capacities. Margie has served as clinician, adjudicator and director for workshops, contests and honor choirs throughout the United States. Prior to coming to Colorado, Margie taught in San Antonio. While in Texas, she served the Texas Choral Director’s Association as Secretary/Treasurer and was on the board of Texas Music Educator’s Association. Mrs. Camp received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Trinity University, her Master of Music from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and her Specialist in Education from the University of Colorado at Denver. Margie was recently inducted into the Colorado Music Educators Hall of Fame.
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Voices Unlimited Presents AN OPERA/MUSICAL THEATRE CABARET Featuring the voice students of Karolyn Aldrich with Jane MacQueen, Accompanist Sunday, May 20th, 2018 at 4:00 pm At Young Voices of Colorado 99 Inverness Drive East, Suite 150 Englewood, CO 80112 Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door or in advance via PayPal Performers, please arrive by 11:00 that morning for set up, organizing costumes, and putting some finishing touches on our performances. Karolyn will provide lunch! We will also have a staging rehearsal on May 5th from 1:00-4:00 at Young Voices of Colorado. This will be a wonderful opportunity to refine our performances and share some time together as a studio. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with Karolyn! Student Spotlight: Kristen Wynkoop & Molly Longaker Kristen Wynkoop- Kristen has loved music ever since she was little. Her music journey informally began when she would sing Disney princess’ songs at the top of her lungs while doing various household chores. Formally, however, it began with piano, which she played for seven years before she added violin. Through college she studied music along with playing in the first violin section of the Flatirons Community Orchestra. Because music had such positive impact on her life, she decided to share this love with others. She has now been teaching at a local studio and out of her home for over six years. Kristen just recently dusted off her “Disney princess” started taking voice lessons. She is beyond excited to explore this new facet of music. Molly Longaker- Molly has loved to sing since she was young. She started performing in the second grade when she participated in her first talent show and continued to participate in the talent shows through the 5th grade. When she started middle school she tried out for all of the musicals. She was was Thing number 1 in the 6th grade musical Suesical, a story teller in Shrek the 7th grade musical and this year as an 8th grader she was Alice in the musical The Addams Family. Molly’s favorite day of the week is Wednesday as this is the day she has voice lessons with Karolyn. A Thought on Music:
“The reason you dance and sing is to make the audience feel like they are dancing and singing. As long as you’re having fun with it and giving a hundred percent, they’re gonna feel that” -Heath Ledger Healthy Practice: Tips on how to get the most out of your practice time 1.) Stretch and Warm Up DAILY It is recommended that vocalists, well, vocalize for at least 10-25 minutes each day to keep their instrument in consistent health. Karolyn has given many fine vocal exercises to each of us to warm and stretch our voices, improve our breath, and clarify our vowels and intonation. 2.) Organize your practice sessions Most musicians will sit down in a practice room and work through one piece or one phrase over, and over, and over again until it has reached perfection in one sitting. It makes sense to practice this way, but there is a better way to organize that valuable practice room time. When we sing or play a phrase over and over, our brains become bored with the repetition-- we are no longer engaged in the music being made. And more often than not, the next time a musician will sit down in a practice room, all of that hard work will seem to have disappeared overnight. No wonder practicing can be such a drag! Instead, select 2-3 phrases from 2-3 songs you are working on, and practice each of those selections for only a few minutes at a time, jumping around to each song. A general example of how you could break that practice time down: 3 minutes- Phrase A 3 minutes-Phrase B 3 minutes-Phrase C 3 minutes-Phrase B 3 minutes- Phrase A 3 minutes- Phrase C This type of practicing style allows your brain, and therefore your instrument, to remain continually engaged. Not only does an engaged brain make practicing more fun, an engaged brain is more likely to process and retain all of the progress that was made, paving the way for even more progress to be made through the following practice sessions. 3.)Track your Progress In order to keep your focus and motivation going, you need to know where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to go. In order to keep improving, we need to find a way to track our progress and reflect on how to keep moving forward. Ideas for this include:
-We must use our practice time wisely. Unlike other instrumentalists, we can’t be working in the practice room for hours on end. Our instruments, though powerful, are exceedingly delicate. Listen to your body, pay attention to your instrument, rest when it is feeling tired. Arguably, the most important practice we perform is that of self-care. -So much of a vocalist’s practicing doesn’t involve any vocalizing at all! We listen to other artists’ recordings. We write out and speak through the diction of a piece. We research the music; the story behind the piece, the character we are trying to portray, the meaning behind the poetry. We think through the performance choices we want to make to connect with our audience. These practices give our singing so much more depth and meaning. Hopefully these tips will help your personal practice sessions. Now, go practice! A Very Important Date… Performers and audience members! Mark your calendars! We will be having our Opera & Musical Theatre review the weekend of May 19th. We are honored to be working with the incredible Jane MacQueen as our accompanist for this performance. Details on time and venue will come soon! Student Spotlight: Amelia Carson A student at the Denver School of the Arts, Amelia is a young woman with a fiery passion for music and performance. Her choral experience includes her participation in both City Wide and All State Middle School Honor choirs, and is currently a member of the choral group Allegro Voce at DSA. Amelia has had the pleasure of taking part in summer performance programs with the Manhattan School of Music (Margot in Legally Blonde, Jr. and Ensemble in Into the Woods, Jr.) and Berklee College of Music. With The Studio School in Northglenn, Amelia performed in such roles as Nicely Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, Jr. and Mama Bear in Shrek, Jr., to name a few. Aside from her already vast music and performance experience, Amelia is also the president and sole proprietor of Clef Candies, where she works in partnership with Hammonds Candies, distributing their delectable treats to finance summer music and education opportunities. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Amelia to our Voices Unlimited family! A thought on Music: “Every day, you wake up, you thank God for the gift you have been given, and you go to work” -Dr. Robert McIver, Eastman School of Music, in regards to practicing. Christmas Cabaret – Thank You! We wanted to share our thanks and appreciation to all of our Voices Unlimited students and audience members who made our Christmas Cabaret such a delightful event. What a fantastic way to ring in the holiday season! Welcome, New Students Our studio is growing! This month, we are thrilled to welcome the voices of Amelia Carson and Hillary Menke to the studio family. Looking Ahead As is our studio tradition, Voices Unlimited will be hosting an Opera/Musical Theatre Review! For students, this is a fantastic opportunity to dive into new repertoire, and to more fully explore new characters and stories through performance. For audience members, it will be an enchanting evening of your most favorite pieces of music from both the opera and musical theatre stages. Coming this May! More details will follow. About the Students: Hillary Menke- Hillary had the honor of working with Karolyn all through high school and into college. She studied vocal performance at Colorado State University, enjoying such roles as Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone, and Lady Saphir in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience. After two and a half years of singing these grand, sweeping pieces of music, Hillary came to the realization that her true calling in life is to sing simple nursery rhymes and tell stories to little children. She has found a happy home working as one of the Kindergarten teachers at Mountain Sage Community School, a Waldorf inspired K-8 in Fort Collins. After four years, and a happy stroke of fate, Hillary found her way back to the music world, and finally reconnected with Karolyn. She can hardly begin to express her delight and gratitude to be making music with this fabulous studio once again. A Thought on Music: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before” –Leonard Bernstein |
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