The Juilliard Years Part 2

The Juilliard Years....  One of the highlights into the second year,was an opportunity to sing in a Gerard Souzay masterclass.  What an honor it was for me to do that!!! I sang En Priere by Faure.  There were 5 singers that sang that day and I was third up.  I sang the En Priere, Mr. Souzay corrected me on some pronunciations of the French ,and said that he had nothing to say about it since he said that I knew the song better than he did!  I was the only singer to be called back to the stage and then tried singing Je dis que rien m'epouvante.  That was much harder because  at that time I was working with Cynthia Hoffman as a voice teacher, BIG MISTAKE, and  had no middle in the voice and no technique to assist with that. Ms. Hoffman was one of the worst teachers I have ever had, who cannot teach to save her life and took the color of my voice out, and made it ten times smaller that when I entered Juilliard.  How do you go from singing Pagliacci at 21 to almost nothing in 2 years?

Mr. Souzay certainly help boost my confidence and said that he hoped to see me one day singing in France.  I am still humbled and still hoping.

The Juilliard Years part 1

I began Juilliard ..being asked to sing in Evelyn Lear's Masterclass.  I sang in front of a full house and the aria was 'Stridono Lassu" from Pagliacci.  I remember being really nervous, because now I felt I had to really prove something.  Boy, was it proven to me how much I needed to "let go."  Ms. Lear was gracious and kind, and at the time I was starting lessons with Edith Bers... oh boy, my first mistake...but continued studying with her thinking that I couldn't really do anything about it.

 At that time, in the same voice studio with me was Audra McDonald.  I remember us having lunch together and having bitch sessions about how bad the lessons were and how we wanted to do something about that. 

Ok... back to the master class...LOL...

During the time that sang in the aria, Ms. Lear stopped me and acted like Canio, and said,"I will kill you..." this brought back a huge flashback of a not so good childhood and I broke down and cried...she hugged me and asked if I was ok...I said yes...and continued...She asked me sing the entire aria again without stopping and after I was done, I  had a standing ovation.

People still write to me about this and I learned how to release the voice maybe for the first time...really the first time in my life.  I knew what it really was to be in the moment of singing and using my voice and giving it permission to be really seen as truth. 

Evelyn Lear, and the President of Juilliard and many people congratulated me in the President's office, all claiming that they will see me at the MET...

Little did I know that life would take many twists and turns to make this happen!