Video Steven Kaplan Lesson January 2013

This is a full length lesson from my friend Steven Kaplan. While Steven lives out in Hawaii, quite a ways from Pittsburgh, we share a great long-distance friendship based on our mutual love for musical and classical singing in particular. We also share the same voice teacher, Maestro Daniel Teadt. While I have the pleasure of being able to study with the Maestro in person, Steven studies over Skype. I was pleasantly astonished to see that not much was lost in translation in that format and I have had the pleasure of seeing Steven make leaps and bounds in progress. It should be noted that Steven has a great advantage in that he has been singing with choruses for many years and thus from a musical standpoint is far more advanced than I am.

Videos Classical Voice Lesson #28

Working on Una Furtiva Working on Amarilli mia Bella Yo Ya Ya Yo Resonating with Z

Oberkantor Estranga Nachama

Born 1918- 2000
Estrongo Nachama,

Vigorous to the last, eyes always glimmering, his voice scarcely affected by age, Mr. Nachama exuded the passion for life of a man who had seen the worst horrors and come through.

He was an Auschwitz survivor, spared because his voice pleased the SS guards, who particularly enjoyed his rendering of ''O Sole Mio.''

His family, all sent to Auschwitz after the Nazis took control of northern Greece, where Mr. Nachama was born, was less fortunate. His parents, a sister and many relatives were all killed by the Nazis at the camp.

While forever marked by this loss, Mr. Nachama was an inveterate optimist of seemingly boundless energy.

On his 80th birthday, he declared, ''I will sing for as long as God allows me'' -- and he did, coaching bar mitzvah students until the day before his death.

''He was one of the absolutely critical people in terms of the rebuilding of the Jewish community in Berlin,'' said Tom Freudenheim, the deputy director of the city's Jewish museum. ''Before the wall fell, he would cross to the East with a special pass to conduct services there. In his day, his voice was famous well beyond this city.''

In 1947, when Mr. Nachama became cantor, the Jews of Berlin had almost all departed or died. Today, with the Jewish population swollen by an influx of Jews from Russia and other Central and Eastern European countries, about 12,000 people are registered members of the Jewish community and several thousand more are known to live here.

Estrongo Nachama was born in Salonika, Greece, the son of a prosperous grain merchant. He was to have taken over the family business, but the Nazis sent his entire family to Auschwitz in 1943.

A splendid tenor, Mr. Nachama earned the nickname ''the singer of Auschwitz.'' His voice saved his life. When the camp was closed in 1945, Mr. Nachama was pressed into a ''death march'' back to Germany. Sick with typhoid, he was ultimately freed by Soviet troops near Berlin in 1945.

On his recovery, he planned to take a train back to Greece. But he grew close to a Christian family that had taken him in and quickly became active in what was left of the Jewish community. In the end, he never left.

His voice became well known in the city and was broadcast on Friday nights by the radio service in the American sector of Berlin. He worked tirelessly for an improved understanding between Jews and Christians and became one of the first prominent German Jews to attend church congresses.

When, last September, Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel became the first foreign leader to visit Germany after the government moved back to Berlin, Mr. Nachama was at his side during a service at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near the capital. His voice rising over the bleak scene of horror was one of tremulous beauty.

Mr. Nachama is survived by his wife, Lily, a son, Andreas, who is the leader of the city's Jewish community, and two grandchildren.

Video: Classical Voice Lesson #24

Video: Jan Peerce Biography

A biography in 6 videos of the great Jan Peerce (1904-1984). One of the greatest voices of the century, he was highly achieved on the Opera stage, on Broadway, at the cantorial pulpit of the synagogue, in popular music and of course as a family man. One of my greatest influences in both opera as well as in the cantorial arts.

The 7th video is a recording of Jan conducted by Toscanini himself, accompanied by the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the Westminster Choir. The 8th and final video is Peerce's performance of classic cantorial piece "Rochel Mevakoh"

Video: Working on Amor ti Vieta, lesson #23

Classical Voice Lesson #22 videos

Just to sum up where I'm holding, I've gotten the high Bb pretty much down, which of course means I have learned how to emit covered sound, since that happens somewhere around F#... and you know Dan would never allow me to go up there ... uncovered? Which brings me to the fact that I haven't a clue why it's called "covered". A different term used is the voice "turns over" which is more understandable because it reflects the sensation felt when covering.

My challenges now (not to imply there aren't many more to deal with later) are twofold. One is that I need learn to anticipate the F# so that I turn the voice over just before it. As it is, I hit the note and go "uh oh, can't hit it that way" and then switch over... let's just say it's not pretty. The exception is when I'm singing a piece I know, because then I know from past runs of the song or aria where I need to turn over. The 2nd issue is simply gaining confidence in my ability to go into the upper register. It's coming along and ultimately I think it's just a matter of getting used to it. In the upper register there's a sort of floating in mid-air, free fall feeling... hard to explain. Very thrilling, just takes getting used to because sometimes it feels like someone else singing through your body. Although whoever he is I do like his voice and I think he has a great Squillo (that bright, shimmery, soaring thing in the upper notes). Never knew I had that... in general I guess that's one of the interesting things in all this is that you sort of grow up thinking of your voice in a certain way and having this preconception of what it is and what it sounds like and then you sound very different, albeit good different.

Starting to work on Un'aura Amorosa


Warming up with Hoot & MM NG


Ah oo ah to bridge the passaggio


Working the passaggio


Working the mask


Consistent breath support

Video: Jerome Hines Interview

The great American bass, Jerome Hines, was a regular at the Met for over 50 years. After a vocal problem that nearly ended his career, he became a prolific student of technique and later one of the great teachers of opera in America. He authored an amazing book called "Great Singers on Great Singing" which features his interviews with many of the top talent of the mid to late 20h century, including Pavarotti, Domingo, Corelli, Horne, Sutherland, Gedda, Albanese and more. He asks them all similar questions related specifically to technique. Covered vs uncovered singing, how they approach the passaggio, how they warm up, how they approach breath support and singing in the mask, etc. I highly recommend this book to those who take joy in the intricacies of classical singing technique.

Here are 2 videos of Jerome hines. The first is an interview where he speaks of his journey, opera in the past and opera today. This interview was around 1997, which would place him as a strapping young lad of about 76 years old. The second video is his final public performance at 80 years old in which he amazingly sounds much like he always did despite the fact that his strength had visibly deteriorated (likely due in part to the then recent passing of his wife of many years, coloratura soprano Lucia Evangelista). Looks like all that vocal technique study did him quite some good. He sings the part of the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, a part he was well known for.

Una Furtiva Lagrima Progress - lesson #22

I think it's come a long way from lesson #10. Support is more consistent and I'm learning to cover the sound, giving me more immediate and easier access to the notes above the passaggio that have more brilliance to them. One thing that really needs improvement, is opening the "ahs" so they sound like "ahs" and less like "ohs". There is a reason that almost every brilliant high note in classical singing is written on an "ah" because that vowel simply has a brilliance and shine that other vowels don't have. Often even when a note is written as "oh" it is sung as "ah".. take for examplein Che gelida Manina, the words "chi son" and you will notice they are often sung as "chi sahn".. anyway, it's something to work on in upcoming weeks, I know how to do it, just have remember to do it and turn it into a habit. When you get to the upper notes, the ah becomes more of an oh and what keeps it an ah is the "surriso", the smile of the upper mouth. That smile is in fact what probably makes that vowel so brilliant on the upper notes and that is what I am forgetting to do. Some notes are a bit uncontrolled, but I think that is to be expected. The more time one spends above the passaggio, the more he/she will come to control those notes... and of course it is the barely controlled hanging-by-a-thread element that makes those notes so exciting in the first place. Also need to work on transitioning through the passaggio more smoothly but that is a known difficult area for tenors (maybe to all voice types) so not gonna worry about that too much just yet....videos of the exercises from that lesson coming soon...

Video: Pavarotti Masterclasses