I practiced today!  Well, I have a gig coming up so, of course, I had to practice that music.  But I also practiced other music, music that I wanted to sing.  I felt the urge to pull out “Azulao” by Ovalle and the Rachmaninoff Vocalise.  Why?  Because, even though there was no one listening, I felt the need to offer it up to the gods and goddesses of music as a kind of oblation.  These pieces are pure deep love.  To sing them is devotion not only to the gods but also to me, my voice, my spirit.  I felt the need to obliterate Resistance today and just sing, damn it!  I did it with this attitude because I read Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art this week.

Oh Steven Pressfield, how do you know me so well?  Someone gave me this book to read some months ago and I finally picked it up and read it this week.  This little book is a great kick in the pants, for sure, but it is much more than that.  Pressfield’s thesis is that if we all had the courage and fortitude to follow our dreams, the world would be free of all sorts of evils like war.  In short, if we fight the war against our inner Resistance, then we won’t have to fight the wars, both imagined and real, in the outer world.

So, I just wanted to say:  THANK YOU!  Thank you to the gods and goddesses who inspire me to sing every day.  Thank you to my job that demands that I sing every day.  Thank you to my family and neighbors who have to listen to me screech away some days to perfect a particularly difficult passage.  Thank you to all my comrades in arms.  Thank you to all the poets and composers who freely give me my canvases.  Thank you to whomever made this body of mine that can sing.  Thank you to all my teachers and mentors who continue to encourage me to perfect my craft. Thank you to whomever gave me this book (sorry I can’t remember). Thank you most of all, today, to Steven Pressfield, a fellow warrior. I feel less alone in the world because of you!

Singing matters.  Really, all music matters.  The eternal question is:  why?  In a brilliant and insightful article on the mysteries of music, I highly recommend Adam Gopnik’s article in the most recent New Yorker Magazine (January 28, 2013) entitled:  ”Music to Your Ears, The quest for 3-D recording and other mysteries of sound”.

Several points in the article resonated with me:  one is the all-consuming pull of music that leads an individual to dedicate an entire lifetime to its study.  I don’t just mean musicians, but also those who study the why of music, those who study the acoustics of music, those who study how the brain processes music and those who write about it in The New Yorker.

Here are some of the ideas in the article that either inspired or confronted me:

* Listening and wanting to hear something are “intricately entangled”.  We can measure the physics of listening but not the desire of the listener.

*McGill University has some amazing researchers that have proven things like the pain relieving power of music. The researcher, Daniel Levitin’s studies are small but definitive.  ”We’re only taking these little thimblefulls of knowledge from the great sea of music,” he said. “But what we know now we really know. We’re not guessing, or just assuming, or just asserting things about the way these expressive dimensions work, or how universal they can be shown to be.  We really know.”  How exciting!  What amazing implications for musicians and humanity alike!

*No matter how perfect and sublime the technology can reproduce music, it is in the human touch complete with its imperfections that we find meaning.  ”The two expressive dimensions who force in music Levitin had measured and made mechanical were defections from precision.  Vibrato is a way of not quite landing on the note; rubato is not quite keeping perfectly to the beat.  Expressiveness is error.”  … “Levitin could show that what really moves us in music is the vital sign of human hand, in all its unsteady and broken grace.  (Too much imperfection and it sounds like a madman playing; too little, and it sounds like a robot.) Ella singing Gershwin matters because Ella knows when to make the words warble, and Ellis Larkins knows when to make the keyboard sign.  The art is the perfect imperfection.”  Oh Adam, your writing makes my heart flutter!

* A point is made about how we listen to music.  Sound studies professor at McGill, Jonathan Sterne, the author of “MP#: The Meaning of a Forman” says, “I don’t see the grand synthesis of one truth of hearing….Human ears aren’t natural reflectors of sound in the world.  They are themselves these transducers that make reality—the perception of sound is not a mirror of nature.  Therefore, perception in a way makes sounds, and it makes sounds differently from a microphone and a computer detecting vibrations out in the world.”  So, a strong argument for live, non-amplified music.  This article at several times brushes the topic of how electronic, poorly recorded or two-dimensional sound actually causes stress in the listener.  Live music is still more powerful and effective than reproduced music.

*Something sad and to be addressed is this: “…in all but a handful of aberrant cases nobody sits down to listen to music.”

Please read this article and let me know what strikes you!

Tonight at The Gardenia 7066 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood 9 pm

Both Kristof Van Grysperre and Susan Kane hold doctorates in music from from distinguinshed conservatories:  Kristof from USC, and Kane from the Cincinnati Convervatory of Music.  This show, directed by Belgian film director, Lieven Debrauwer, has been presented at the Tinnenpot Theatre in Ghent, and made its Los Angeles premiere at The Gardenia in October, where it stunned those in attendance through the sheer musical command of these two performers.  

Scripted as farce, its storyline serves as a clever vehicle to present such divergent yet juicy fare as material from Sondheim’s Company along with selections from Piaf and Puccini to Betty Boop to the piloerecting Flower Duet from Lakmé—perhaps even more affecting heard in the intimacy of The Gardenia than at The Walt Disney Concert Hall.  

Less “Ricky and Lucy go to the opera,” and more “Victor Borge and Anna Russell come to The Gardenia,” their show has an appeal that extends not only to regular Gardeniaphiles but also to any of the town’s classical music enthusiasts who appreciate a healthy dose of sophisticated musical humor.  (Tom Rolla, proprietor of Gardenia)

Gardenia 323-467-7444             Dinner from 7pm & Showtime 9pm

TICKETS:              $15 (door), $12 (reservations)

$9 (students/seniors)/Min 2 drinks

Please join my partner, Kristof, and I at the MBar in Hollywood.  One night only!  Kristof & Kane will perform their classical cabaret show:  Duel Duet, directed by famed Belgian film director Lieven Debrauwer.  Lots of fun and superb music all in one show!  7:00 pm dinner, 8:00 pm show.  Please call 323-856-0036 for reservations.

Calling all classical singers who need a little guidance after graduation.

Classical singers are facing significant changes in the workplace.  There are more opportunities to perform than ever before.  There are also more resources to help singers than ever before.  The trick is to find your place in the world as a singer.

The process of taking inventory of your self as an artist and human being is essential before you begin to market yourself to potential employers and/or audiences.  Unfortunately, most universities do not help singers through the process before graduation and afterwords they are on their own.

This workshop is here to bridge a few gaps:  the information gap, the gap of years between graduation and performance, and the experience gap.  Bridging the Gap Between the University and the Stage is not only a workshop but also an e-Book soon available at an affordable price for emerging artists in the classical singing world at: www.bookbaby.com.  Contact me for more information: susan@sensationalsinging.com.  

May this workshop and e-Book be a help and inspiration to you.  ~Susan Mohini Kane

Susan Mohini Kane

Endless Possibilities

The classical singer has more possibilities than ever before to develop a product and deliver it straight to an audience.  If you are trained in classical singing you know that your possible repertoire is endless.  From Dowland with lute in the garden to your stellar Star Spangled Banner sung a cappella, your choices are endless.  Your best friend from the conservatory can collaborate with you to play coffee houses or jazz clubs — yes, even with classical repertoire.  Check out Le Poisson Rouge www.lepoissonrouge.com to see that they book classical talent along side indie rock, jazz, poetry, etc.  Here on the west coast you can find many venues willing to book classical acts.  Here’s the question…do you have a classical act?  Well, it might be time to try to get your act together and take it on the road.  Check out a few other inspirational links such as Fractured Atlas www.fracturedatlas.com and Arts Journal www.artsjournal.com/lifesapitch/, especially Amanda Ameer’s blog called Life’s a Pitch. 

The empty chair is such a cool image.  I saw it outside my dentist’s office and thought it looked like a great stage.  I wanted to stand up there in front of an audience and sing something.  I hope it inspires you to get yourself out there and sing like it matters, because it does!