Mariah VRH 9/19

Mariah VRH 9/19
Luke Shepherd
From what I could hear through the door, Luke had a smooth, warm tone but wasn't quite as strong on his higher notes. For the master class, Thomas had Luke work on singing with the same voice he spoke with. He had Luke speak the lyrics how he would speak in a conversation. Then he had him speak the words slowly and asked where he felt his voice was centered when he spoke. When Thomas asked Luke to sing in what he thought was his "chest voice," Luke sounded amazing. His tone was ten times fuller and richer. Thomas also advised Luke to pay attention to having focused horizontal vowels which also helped Luke's overall sound. Thomas helped Luke with the expression of the song as well. He had Luke try to connect his love of musical theatre to this classical song to help him be just as inspired. He had Luke crescendo every phrase which increased the movement and expression. This really helped Luke to share the story with the audience.

Elizabeth Tate
Elizabeth had a rich and silken timbre, particularly on some of her higher notes. Her introduction of her name and song was a little rushed and her diction while singing wasn't very clear most of the time. One specific moment where her diction was a little off was when she was saying the word "I'm" and it seemed more like "am". She had some bucket breathing and I wondered if maybe her belt was keeping her from fully expanding her lower abdomen. During the master class, Thomas said that Elizabeth needed more commitment to the piece. He also said that she sang in different vocal positions throughout and he wanted to merge them into one. Thomas talked about two rules to follow. The first was that the breath must always be full and constant. You don't change your breath for the demands of the music. And secondly, he said that you need consistency of vowels. E is always e, ah is ah, and oo is oo. Thomas had Elizabeth sing the song just on oh and also worked on sliding from the lower notes to the higher notes. A few times, Elizabeth was able to create a very mature, feminine sound but other times she wasn't able to quite reach that full sound. If she continues with the exercise, I think she will be able to create that full tone more often.