Sarah Boucher's VRH Critiques 9/12

Sarah Boucher VRH Critiques 9/12
Sam Meredith:
His breathing was fairly quiet but his body was very stiff. This stiffness in his body made it so his breathing was very high, "bucket" not "balloon". I liked that his body was still as he sang but he had tiny bits where his upper body swayed back and forth. He has a nice rich, resonant sound to his low notes. On higher notes I noticed that the sound was a bit pinched. He was not letting his vibrato go and so the notes tended to sound a bit flat and the tone not as rich. He needs to try to gain that same sound that he has in the low range into those higher notes. His pronunciation seemed very clear and his memory work was solid. I think that Sam's voice is overall pleasing to listen to but he could have given more expression. He tended to look at the floor and his eyes lacked a focus and a story.
Sara Low:
Sara's breathing was very shallow and bucket like. She seemed to hold a lot of tension in her shoulders and back, which inhibited her breathing. Her sound lacked resonance and seemed swallowed. I thought that she had more nasal presence in the high notes of the piece than any other part. I liked the strong "qwa" she had on Quando, but wish she had applied that to the rest of the words in the piece, for example I could have used more V on via. I think she had a good idea of what she was singing about but she was going through the motions rather than being her character.
Laura Berg:
Laura demonstrated some good breathing techniques. She had some very "balloon" like breaths that were quiet. She needs to work on how to budget her breath because although she takes good breaths most of the time, by the end of some of her phrases her breath was clearly running out. When she started to run out of breath her sound became pressed and a tad flat. She has a very warm tone of voice that is nice to listen to and I found it fairly consistent from top to bottom. I noticed that she used her jaw to negotiate pitch on a higher run. She seemed very confident with the words and her pronunciation was clear. She put her hands on her pockets, which allowed for the chest to open up. Although this may have helped her breathing it was distracting to me and looked a bit weird. Also, she would occasionally conduct the piano with her right hand. She had a great presence  when she began, very energized and grounded.