Sam Meredith Master class 10/22

Jake Spjute- I noticed that Jake's posture was pretty good for his performance today. There were, however some times when his shoulders were very involved in the breath. There were also some times when the timbre was slightly covered in the upper register. These two things could very possibly be related. One thing I noticed regarding intonation was that some of the consonants were a little under the pitch and so he had to scoop up a little bit to get to the right pitch when I moved to a vowel. The diction was solid. The vowels were clear and honest. I thought the expression was pretty good, but I also think he did a good job applying Cindy's council to let the part of the piece that moves him the most determine how he sings the rest of the piece.
Luke Shepherd-I thought the breathing in the performance was great. He didn't have any problems holding on to the ends of phrases and I didn't notice any high breaths. He had a warm timbre, which fit this piece very well. I did notice that it was a little closed in the lower range, though. The intonation was mostly good, but there were some times when the pitch would be a little bit too low at the beginning of words starting with the letter 'l'. The diction was great. The words were clear and I thought all of the diphthongs were smooth and precise. The expressive quality of the music was also very present in both the aural and physical presentation of the piece, which I really enjoyed. Wonderful work!
Laura Berg-I noticed that there were some gaspy catch breaths in Laura's performance today. I think that led to a few problems with intonation. The timbre of her voice was also inconsistent in the beginning. On shorter note values it seemed to be a little punchy and harsh. When she had more time to sing the note, however, her rich tone returned. I was glad that Cindy was aware of this and gave her some good strategies on how to fix it. Laura did a wonderful job applying her council and it sounded much better after that. I thought she did a pretty good job expressing the emotion of this piece so once the problems with timbre were fixed it was a lovely performance.