Mariah MC 11/5

Mariah MC 11/5
Brad Summers: Brad had a rich timbre and low breaths, but he tended to hold his breath sometimes in between phrases. His first high note was disconnected, but his second one was more connected. His expression was there but somewhat vague and cut out completely during the interludes and at the end of the song. During masterclass, Cindy noted that he was dropping his voice at the end of a phrase while introducing his piece. Cindy helped him to decrease random, unconscious movement. She also had him do a presentation exercise where he would physically show the audience what he meant in the song. When Brad had more specific movements, it really freed up his voice. Trying extreme movements can help give ideas and life to the piece and then you can go back and decide which moves you will actually use in a real performance.
Luke Shepherd: Luke had a light, free timbre for this song. He started out a little tight but freed up quickly. His expression was confusing since I didn't know he was playing two people. It seemed very abrupt when he switched and I wasn't sure why he was doing that at first. He could use more specific images to help portray the message. He unconsciously moved his hands throughout the song by fiddling and clenching them a bit. He could drop his jaw more on [i] vowels. During masterclass, Cindy helped Luke with the expression for this song since it is so difficult. She asked Luke to think about how his character felt about hearing from the ghost and how often this happens. Maybe there could be a way to show when he was leaving and entering your body or just being very specific with the different characters. Cindy also helped Luke to focus more on strong and weak words and not really accent the stronger words but to have more energy for them. There was too much of an "uh" sound in the word "alive" and adding more "ah" really did help the resonance and it still sounded like "alive."
Sam Meredith: His introduction of his name and piece was pretty fast so he could slow that down a bit. I think he had a dark, nasally timbre but I'm not sure because they're kind of opposites of each other, but that's what it sounded like to me. He had low breaths but I think he could  expand them even more. His phrases were a little disconnected and the intonation on the last note was a little off. His neck seemed more released than some of his earlier performances so that was great improvement. In masterclass, Cindy helped him have more presence on the shorter notes. When he focused on that, he had a much more full and rich timbre. They also focused on rhythmic integrity to give more life to the piece.