Post by rick on May 30, 2012 16:00:15 GMT -5
Here on the Forum, we sometimes discuss such reality show competitions as "American Idol" and "The Voice."
HBO is running a series where a performer works with young singers to mentor them and teach them things perhaps their vocal coaches or teachers had not yet mentioned to them.
Here was the writeup from Sunday's New York Times:
Television by Neil Genzlinger
Even if you can't sing, it's hard not to be jealous of the four young people in “Renee Fleming: A YoungArts Master Class,” showing at 6 p.m. on Monday evening on HBO. Who wouldn’t want to be invited to watch Ms. Fleming rehearse, or to be welcomed into her home to talk music?
The show is the first installment of a new season of the YoungArts series, which pairs aspiring singers, artists, playwrights and so on with someone at the top of the profession for mentoring. This isn’t just a keep-up-the-good-work pep talk. In Monday’s episode, Ms. Fleming has one young man sing with a cough drop balanced on his tongue, another while clenching a pencil between his teeth. The exercises are efforts to refine some aspect of the students’ technique.
Later the four get to watch Ms. Fleming rehearse at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which turns out to be a bit of a lesson for Ms. Fleming as well. “I just thought, oh my God, I have to do everything right now,” Ms. Fleming says afterward. “I have to do the things that I asked them to do.”
Participants in future episodes include Patti LuPone, John Guare and Bobby McFerrin.
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One of the moments that spoke to me was when one young man, one of the four young students, asked Renee Fleming:
"Is there anything that you feel our generation of singers isn't necessarily grasping about it, that you'd love to kind of shout at us, 'Oh, you have to get this one thing!' ?"
Renee Fleming: "I think the artistry piece is really important, and I see a lot of focus on voice and size of voice. I think that what ultimately separates you (from others) is your ability to project your personality and to move people, ... and move people. I think ultimately that's the thing that you want to get to."
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From a Houston website --
houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/05-16-12-university-of-houston-student-to-appear-on-hbo-twice-aaron-caseys-great-vocal-adventure/