Boston Singers' Resource News Bulletin April 9 , 2002

We are very fortunate to have the talent and expertise of Ms. Sally Sanford in our membership. Ms. Sanford is a highly acclaimed singer, teacher and director from Wellesley who joined us for the Audition on March 23. She has some wonderful, helpful comments to give all of us regarding auditioning.

SALLY SANFORD, SOPRANO, has performed in recital, baroque opera, oratorio, and staged medieval dramas across the United States and in Canada, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland. She has appeared as a soloist with many distinguished early music ensembles. Recent performances include the Mozart Requiem under Susan Davenny Wyner, a duet recital with tenor Bruce Fithian, Bach's cantata Mein Herz schwimmt in Blut at the Trinity Bach Festival, and the Couperin Lecons de Tenebres. Last summer she sang the National Anthem at the Kennedy Center for the closing ceremony of the International Mathematics Olympiad immediately preceding remarks by President George Bush. She is a member of the trio Ensemble Chanterelle, with whom she was a first prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Award. She has recorded for Albany Records, Harmonia Mundi-Germany, Musical Heritage Society, and Lyrachord. In progress (first edits just finished) is a CD of music by Antonio and Giovanni Bononcini, with Brent Wissick, cello and gamba, Andrew Lawrence-King, harp and organ, and Catherine Liddell, theorbo.

Miss Sanford has been Guest Artistic Director of many Music from Aston Magna concerts and has been Associate Director of the highly acclaimed Aston Magna Academy program, a cross-disciplinary program funded by the NEH which brings together scholars and artists to examine music in relation to the other arts and society. Recognized as one of the leading authorities in the history of vocal style and technique, she is a contributor to A Performer,s Guide to Seventeenth Century Music, the Journal of Seventeenth Century Music, and the new New Grove Dictionary of Music. She was the only American invited to judge the vocal component of the 1998 J.S. Bach International Competition in Leipzig, Germany.

As a choral clinician, she has worked with many amateur and professional choirs, including the New York Collegium. She has produced recordings for the Wellesley College Choir and Zephyrus, a Renaissance vocal ensemble she coaches. Miss Sanford has been invited to lecture and give master classes at many colleges and universities across the United States. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at UCLA, Duke, the University of Virginia, Florida State University, and the University of Southern Maine and has taught courses in music history, theory, and performance practice at Queens College-CUNY, Dartmouth College, and the Hartt School of Music, among others. Miss Sanford currently directs the Collegium Musicum of Wellesley College, where she is also a member of the voice faculty. She also teaches privately in Concord, Massachusetts and Charlottesville, Virginia.

A summa cum laude graduate of Yale, where she studied both literature and music, she holds a DMA degree from Stanford University. She has studied voice with former Metropolitan Opera mezzo soprano, Herta Glaz, and soprano (now conductor) Susan Davenny Wyner.

The following comments about the BSR auditions from Ms. Sanford represent a culmination of ideas that she has been gathering through her years of listening to auditions and competitions. In a recent email, she writes: "This was invaluable for me as a teacher in clarifying the things I wrote to you, which in a different form will get shared with my students." Thank you, Ms. Sanford for your honest critique and supportive ideas:

S. Sanford: Thank you to all the BSR auditioners for your excellent preparation and hard work. I was most impressed by the degree of preparation and strength of memorization (for the most part) that we heard today.

* Even though you are not required to, please announce your piece(s) clearly, what it is from, and the composer. By clearly, I mean speak up so you can be heard and don't speak too fast. If you are singing something that is not universally known, give us a very brief synopsis of what you are singing about. Only one singer out of the 100 or so we heard gave us any text synopsis. <sorry, Ms. Sanford, this was our fault - BSR encouraged them not to do this for time's sake. >

* Observe the dynamics in the score.

* Be sensitive to the size of the room you are in. We can tell if you have a big voice. You don't have to blast our eardrums out proving it to us. A couple of singers were so loud in the room, that I experienced intense ear pain.

* Know that we are wanting you to do your best and wanting you to engage us as listeners; you can't do that if you are worrying or are being nervous. We want you to engage us and do your best. If you are 100% engaged with the music, there is 0% to be nervous with. Look at us, sing to us, engage us.

* A general weakness, despite the strong preparation, was in the area of stage presence. By that I mean, let your engagement with what you are singing come from your body, mind, heart, and soul and let it shine through your eyes and face and touch us. Many successful pop singers don't have great voices, but they have great stage presence. Rex Harrison and Louis Armstrong proved that you don't have to have a great vocal instrument to be a great singer.

* Understand every word you are singing and endow your delivery with meaning. It shows when you don't. You can only possibly get away without this if you have an extraordinarily beautiful instrument which very few of us have.

* I heard a lot of good diction today, but very little great text expression.

* If you are using music, it better be just as a reminder. Don't have your eyes glued to the page.

* Have your hair out of the way of your face.

* Dress for the occasion; don't dress as if it is "Casual Friday." Don't overdress for the occasion either. Stay away from clothes (including footwear) that will be more memorable than your singing. You want us focused on your singing, your face, and your eyes. Wear clothes that you are comfortable singing in. Women: stay away from pants unless you are singing a "pants" role; stay away from short or highly split up the side skirts unless you have really great legs to show off. Don't go sleeveless unless your arms are really attractive. How you dress reflects you.

* The other area where some singers did not do themselves a service today was in repertoire selection. I have a lot to say about this. Unless the piece you select has a lot of contrast built into it, I'd rather hear two contrasting selections than just one 4 minute piece. Snippets of 4 different pieces on the other hand are not effective either as it jerks the listener around too much. Pick the piece(s) that really show your strengths and not your weaknesses. As in ice skating, a triple jumped landed well will beat a failed quad every time. Don't sing something that you can't nail under the stress of an audition; pick something less demanding and do it well instead.

* The relative lack of imagination in the repertoire selection I also found quite dismaying. Pieces to stay away from unless you are going to bring something really special to them would be:
Quando m'en vo (unless you can give the audience goose bumps)
Deh vieni non tardar
The Jewel Song (especially if you are over 35)
Juliet's waltz
Alleluias (because you sacrifice time you could spend on showing us how well you interpret text) or pieces with long stretches of "ahs"
O had I Jubal's lyre
Let the bright seraphim
Every valley

* Don't pick a Mozart or Bach aria if you are going to sing it as if it were by Verdi or Wagner

* Avoid pieces needing added ornamentation if you are not going to add it.

* Avoid pieces with obligatory trills if you can't trill.

* Avoid pieces with lots of coloratura if you can,t handle the coloratura.

* Sing in your strongest language(s)

* Pick music that will show your voice, your musicianship, your technique, your languages, your acting skills to maximum advantage.

* Take risks but play to your strengths

* Less is more when it comes to gestures (for me at least). Avoid stock gestures. Your gestures need to come from your emotional and physical engagement with your character. Avoid getting "literal" with your gestures, as these are well worn and cliched.

* Proofread your resume several times and have someone else proofread it, too. (Egs of typos: Mannnes School; Die Zauberfloter). If the type size on your resume is getting below 11 point, edit it down instead of reducing the type size. Be sure to include your education on the resume. Be sure to include your contact information.

* There was a strong tendency among a number of the singers we heard today to sacrifice beauty of tone in favor of volume. Most of the people sitting around me wanted to hear more beauty instead. Strident, hard-edged, loud notes, no matter how loud, are not "money" notes. Don't sacrifice beauty for volume unless absolutely called for by the dramatic context. One of the most memorable evenings I've had at the Met was hearing a performance of Otello with Domingo in the title role and Margaret Price as Desdemona. Price never sang above mezzo forte the whole evening. She kept wafting out one gorgeous well-focused pianissimo after another. It was stunningly beautiful and sailed out over the orchestra.