A memorial service at Carthage the day before yesterday meant that my voice students and I had to relocate our voice studio class that day- and with my studio uncommonly clean due to a recent guest, I decided that we would hold class right in my office. (I was banking on a no-show or two, and actually had three of them- a good thing, too, since some of the guys I’m teaching are not exactly diminutive.) I actually did the same thing a few years back, when I was teaching students like J.D. Strauss, Andrew Geocaris, Jamie Wilson and a certain Bryan Chung, who graduated four years ago but is now back to get an additional degree. He was one of three Bryans I taught that year- Bryan Behrens and Bryan Anderson being the other two. We got kicked out of the recital hall under similar circumstances, and there literally was no other place for us to hold class other than the hallway…. so we somehow crammed eleven voice students and me into my office. That felt a little like that classic prank of the 50’s where you’d try to cram 20 people into one phone booth, but it was fun – and I even took a photo to commemorate the occasion, which J.D. later put into a dazzlingly colorful picture frame and which graces my office to this very day.
This time it was nine guys plus me – but once I had removed the waste basket and stuffed a couple of boxes underneath the piano, we actually had a little room to stretch out a bit. Which is not to say that it was an easy situation in which to sing- and the guys found it especially challenging to fully emote while they were practically sitting in their colleagues’ laps. But everyone who sang did a fine job, and in some ways this almost turned into an exercise in trust-building. And somehow, by having us all in one room, practically on top of one another, it dramatically underscored for me just how unique each of these guys is – in temperament, in sense of humor, in appearance, in expressivity, and in their actual voices. It reminded me that perhaps my highest calling as their voice teacher is to do all I can to nurture the unique and irreplaceable gifts with which each of them has been blessed, rather than churn out a bunch of Greg Berg clones. (Heaven help us all if there were more than one of me!)
And being the grizzled veteran that I am getting to be, I am coming to a deeper appreciation for the wide range which these young men represent as students – that is, how they regard themselves and me and our relationship. I have a couple of students who – believe it or not – seem to think I walk on water. And at the other end of the spectrum are one or two students who probably doubt I can boil water . . . who enter their lessons with a fair amount of skepticism and who are not afraid to challenge me or call into question what I might ask them to do. In my younger days, I would of course ADORE those former students and wish that each of them were signed up for triple lessons . . . while I would teach those latter students with gritted teeth and one eye on the clock as the time crawled by. But by now I realize that to whatever extent I have grown as a voice teacher over the last twenty years, it has mostly to do with the incredible array of students whom I have been privileged to teach, including the ones who are a real pill. Some eventually become friends of mine- even while they’re still students- while with others there is never even the slightest hint of that sort of affection and comfort level. Some improve in spectacular ways while others scarcely budge the needle after four long years. Some devote 110%, week after week, even when they’re buffeted by calamity or are sick as a dog – while others miss three lessons in a row because of the sniffles or because their mother’s third cousin twice removed is in the hospital. Some are forever beating themselves up for not working hard enough, while others manage to master the art of self-delusion and excuse-construction to a frightening degree. Some are blessed with beautiful voices or natural musicianship or both …. while others walk through the door with much more limited gifts but all of the desire and enthusiasm in the world. Some start out with a wealth of training and experience while others are venturing into a completely new landscape. And I’ve just outlined the far ends of the spectrum. The vast majority of students represent all kinds of lovely shades of gray- and some students do some fairly drastic shade-shifting, depending on where we are in the semester or what is going on in their lives. Some walk in the door with all of the confidence in the world and actually would profit from being taken down a peg or two- while others desperately need to feel better about themselves and their singing. Some have the emotional hide of a rhino, while others are much more fragile and vulnerable.
And I get to teach them all. To quote my favorite actress, Cherry Jones, “lucky lucky me!” And even though there have been times when part of me wished that I could have taught a dozen _________________’s (fill in the blank with an especially fun, gifted, hard-working, appreciative student), I know now that I wouldn’t be one-fifth the voice teacher I am if I had by some rub of a magic lamp been granted that wish. How much richer I am, professionally and artistically, for having taught the amazing array of students who have walked into JAC 139 over the years……. once in awhile nine at a time!
pictured above: Nine of my current students- counter- clockwise, left to right – Bryan Chung, Bob Petts, John Kryl, Fletcher Paulsen, Max Dinan, Mike Anderle, Nick Huff, David Duncan, and Jack Lambert.