Reynolds/Slade Music Studios

03/18/2020

This may be the only time ever that a photo of Lotte Lehmann is juxtaposed with lyrics of Fats Waller....

"Here we are, Out of ci******es, Holding hands and yawning, Look how late it gets...." (Two Sleepy People, Fats Waller: http...

03/16/2020

Brave new world I was already prepared....

I was an early adopter. I started teaching voice online a decade ago. I had to — there were singers I met at singing workshops who l...

03/04/2020

Now that I'm back to conducting a chorus on Monday nights my habit of putting off writing Tuesday blog posts until the last minute is no longer a winning strategy. So here is this week's Tuesday singing blog post, a day late:

One of my students performed recently and when we next worked together we processed how singing that day had been different from vocal wor...

02/18/2020

Today’s singing blog post

Jean de Reszke, the once-renowned but by now pretty much forgotten Polish tenor and teacher, said that in the theater "one must shout but on...

02/11/2020

Tuesday Singing Blog Post

First, today, I honor the memory of Mirella Freni , a diva in the deepest sense of the word: a goddess of singing. Not a capricious, demand...

02/04/2020

Tuesday Singing Blog Post:

Letting a child spread their wings is hard but necessary. It is so tempting to caretake rather than empower. And this applies to teachin...

01/29/2020

The Lunch Pail Manifesto


1. We must find the work that brings our lives meaning.

2. We must strive to make our work purposeful, truthful, and authentic, a pure offering to our Muse and fellow human beings.

3. We must wage a lifelong war with Resistance and accept that instant gratification is an oxymoron.

4. We must not speak of our work with false modesty or braggadocio.

5. We must not debase our work for short term gain nor elevate it above its rightful station to inflate our ego.

6. We must not covet the fruits of our work, or the fruits of others’ work.

7. We must respect others’ work and offer aid to fellow professional laborers.

8. We must accept that our work will never be perfect.

9. We must accept that our work will never be without merit.

10. We must accept that our work will never cease.

Steven Pressfield

01/28/2020

Tuesday singing blog:

Spaulding (Groucho): What do you fellows get an hour? Ravelli (Chico): Oh, for playing we getta ten dollars an hour. Spaul...

01/21/2020

Tuesday Singing Blog Post:

Hedley (that's HEDLEY!) Lamarr ( Blazing Saddles ) is on to something when he cries, "now go do that voodoo that you do so well!" And i...

01/14/2020

https://richardthetenor.blogspot.com/2020/01/bye-bye.html

I was at an event recently where I was reminded of an eternal truth: nobody listens to the postlude! Let me repeat that: NOBODY LISTENS T...

01/07/2020

I’m starting a series of weekly blog posts about singing and teaching:

There is a scene in the classic film Ninotchka in which Melvyn Douglas, as a suave Parisian, woos Greta Garbo, playing a sour and stony So...

01/06/2020

I am starting off the New Year with a give-away: 10 mini voice lesson packs. For free. Here’s how this works. The first ten people to request the give-away pack get to give 2 half hour lessons to someone you think would enjoy them.

The lessons must be taken online. (Face to face in New Rochelle would also work)

The lessons must be taken at mutually workable times (for the recipient and me) between now and the end of February.

And the recipient must be someone who has not taken a voice lesson with me until now.

This way you can share me with friends! I hope some of you take me up on this offer.