Master Singers

Advice from the Stage

Donald George and Lucy Mauro

Offers invaluable insights on life as a professional opera singer
Easy to use format with interview quotes grouped by topic

Master Singers

Advice from the Stage

Donald George and Lucy Mauro

Description

There is often a dichotomy between the academic approach to singing that voice students learn in the studio and what professional singers do on the operatic and concert stage. Great singers at the top of the performing profession achieve their place with much analysis and awareness of their technique, art, interpretation and stagecraft that goes far beyond academic study and develops over years of experience, exposure, and the occasional embarrassing error. Master Singers brings these insights to the student, teacher, and emerging professional singer, giving them many needed signs and signals along the road to achieving their own artistry and established career.
Through interviews with some of today's most accomplished and renowned concert and operatic singers, including Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels, Joyce DiDonato, Denyce Graves, Thomas Hampson, Jonas Kaufmann, Simon Keenlyside, Ewa Podle, Master Singers provides vocalists making the transition from student to professional with indispensable advice on matters ranging from technique and its practical application for effective stage projection to the practicalities of the business of professional singing and maintaining a career to recommendations for vocal hygiene and longevity in singing. Rather than relying on a traditional one-singer-at-a-time structure, Donald George and Lucy Mauro distill answers to a range of essential, probing questions into a thematic approach, creating not a standard interview book but a true reference for emerging professional singers. An indispensable resource and reliable guide, Master Singers will find its place on the bookshelf of singers of this generation and the next.

Master Singers

Advice from the Stage

Donald George and Lucy Mauro

Foreword by Brian Zeger
Preface
Acknowledgements
Artist Biographies
Chapter One: On the Craft of Singing
Chapter Two: On the Operatic Stage
Chapter Three: On the Recital and Concert Stage
Chapter Four: On Maintaining a Career
Chapter Five: On Teaching and Studying
Chapter Six: Extras from the Experts
References
Index

Master Singers

Advice from the Stage

Donald George and Lucy Mauro

Author Information

Donald George, Associate Professor of Voice, SUNY - Postdam, and Lucy Mauro, Associate Professor of Piano, West Virginia University

Donald George's career as a lyric tenor has spanned the great opera and concert stages of the world, from La Scala, Milan to Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo, among many others, working with such conductors as Bernstein, Masur, Tate, Menuhin and Jurowski. He has recorded for such labels as Sony, Phillips Classic, Naxos, Delos, Bavarian Radio, and Teldec. In 2008 he joined the faculty of The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam as Professor of Voice. His students are regional and national competition winners and are singing in numerous professional venues in Europe and North America. He resides in Germany and New York.

Lucy Mauro, pianist, is an Associate Professor at West Virginia University. The Journal of Singing calls her "a perfect partner". Her recordings with tenor Donald George on the Delos label have been acclaimed in Gramophone and selected as a Recording of the Year 2011 by MusicWeb International, among other recognitions. Their latest CD, Songs and Arias of Joseph Weigl, was recorded in conjunction with the Esterházy Festival in Austria.

Contributors:

Thomas Hampson
Joyce DiDonato
Denyce Graves
Jonas Kaufmann
Stephanie Blythe
Simon Keenlyside
Joseph Calleja
Ewa Podles
David Daniels
Christine Goerke
Nicole Cabell
Alan Held
Eric Owens
Kathleen Kim
Lawrence Brownlee
Ana María Martínez
Jennifer Rowley
Gerhard Siegel
Dimitri Pittas
Lisette Oropesa
Greer Grimsley

Master Singers

Advice from the Stage

Donald George and Lucy Mauro

Reviews and Awards

"No aspect of musical performance is as dangerous as the teaching of singing, because each potential singer's voice is a unique instrument that can easily be damaged. The comments that Donald George and Lucy Mauro have collected from singers with successful careers should help to focus attention not only on technical problems but also on how to become a communicative singing actor." - Placido Domingo

"Artists will find this book enlightening as will the general public. The majority of vocal artists face many of the same issues. Understanding how we individually view and approach a particular subject proves fascinating reading." - Mirella Freni, Soprano

Master Singers

Advice from the Stage

Donald George and Lucy Mauro

From Our Blog

Breath is the basis of good singing

Giovanni Battista Lamperti (1839 ' 1910), one of the first great vocal pedagogues, is quoted as saying in his Maxims that the breath is the basis of good singing. 'What is your approach to breath?' is a simple question, but the answers to this question are anything but simple. Master singers have varying ideas about breath control

Posted on February 10, 2015

Read the blog post