February 10, 2015

And the answer is: practice, practice, practice!

It may seem like I've dropped off the face of the planet, but I'm still here, and I'm still singing. In fact, I have a few things coming up that I wanted to share. The biggest one is that I will be making my Carnegie Hall debut in June! I'll be the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem, performing with the Masterworks Festival Chorus and the New York City Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joe Miller (the head conductor at Westminster Choir College). And the best part is, my husband was hired for the same gig as the bass soloist!

In two weeks, I'm singing another oratorio, Poulenc's Gloria, with my old high school choir. They are doing a joint concert with another high school and asked me to be the soprano soloist. I'll be backed up by about 125 students, some of which are in my private studio. It's a beautiful piece, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

In March, I'm singing the third of a series of three recitals with Laura Ward's Lyric Fest in Philadelphia. The first two were last October. The recital, "Vienna, City of Song," includes songs by composers who lived and worked in Vienna. I share the program with a mezzo and a baritone. I love the repertoire that I was assigned. I have all the weird, more modern stuff, which I love (Strauss, Wolf, Schönberg, Berg, Webern, Marx, and one lovely Schubert piece). The first two recitals were very well received. Our last recital will be at the Woodmere Art Museum - I don't know if we'll be singing amongst the art or what, but I'm really looking forward to singing all this great music again.

I was also hired for another Queen of the Night (yay!) at Salt Marsh Opera in May. I thought I was auditioning for a full production of The Magic Flute, but it turns out that it's only an hour long. We'll performing it in various schools in Connecticut and Rhode Island for over 5000 kids over the course of a week. I'm only going to be in CT for two weeks, so it's a pretty quick gig, which is great for my teaching schedule.

Now, in case you were interested, here's about a quick recap of the last 2+ years.

Last time I blogged, I was finishing up my directing debut in Houston. I really loved how the show turned out and I had a few audience members come up to me to tell me that it was the best directed show they'd seen at Opera in the Heights. I also had a lot of comments about how much fun the chorus was to watch (since all they ever did in the past was stand in one place and sing, and I made them *gasp* move). Directing was fun and very rewarding, but was an incredible amount of work, and I'm not sure if it's something I want to do again any time soon. I think I'll just stick with singing for now.

In January and February 2013, I covered (understudied) the crazy modern role of the Maid in Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face with New York City Opera. I sang the role during my doctorate at USC but learning it a second time was much less stressful, and I was able to just relax and have fun with it. Our cover cast was so full of talent and I loved all of our rehearsals. If only we could have had a performance! Spending so much time in NY and hanging out with the other covers was a great experience, but sitting and watching the real cast for hours every day made for a very sore butt (we called it "cover butt"). I am really hoping that another company does this opera and hires me for it, because I love singing the Maid and I would like another opportunity to perform it.

After NYCO, Hal and I finally got to perform together, as Sarastro and Queen of the Night at Opera Birmingham. We were never on stage at the same time except for curtain call, but at least we were in the same opera! I knew a couple of other singers in the cast from young artist programs that I had attended, and it was really neat to catch up with them and hear them sing again after so many years! The production itself was really strange, but the audiences (including my parents and my in-laws) seemed to really enjoy it. The thing with The Magic Flute is that it pretty much never makes sense no matter how you do it. It was supposed to have a 70s feel, but some of the characters were from other decades or were modeled after specific people, and when I asked what the idea for my character was, the director just said: "You're just the Queen of the Night." So that's what I was.

Last spring, Hal and I performed with the Central Jersey Choral Society as Raphael/Adam and Gabriel/Eve in Haydn's Creation. A friend that I went to Westminster with conducts the group, and Hal and I thought that it would be nice to help him out by singing the solos (and how could we turn down a chance to be Adam and Eve together?). For the first time ever, the group had a string quartet instead of just a piano for accompaniment, and we were the first professional soloists they've used. It turns out that now that they know what it's like to work with professionals, they've been able to increase their budget so that they can continue to offer such high level performances in the future. If you'd like to hear me sing one of my solos, "With Verdure Clad," take a listen on my website at http://www.ericamillersoprano.com/page11/page1/recordings.html.

I think that about takes care of it! Hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to keep this blog up to date a little more often from now on. Just a reminder, if you are ever looking for details about my performances, please visit my website at www.EricaMillerSoprano.com.