Secret how to rise and shine?

Dear beautiful young singers,

CONGRATULATIONS

Your semester at your music academy or theatre season is coming to an end. You made it! You should be proud of all your achievements. Bravo ? At this point you may be thinking about what is the absolute best thing you can do for your next step towards a singing career, to be ready to audition in autumn and shine in your future engagements at the Opera House? After your big year I recommend resting for a week or ten days to prepare your arias, your mindset and nerves etc. Once these pillars are in place you will be fresh and full of excitement for your next step!

I also want to encourage each of you to find an instructor with whom you feel easy in communication with and accepted by him/her. Someone who can healthily guide you.
I remember when I was a vocal student that it took me a while to sort through all the various options out there to find the right instructors and courses that would provide me with support for me and my special needs.

Inhale, exhale….??‍♀️

Ask yourself very honestly:
Do I need a couple of individual lessons?
Do I want to take part in a summer workshop or masterclass?
Do I feel good in a public masterclass or in a closed one?

Please take time to reflect on these topics to help guide you with your next steps.
YOU are the captain of your singing path.
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I love seeing my students grow in the singing lessons & masterclasses that I give. I give masterclasses & workshops not open to the public because I am a strong believer that it is easier to solve certain topics in a protected environment. If you are curious to see how I work, take a look at my website to see what is going on in my studio:

www.stimmkunst.ch

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QUESTION TIME
I have been writing my weekly nuggets now for two years. I started doing these because I wanted to give you all a gift, show my passion for singing and helping young singers. I hope you enjoy my nuggets and take whatever it is that you need from them. So today is our anniversary together! ?

For our special “weekly nugget” anniversary, I would like to do a question time for you all today. So if you have any questions regarding singing or performance issues you might be having, feel free to comment on here or send me pm today. I would love to hear from you!

Best wishes from my heart,
Vera

*Photo with Charlotte Whittle and Aaron Sands rehearsing Die Walküre. Here we are talking about how colleagues can support each other’s singing whilst on stage together.

Appreciation of your Performances

Dear Young Singers,

I love to encourage you to train your authentic confidence and to worship your singing also when it comes to opportunities where you are engaged for little concerts or other events to sing. You may want to express your creativity and show your artistry. You want to perform and sing, but this is only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is that you have something special and valuable to offer with YOUR SINGING and you have to start to train to make your living out of this wonderful passion and talent.

A young singer asked me if I can write a Weekly Nugget about the topic that also Vocal students are entitled to an Honorar (Fee) when they perform. My answer is: YES! In my opinion you beautiful young singers should ask for a Performance honorar even when it is just a small appreciation honorar. I know from my own experience when I was a young singer that people think you just sing for a marriage etc. and that you do it for free. I did it for free until life showed me that I am responsible for my livelihood and that I have to cultivate a living where I can nurture myself, my art and be a partner in growth – oriented relationships. (As an artist you also have to pay your rent and food etc.)

Your Singing is a Profession.

You are studying hours and hours in a practice room, you spend money on vocal training and coachings with pianists. So take the secret key and empower yourself next time when you get a performance request. From your inner place of self love and appreciation of your unique talent say: “Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. I would love to perform for you. My Honorar is….”

Of course there might be occasions where you do not want to take an Honorar, but then make this decision with clearity in your heart and mind. This decision then comes from an inner commitment to respect yourself and not from weakness.

AFFIRMATION: I encourage myself to take my engagements out of an inner place of alignment with my values and respect to the Performance offer.

To encourage you, you see me as Tosca singing Vissi d‘Arte ?

With appreciation
Vera Wenkert

Dear beautiful singers

In my career on stage and in concerts I have sung many Wagnerian roles: Elsa, Elisabeth, Venus, Senta, Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, Isolde. Out of these experiences and from the experience I have with my teaching practice in teaching dramatic voices, my number one advice is:

DO NOT RUSH INTO THIS DEMANDING REPERTOIRE AS A YOUNG SINGER

The chief characteristics of Wagnerian music are beautiful long phrases combined with a brilliant, emotional text and a big orchestration underneath the vocal line. This demanding music requires you to have a solid technique. Not only this, but I have learnt from my time on stage that it is a great help to have some stage experience beforehand. Having this, you can float on the music and orchestra and you are able to taste the German diction in this beautiful music, and you can caress the text and music together. There is also the big misunderstanding that Wagnerian music always has to be sung loud. On the contrary, if you study the orchestra part of a Wagnerian opera you will find so many piano markings and other dynamic wishes of Wagner himself. Do not to forget: Richard Wagner loved Bel Canto!

As a result of the intense emotion in Wagnerian repertoire, a singer sometimes starts to push the voice…then you can really harm yourself! Last week, a Wagnerian singer travelled to me to work on Sieglinde. During the lesson I could hear that the coaches at the opera house have put her too much in the “diction mode” in the front of her mouth in the narrative “Der Männer Sippe…” I completely understand why the coaches wanted this crystal clear diction, but it has to be produced in the RIGHT WAY.

So, my suggestion for you Wagnerian singers is: Study your roles early enough, sing it in your voice with the help of your voice teacher and then go into the theater rehearsal process. From my own experience and love affair with Wagner’s music, I can confess that this is the most efficient and joyable way to improve significantly in this repertoire whilst remaining healthy.
This is also how I work with the Wagnerian singers in my studio. If they are vocally well trained and musically ready, they can concentrate on all the other obligations they have in an opera production.

?Affirmation for the day: I allow myself to grow into my future-self of a radiant Wagnerian singer.?

With appreciation
Vera Wenkert

Welcome…

Welcome new season. I wish all singers a successfull new Opera and Concert Season.
I am very much looking forward to meet the participants of my Audition Masterclass this week.
For further Audition Masterclasses and informations about the program offered by Institute Stimmkunst visit www.stimmkunst.ch
With appreciation
Vera

The Right Voice Teacher for me

Often young Singers come in my studio after years of studies. Some are super prepared for the exciting and demanding profession of an operasinger others need still a lot of work.
These experiences and my knowledge of the profession ( I have sung over 30 dramatic roles on different operastages, festivals and concerthalls) inspiries me to write my advice today:
Young singer or singing students you have to find ” your ” voice teacher!
What does this mean in reality:
This teacher must have the ability to pass to you a healthy vocal technique in a way that.you understand it and that you feel, you are making vocal progress.
This also means you should not feel hoarse after lessons!
Your voice teacher should have real interest in your development and most important he or she should have enough time to teach you.
In my opinion it makes no sense to study with a famous singer, who is still in a career, because he or she will not have enough time for teaching and nurturing your freshman career.
I am a strong believer in the fact that you when it comes to day x – YEAH- you have to know how to sing with your voice and to know how to make music and to be able to stand on your own feet.
This is the number one priority.
No one cares wether you have learned with a famous singer or at an institute or with a private teacher.
It counts what you can do and how you sing.
My number one advice is find a teacher , with whom you get at least regular vocal lessons and who has the time and spirit to nurture you individual and who offers a
healthy vocal technique.
When it is your desire to start an operacareer it is very helpful, that your teacher has been on stage too. This is not a must but it gives you also input from reality.
There is one big advice I want to tell you closing this precious weekly nugget. Take your responsibility young beautiful singers. This starts with finding the right vocal teacher for you. All of you have a unique voice and a unique path in life and profession and this means only you can feel and decide who is a good voice teacher for you and where you are in best hands for yourself.
With appreciation
Vera

Performance Opportunities

In this weekly nugget I want to encourage young singers and artists to find performance opportunities, where you can see and proof what you already have accomplished and also for the joy of singing..
Use your phantasie for finding or creating a performance possibility.
Maybe you could sing in a church, in an elderly home, in a hospital, in a fancy big hotel etc. or in little productions.
Every young artist needs this route of experience before he or she can shine with selfconfidence on an operastage.
When I was studying with Gloria Davy as a very young singer, she always said no singer stands on a stage over night. She was right.
I seriously suggest first own your confidence young singers and start taking actions on your career dreams. Step by step.
For this reason I offer the young singers two times a year the opportunity to sing and perform in a staged public concert after a 5 day Masterclass, where we work on staging scenes.
It is wonderful to see their growth in the performance situation.
To become an artist needs talent, dedication and discipline and over all love to the art.
Wishing you : Feel inspired every day on your singing journey. Embrace the fact that you are on an exciting way and honor your learning path.
Warmest
Vera

Celebrate your success

Super proud of the Singers final concert of my Masterclass”SING AS A RADIANT SINGER”
I am touched that participants of the Masterclass shined in a concert in a variety of melodies and I feel so blessed that beginners of a vocal study process, semi-professionals and the professional singers were eager and determined to sing, share and shine in a concert together. BRAVI TUTTI for your dedication towards your goals: making music and sing from your hearts: I wish Anna Maske, Charlotte Whittle, Bader Hamwi, Geraldine Gamenisch, Lisa Dunk, Michael König, Nina Hreus,Olivia Betschart, Carole Simons, Louise Martyn, Dearbhla Collins, and all the young singers out there a wonderful path to fulfilling your dreams. Today I suggest take some time to celebrate yourself. A big thank you goes to Martin
With appreciation
Vera

Daily Voice Cart Part 3: Preparing an Operapart

I work with high level performing artists , with whom I make an extramindful preparation plan.
This means, we work the part mindful and when the time allows gently in the voice. For example pushing your voice in dramatic sound to fullfill the requests of dramatic sound is a completly wrong path and the risk is there of falling into bad habits of tension and other compensations that will be difficult to unlearn. In my opinion and according to my results in my own professional life and in the performance life of my artists it is a healthier way first to show the singer the special kind of self-awareness, so that he or she feels that every operasound has to be sung without strain in the voice. The singer needs patience to go through this process then he or she will get the way of steady progress. Once the singer has digest the healthy route to sing it is easy to put the dramatic into the piece. I remember when I sang Butterfly I started 3 months before the rehearsal time at the opera house started to sing it into my voice and to learn everything around the character etc. Then, when stagerehearsals start, I felt so easy in the part that I could fully concentrate on the character and staging.
Your body sensations and your mind and your emotions work together and all three are wired into voice. To understand this and to stay attentive to the process of feeling the voice is effortless singing is the important thing for keeping your voice healthy.
In my everyday teaching I see that it takes the crystal clear intention of the singer to trust in this profound work process. Singers who get involved in my special well-foundet way of working, which I have created, experience fullfilment and success in their performamces.
The magic pill you cannot find in a quick way , the magic pill lies in trust that your day by day self work will bring the result and hopefully with the help of a trustful voice teacher you will learn in a profound training or retraining to understand your individual vocal production.
Merry Christmas and a blessed time for you and your loved ones . Toi toi toi for all my wonderful singers, who have concerts and performances coming up the next 2 weeks. Next weekly Nugget comes 2018.
You are also welcome to find out more about Methode Stimmkunst 2018
With appreciation and warmest wishes
Vera