Video: When I Get My Name In Lights

Here is a video of me performing at the Gala Showcase of the Niagara Musical Theatre and Voice Competition in May.  Thanks to my amazing singing teacher, Lisa Brillon, I got my first sweep of all the categories I competed in.  Hope you enjoy the song and dance.

The End of Hairspray… what’s a boy to do?

Our run of Hairspray ended last night and there were cheers and tears throughout the house.  I had an amazing time and the cast and crew were so much fun to work with.  I hope to audition for their next shows.  They’re doing Alice in Wonderland and then Into the Woods in 2016.

But since I don’t actually like to rest, I’m off to the Burlington Rotary Music Festival to compete tomorrow.  I’m doing 3 classes with 4 songs total.  This year I’ll be singing What If from Addams Family, The Ballad of Farquaad from Shrek, The Teacup from The Giant’s Garden and I Can’t Wait to See my Name in Lights from a show whose name I forget.  I compete on Monday so watch for updates on my Twitter feed.

Monday night I have an audition in Toronto and then I get a short rest while I prepare for the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in Waterloo.  That’s on November 24th and I’ll be singing The Tiger for my art song and What If from Addams Family.

Once all that is done, hopefully some of these auditions will bear fruit and I’ll be making some commercials.  I had a very auspicious tarot reading last night and it said there was success headed my way.  Let’s cross our fingers.

Update: Provincial Music Competition

Honourable mention = Top 7 finish out of 35 entries.

On June 5, 2015, I competed in my first singing competition at the Provincial level in Peterborough, Ontario.  I was recommended out of the Burlington Music Festival and was also recommended from the Niagara Music Festival.  It was a really awesome and humbling experience.

There were 35 competitors in my age group.  We were broken into 2 groups from which 2 singers would move on to a “sing off” for first, second, etc.  We each had to perform a concert class of 2 contrasting selections from musical theatre.  One of those songs was pre-selected by the adjudicator that recommended you from the regional level.  I presented Wonderin’ from Anne of Green Gables and Razzle Dazzle from Chicago.  In regional competition, a group of singers will all sing their selections for an adjudicator and then will receive a critique and a score once everyone has sung.  This works fine when you are singing in a range of categories like ballads, up-tempo, Canadian composer etc.  At Provincials there are no categories.  It is one massive concert class.  So we were each assigned a time slot to perform and then the critique came late in the afternoon for the group in the form of a Master Class.  This made it kinda funny to perform my songs in front of the adjudicator and a very small number of people.  After I performed, we left for a couple of hours and then went to the Master Class.  It was efficient but you weren’t able to hear everyone perform.  Mind you, the pews in the church were pretty hard and my butt wasn’t up to sitting there for 6 hours.

The critiques at the Master Class ranged from very technical to very honest.  I was really impressed by the adjudicator’s honesty even though we’re kids.  I always want to be taken seriously as a performer and can’t stand when things are sugar coated so it was great to hear things about appropriateness of songs etc.  He worked with me for quite a long time with was exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.  Some of this things were things I knew I needed to keep working on like my slightly nasal vowels and a bit of softness in my palate.  My teacher and I’ve been working away on those technical things.  He also worked with my on my acting choices which was really informative.  Why did I choose to start my song sitting on a chair?  Why did I get up?  He wanted me to put some casualness in my performance so it looked more natural and less staged.  All in all it was great to work with him.

So how did it all turn out?  I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t move forward to the sing off but in the end, I received an honourable mention.  Since there were only 3 honourable mentions out of the 35 singers, I’m really pleased with this result.  I learned a lot of things just attending the competition.  I heard some new songs, met some new people and when I go back again, I’ll be better prepared.  I need to shout out to my music teacher, Lisa Brillon.  I couldn’t have gotten this far without your support and teaching.  I’m so thankful that you came up to Peterborough and made sure that all of your students were well supported.  Together, we’ll work for an encore performance next year.

Status Update: After the Music Festival

Wow.  What a crazy couple of days it’s been.  I competed in 4 competitions over 3 days and did amazing.  I took home 3 first place finishes and a second.  Not only that, but I got recommended to the Provincial level of the competitions again!  I’m glad that since I’m already going someone else is able to come from this festival.

The level of competition in my age category – preteen – was crazy high and it was the only category that needed to be broken into 2 groups because there were 16 singers.  While a few of the singers were new to me, I already knew most of them.  Half of the singers are in Niagara Star Singers with me.  Since we knew each other, the atmosphere around us was so upbeat and supportive.  We were all high fives and congratulating each other after we sang.  It makes it a whole lot easier to put it all out on stage when you’re in among friends and all around nice people.

I was really impressed with Rebecca Poff, the adjudicator.  She treated us like professionals and spoke to us just like we were doing a show.  Her comments were very insightful and will go a long way to helping me improve.  It’s funny but the level of competition was so high that she almost never made reference to the quality of singing.  She focused instead on making our performances more genuine and helping us to connect better with the music and the character.  I particularly was advised to make my performances come right up from the ground through my body instead of acting mostly from the waist up.  I was also told to learn the lyrics so solidly that I could forget them and then discover them fresh as the character when I sang.  So a lot of very esoteric but oh so important advice for those of us that plan to do more in this business.

I was the very last performer in the festival and finished it off with a huge bang when I sang The Ballad of Farquaad from Shrek.  I was asked to sing it again at the Awards Gala and we got it on video.  Look for that performance to be posted up later today.  So yeah, months of practice, 3 grueling days of performances and a Niagara Star Singers performance at the Awards Gala has left me tired, proud and enthusiastic about the Provincials coming up.  It also left me with 4 great scores, quality critiques, a scholarship cheque, a trophy and a big smile on my face.

Niagara Musical Theatre & Voice Competition

Here we go.  Today marks the beginning of this festival and I’m singing in 4 classes.  Tomorrow, I sing Razzle Dazzle from Chicago in the Golden Age – Up Tempo class.  Then on Friday, I’ll be singing Electricity from Billy Elliot in Contemporary Ballad.  Saturday, I’ll be busy with Wonderin’ from Anne of Green Gables (Canadian Composer) and I’ll be the last performance of the festival.  It’s my concert class and I’ll be singing What If? from The Addams Family and The Ballad of Farquaad from Shrek: The Musical.

I’m not the only one.  My sister will be in 5 classes between voice and musical theatre.  I’ll have a lot of posts on Twitter from the next few days.  I’ll try to get some photos up too.

My age group is packed with strong singers, most of whom I know already.  Lots of my friends are singing in the same classes and sometimes we get competitive.  Anyways, it’s going to be a great way to end the week and to get me ready for the Provincials which at at the beginning of June.

Here is the link to this festival if you want to check it out.

http://www.nmtvfestival.ca/home.html

Update: Burlington Rotary Music Festival

Just a quick note…

I was honoured yesterday to learn that I have been invited by the festival to represent them at the Provincial level competition next June.  That honour was on top of a scholarship I’d received at the Gala Concert last Saturday night.

So, I’ve got about 8 months to prepare a concert class of 2 contrasting songs that will kick ass at the Provincial level.  I know some people that competed last year and didn’t even place, so I’m well aware that the level of competition is fierce.  There are 2 more local level competitions I plan to enter early next year and I’ll use those to “workshop” my songs.

If anyone has suggestions for great songs, appropriate to a 12 year old male tenor, please let me know.  I’ll be competing in the Musical Theatre category so that will help to shape the choices.

Oh yeah, my sister did amazing in her voice classes – all seconds and firsts.  Go Maya!

Burlington Rotary Music Festival

This past week, my sister and I competed in the Burlington Rotary Music Festival in the Musical Theatre category.  I’m all done but Maya will still be competing this week in the Voice category.  I’m pleased to say that I brought home a first and 2 second place finishes and together, Maya and I won the duet class for my age group.

Now that I am just competing against boys, there are less people to compete against which I think is both good and bad.  In my three individual classes, there was just another boy and me – one class actually had 3 of us.  We got to know each other but I’d like to have some variety in the group.  These are the same kids that I was against last year.  In contrast, some of the girls I sing with regularly were in a class with 6 or 8 others.  You can actually lose in those classes and you really need to bring your very best. I expect to enter 2 other competitions this year and I hope there will be more guys.

This year’s judge was pretty good and seemed to be mostly focused on how well our performance told the story and how believable we were.  It worked very well for my performance as Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables singing Wonderin’ and worked against me for Billy Elliot singing Electricity.  My damned changed voice sure belts out a power tune but I guess Billy was more of a treble and less of a tenor.  Regardless, I had fun singing the roles.

I hope my sister does well this week in her voice classes.  I’m wishing her luck.