Kelli O'Hara

Kelli O'Hara singing "I'm in love with a wonderful guy" from South Pacific.

Titta Ruffo

Italian Baritone Titta Ruffo singing "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price singing "Ritorna vincitor!" from Aida.

Fall Schedule being planned. Act now!

Summer is always too short! I hope yours has been relaxing and fun. The fall quarter will begin Tuesday, September 13, which means it's time to plan a regular lesson time. For scheduling purposes, please email me your availability for September through November by listing the days/times you could have a lesson in order of preference. There are a limited number of time slots of course, so please list the widest time span(s) you are available each day. After-school sports schedules make finding a lesson time much more difficult. For high school students who plan to be involved in an after-school sport, please make note of that in your email.

If you're interested in taking lessons before the fall quarter begins and you're not currently on my summer email list, let me know so I can include you. I look forward to seeing you all in a soon! nadinerobinson.soprano@gmail.com

Deanna Durbin

Deanna Durbin was a singer and actress who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias. This first clip of Deanna is from a radio show when she was thirteen.

Here's a clip of her singing an operatic aria in one of her films. The Metropolitan Opera apparently kept tabs on her progress as a young singer. Too bad she never appeared there.

These next two clips are of songs she sang in films as a teenager. She is charming and what a wonderful instrument. There are many more clips of her on YouTube. Enjoy.

Here's a fascinating clip of Douglas Stanley lecturing on the subject of vibrato.

Do You Have Tiger Blood?

What it takes to keep cool under pressure.

By Taylor ClarkPosted Thursday, March 3, 2011, at 1:09 PM ET

In January, the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords produced a half dozen bona fide heroes, including Patricia Maisch, a 61-year-old woman who snatched ammunition out of alleged gunman Jared Loughner's hands as he tried to reload. For good reason, people like these earn our respect and adulation; their grace under pressure strikes us as almost superhuman. Yet as we marvel at their deeds, we're always left wondering about where, exactly, this composure comes from. Do these people emerge from the womb with sanguine looks on their faces, ready to perform life-saving surgery in the next room if necessary? Or is their coolness something they picked up through life experience?

View the entire article at: http://www.slate.com/id/2287216/

PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...REPRINTSSINGLE PAGE