Creativity and Suffering, Practice Principles, and a 30 Day Vocal Challenge
Rehearsal Notes June 11th Edition
Welcome to Rehearsal Notes, a 5-part weekly publication highlighting the things that have inspired me and the lessons I’ve learned on and off-stage. Each Rehearsal Notes edition has a singing or career tip for you to try out during your week - find it in the Voice Note section. I hope it brings you joy and actionable tools for your own creativity!
What I’m Reading
Every so often, I check in with what has been my favorite blog for the past decade - The Marginalian, written by the incredibly creative Maria Popova. If you don’t already read her, I urge you to check it out, join her mailing list, and listen to this beautiful interview she did with Tim Ferriss on his podcast.
My favorite thing about the blog? Just below the search bar, there's a button that says: “Surprise me.” And I love thinking that whatever pops up is exactly what I’m meant to read that day.
This week was no different - and I think this one is for me… and maybe for all of you too. It’s an essay about suffering and creativity - a relationship anyone even two steps into a creative life will recognize instantly. Suffering, anxiety, and the constant grappling with ideas that grip your imagination - it’s like a kind of neurosis that can just as easily paralyze you or fuel your work.
But the more we can even ourselves out - emotionally, mentally, physically - the better it is for our art. And when those inner quarrels start to bubble up, as both Alain de Botton and Carl Jung suggest, sometimes the only way forward is to ‘have it out with that voice’.
Here’s my favorite quote from the piece:
“Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive — sometimes a cry of exultant astonishment, but often a cry of devastation at the collision between our wishes and the will of the world. Every artist’s art is their coping mechanism for what they are living through — the longings, the heartbreaks, the triumphs, the wars within and without. It is these painful convolutions of the psyche — which used to be termed neurosis at the dawn of modern psychotherapy, and which we may simply call suffering — that reveal us to ourselves, and it is out of these revelations that we create anything capable of touching other lives, that contact we call art.”
— The Marginalian, on Suffering and the Creative Life
I can’t wait to hear what you think. So many of you write back to these letters with the most stunning and intuitive thoughts on creativity, and I’m always grateful for your insight.
Have you felt this tension between creativity and suffering? Do you think art requires it - or can joy be just as powerful a source? Hit reply and let me know.
What’s Itching My Brain:
I go tons of feedback on The Principles of Practice series that went out over Substack last week. DID YOU KNOW you can literally respond to this email if something tickles you or you have an opinion to share? (I love opinions, so please send them.) Several of you wrote me or reached out on IG and I’ve loved hearing how your implementing this!
Several of you using the Practice Journal Method wrote back saying the series helped reframe how you approach the practice room - especially on those “off” days. That’s exactly what it’s for, and I’m THRILLED it’s landing.
If you missed it or want to binge it all in one place, here are all the links:
Lots of singers are using this right now to prep for summer programs and fall auditions and I am honestly thrilled about it.
Voice Notes
I’m working crazy hard on getting the 30-Day Vocal Exercise Challenge up and running - and my goal is to launch by July 1, at least in beta format (and at a beta price 👀).
So, what is the 30-Day Vocal Exercise Challenge?
It’s the exact set of vocal exercises that helped me build my technique and survive 7 seasons as a fest singer - through illness, 10am rehearsals, and literally hundreds of performances. It’s the core of how I manage my work and develop my technique.
The challenge will include:
30+ exercises that I have used to develop my own technique
The Practice Journal Method to track what’s working and troubleshoot what’s not
random asides and tips about the singing career, technique, and creativity
Built-in flexibility - this is built for professional singers but also beginner friendly and interesting for voice teachers as well
If you already have the Practice Journal Method, don’t worry - I’ll personally send you a discount code when it’s ready.
If you want to be first to know when it drops, make sure you're subscribed or sign up on the list HERE and I’ll tell you when it’s ready.
Here’s a sneak peek at the intro video (so you can get an idea of just how personal the course will be!)
Upcoming Performances
Oh how time flies! I am thankful to have an easy end-of-season here at the Badisches Staatstheater with only performances of Der Rosenkavalier - only 2 left this month on 14th, and 19th.
On July 10th I will be performing an evening of American song with tenor Brett Sprague at the Badisches Staatstheater. We are already very hard at work so look forward to some behind the scenes rehearsals in the coming month!
After a much needed vacation, next season will kick off with my debut as Violetta in Daegu, South Korea on tour with the Badiches Staatstheater in September. Then it’s back home to Karlsruhe to open the season here with Rameau’s Les Boreades.
It doesn’t matter what you say, but what it says in you. To it you must address your answers. God is straightaway with you and is the voice within you. You have to have it out with that voice. - K. Jung
