I have been meditating over a letter recently received from the principal of one of the institutes of music, wherein it was said, “There is no musical topic—not even counterpoint—upon which there is more difference of opinion than voice training. Literally dozens of theories of voice production are to be found, each theorist claiming of course to have discovered the only true system of teaching; and when doctors—professional men like Lennox Browne and Sir Morell Mackenzie—disagree as to the functions of various parts of the larynx, it is not surprising that teachers of singing should fail to b ..read more

The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling, 2017, by James Hillman. No, this is not a book review; it is more like a meditation. I don’t remember where or when I purchased Hillman’s book—it was after 2017, obviously, but I do remember its effect: It made me think and remember. We’re talking about the idea that we are all born with a Daemon or guarding angel. That’s the premise Hillman lays out for the reader. It’s an ancient Roman idea. Whether a reality or a matter of psychology is not the point. It’s how we respond and what we do with the idea. Why is Hillman’s book on my mind? I su ..read more

By Dora Ohrenstein and Daniel James Shigo The New York Singing Teachers Association was founded and incorporated one hundred years ago in 1906 and was the first association of singing teachers in the United States. First named the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the organization acquired its current name officially in 1917.* NYSTA's origins are firmly grounded in the teachings of the Italian School. The original 10-member Board of Directors numbered five known exponents of Manuel Garcia, Pauline Viardot-Garcia or one of their students: Anna Lankow, Katherine Evans von Klenner, Osc ..read more

It is a singular fact that the greatest teacher of the Italian bel canto that ever lived was a Spaniard; but this is only one of many remarkable things about Manuel Garcia. He was the brother of two women, Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot, who rank among the greatest singers of all time; he taught Jenny Lind, Antoinette Sterling, Charles Sandey, Johanna Wagner, Mathilde Marchesi, Julius Stockhausen, and others who became famous themselves or as teachers of Calve, Eames, Melba, Henschel, Van Rooy, and Scheidemantel; he invented the laryngoscope, which not only put the study of the voice on a ..read more

There is a new webpage at the Shigo Voice Studio: Curated VOICETALK. What is curated VOICETALK? A collection of VOICETALK blogs from 2009-2022 rich with information and singing instruction. If you’ve read any books from the 20th century, you will have encountered a disclaimer that states: "You can’t learn to sing from a book.” It’s true. It’s also true that to know something, you have to know something. Autodidact Delight. As the founding editor of VOICEPRINTS—The Official Journal of the New York Singing Teachers Association—I aimed for its articles to be helpful. By this, I mean they needed t ..read more

A very interesting article was published in the Journal of Singing last year. It addressed Anna Eugénie Schoen-René's legacy by featuring information gleaned from a particular archive.[1] Curiously, it did not give the reader what this writer found in that same archive in 1997—the heart of the Garcia method, which has never been revealed until now. Princeton, 1985 “Alright. Slap your cords together like that!” Margaret Harshaw hurled at me after I sang the second high E-flat of a Bach aria in a practice room at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. “How many lessons have you had ..read more

Frances Roena Medini (1851-1925) Dr. Mary Augusta Brown Girard was not the only one to publish a book-length account of her studies with Francesco Lamperti a year after his death in 1892. The other person was Frances Roena Medini. Becoming Medini Prima donna, suffragette, voice teacher, poet, and friend to Amercia’s great bard Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Madam Medini was known as Frankie Miller back in Ripon, Wisconsin, where she was born to Scottish parents in 1851, the Italianization and creation of her stage name taking place after two years of study in Italy with Francesco Lamperti and Lu ..read more

Titles containing first-hand accounts of study with great singing masters—in this case Francesco Lamperti—are rare. I know. I’ve searched high and low for them. This is one. Dr. Mary Augusta Brown Girard (1836-1926) Mary Augusta Brown Girard was born in 1836 to William and Martha Gage in Knox, New York, a town in Albany County just west of Albany, New York, and died in San Francisco, California, in 1926, having married twice: first to Augustus Brown in 1867 when she was 30—and with whom she had a son who died at the age of nine—then to Frank Girard. Girard was fifty-seven when she published V ..read more

Yesterday, I gave a workshop on the Trill that was designed for four participants. Oddly enough, because of very curious circumstances, I ended up giving the workshop to one participant—a wonderful soprano who has been working with me for the last couple of months. And she got it—the Trill that is—being able to accomplish it in under an hour. My workshop for one started on Zoom, but Zoom didn’t perform very well—my student’s voice cut out the whole time—so we moved over to FarPlay—my preferred platform—which has superior audio quality. This and other unfortunate experiences have brought me to ..read more

I sometimes wonder what New Year’s Eve for the Garcias and the Lampertis teachers was like. Did they look back and forward on days like today? Did they know their place in the grand scheme of things? Did they stay up to watch fireworks as I will in Central Park? Did they even have fireworks? Or did they go to bed early as I know some do if only to start afresh the next morning at 5 am to catch the worm? I am teaching shortly after I post this blog for a few hours, then will be making dinner for two, then will await midnight while listening to WQXR, New York City’s classical radio station—then ..read more