SINGING & SELF
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Noise Actor
Noise Actor (sourced on Snappa.com, November 2025) I've been working on a Directed Study with a grad student, and they are exploring extended techniques in a big way. We started riffing on what that expression "extended techniques" really means, and I posited that it...
Mind Over Matter
It's All in Your Head (sourced on Snappa.com, Nov. 2025) Two incidents this week formed the theme for this post: my daughter's 30th birthday project to run 30 km (shout-out Alice: she did it!) and the struggle and work of my students preparing for this weekend's...
Full Circle, Part 3
Circle of 3 (sourced on Snappa.com, October 2025) This year is full of these Ouroboros (see last week!) moments of returning to what was before, reliving it, grieving its passing, celebrating its regeneration anew. I was struck by this image of 3 women in front of a...
Ouroboros
Ouroboros (sourced on Snappa.com October 2025) Don't you just love it when you learn something new? Recently our Masters students had the opportunity to work together with Zorana Sadiq (I'm a big fan, so it was partly selfish to invite her into my classroom) and she...
Taking up space
Occupying space (sourced on Snappa.com, Sept. 2025) Occupying space is a big theme in singing. It's interesting how, as vocalists, even though we are performing artists to greater or lesser degrees, we seem to shy away from taking up and using the space that is...
This is me
This is me (September, 2025) This is me. In my final year of teaching at Laurier. Waking up, writing in my journal, prepping one class at a time, leaning into the work I love. This is me, trying not to be too fussed about the outcome, and being present to what is,...
For the joy of it
Joy flowering (THANKS TO my clematis, June 2025) I am channeling joy and gratitude this week as I begin the first of many "final firsts" in this, my final year of what has been a very rich and rewarding (and at times challenging and humbling) teaching career. I am...
We must persist
Persistence (sourced on Snappa.com, August 2025) There has been considerable feedback from readers on the topic of "hiding" from my last post, and the fear of doing things that scare us off, make us feel vulnerable and question ourselves. So I'm going to keep diving...
The ways we hide
Hiding in plain sight (a COVID selfie, April, 2020) I have been thinking a lot about the ways we like to hide from ourselves as singers, artists and performers. It's a very vulnerable business, this singing stuff, and it can make us feel extremely exposed. Exposure...
#itsachoice
This or That (K.Barber, July 2025) Last Thursday I had the pleasure of working with the folks in Maria Vetere's International Studio in Niagara Falls, ON. We spent the better part of 12 hours together, whether online, in person or in class together. It was an...
When Self meets Voice
Thank you for the music program (Hannah Piercey, Priya Khatri, July 2025) There's something magical that happens when artists come together, hearts full and open to their audience, bravely showing themselves in their entirety. Such was my experience this past...
Artist Alchemy
It's summer, and time to replenish, revive and restore. Time to reflect, dive in, immerse oneself in the sounds, sights, sensations of the season. One of my favourite summer pastimes is reading. Voraciously. Novels (Favourite Daughter). Memoirs (How to survive a bear...
Imposter Encounters pt. 1
Re-envisioning 2025 (photo: K. Barber, May 2025) So, there I am, presenting a conference poster for the very first time at The Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia last week. It didn't take long for my Imposter Self to show up in this setting--literally the...
The Gift is the Work
Gift (sourced on Snappa.com, May 2025) I know I've ranted (was it really ranting? Maybe...) before about my aversion to the words "gift" or "talent" when it comes to artistic ability. I find them annoying and insulting. They imply that some people are just inherently...
