SINGING & SELF
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Taking stock
Taking Stock of 2022 (December 30, 2022) It's the end of the year and time for stock-taking. I'm a big fan of lists (it's the OCD in me) and especially of using them for reflecting on what's been and what's to come at those times of the year where shifts...
Wintering
Wintering in my garden (Kimberly Barber, December 22, 2022) As a solstice baby, I am a child of winter, though I must confess it is not my favourite season. I crave sunshine, light, warmth and the outdoors, blooming and sprouting things, birdsong, swimming in the open...
This little light of mine
This little light (Kimberly Barber, December 2022) photographed on Cumberland St., Toronto It's the season of light in the time of darkness. As we approach the winter solstice (and by coincidence, my birthday), the days get shorter, darkness falls early and we go...
Community of Care 2.0
All in (my title) sourced on Snappa.com December 1, 2022 When I thought about what to write about this week, the theme of community continued to resonate in my teaching, learning and performing spaces. It's the usual time of culminating projects, concerts and...
Community of Care
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClUzI60ABY3/ This past weekend, the students in our opera courses had their culminating performances of select scenes from several operas. They worked intensely with me and my colleagues all term on this, and as we always do following the...
Lighting fires
Campfire on the Mattawa River, August 2022 They say that one of the most important moments in education is ignition--the moment a spark lights a fire in the learner. These critical junctures can mean the difference between a student truly engaging and becoming excited...
Becoming
Moon Shot (sourced on Snappa, November 2022) This week was a full moon. A time of fruition, expanding, harvesting. The week was also incredibly intense with many projects coming close to being, for students and faculty alike. Because there was also a lunar eclipse on...
And sometimes, we just celebrate!
Laurier Winners at 2022 Centre Stage Competition, November 3, 2022 It was a big night for us at Laurier at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, as 3 of the finalists were graduates of our voice program, and every single one of them took home prizes. Hannah...
It’s not personal
…it’s personal because it’s you, it’s your voice and you identify with it. But it’s not personal in that it’s not an attack against you personally when your voice doesn’t sound the way you want it to…
This feels hard
Upon being caught up, once again, in a whirlwind of work (it never seems to stop), I had to ask myself honestly: why am I not practicing?
Small miracles
“…What if we allowed more unfolding, more encouraging-into-being in our artistry and our teaching? What if instead of “trying” and “working hard”, we were more playful, more able to surrender to what is, letting it simply emerge?…”
Singing. Breathing. Healing.
“…we can slow our breath to correspond to the heartbeat of the ancient drum…and we can move forward together on a path of healing”
Digging deeper
vocal technique can never be divorced from feeling, sensation and physical connection, because it’s about human communication…We want to watch someone open up and dig deep.
Reclaiming the singing self
“We have been investigating what it feels like to truly be in our bodies, and what our bodies hold. We’ve been looking at all the “selves” that we are…and attempting to feel, to locate, where those selves are within us…”
