Hello to anyone who is reading this! (At least, I hope there are people reading this.) I've decided to revamp an old blog that I've had for 2 years because I've found new inspiration for blogging and I've changed so much in the past 2 years that my blog needed to match the person that I have become.
This first post will undoubtedly be a very long one, because I want to go all the way back to my high school experience to fully explain my journey from being a stupid musical theatre wannabe to being a smart classical singer (who still belts out show tunes from time to time). Now, I realize that I still have A TON of things to learn and experience, so I'm not calling myself an "expert" on anything. I'm just saying that I'm A LOT smarter than I was in high school.
For my junior and senior year of high school, I attended NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) for musical theatre half-day, meaning that I attended an "academic" high school in the morning and NOCCA in the afternoon during the school year. I'm pretty sure the system at NOCCA is a lot different and you can now go there for both academic and artistic classes and training. Anyway, starting from about my freshman year of high school, I was DESPERATE to become a Broadway star. I started pretty much stalking people who lived in my area and were getting great roles in musicals and going to great colleges for musical theatre and tried to do exactly what they were doing to replicate their same success. The next logical step for me was going to NOCCA, which I thought was going to get me into one of my dream colleges which would then catapult me to stardom. (I will be sure to do a separate blog post all about my high school experience, because I think there are a lot of things that I learned from that time in my life that's worth sharing.)
The reality was that I seemed to have at least some talent because I was getting great roles in various musicals in both the community theatre near my home and the schools that I attended, but my weight was going to get in the way of my musical theatre career at some point. I will admit here that I was overweight for most of my life, but not obese. At this time, I really thought that my talent would outshine my weight and that I would get into one of my top dream schools, but that's not how things worked out for me.
I decided to audition for 8 musical theatre college programs, which, now that I am looking back, was way too many, but that's how many programs my peers were auditioning for. Remember, I felt that I absolutely had to do exactly what my peers were doing in order to be as successful as they were (if not more so). I will be sure to do a separate blog post about my most catastrophic audition, but long story short, I got rejected from every single one of those programs. I didn't realize it at the time, but this happened for a reason, and I believe that it was a sign from baby Jesus himself that my life was meant to go in a different direction.
I think I had decided to just go to LSU for a BA in Theatre so that I could refine my acting chops and still participate in musicals so that I would be ready for Broadway once I graduated. Then, another sign from baby Jesus came. My aunt (who was also my voice teacher) called my mother and informed her that LSU's undergraduate voice program was holding one last day of auditions and that I should just go for it and audition. Next thing I knew, I was at LSU's school of music ready to go in the recital hall and sing in front of the whole voice faculty. I remember singing "O mio dolce ardor" (from that 26 Italian songs book) ad it going well, but then they asked me to sight read. Since I hadn't practiced sight reading since my sophomore year, I freaked out and let's just say it didn't go too well. My mom tells me to this day that I looked like I had seen a ghost when I walked out of the recital hall.
Luckily for me, LSU's voice faculty looked over the terrible sight reading and admitted me into the undergraduate voice program! Yet ANOTHER sign from baby Jesus came when I was informed by the recruiter of the school of music that I should set up sample lessons with the voice professors that I was interested in studying with. I ended up having 3 lessons and by the end I realized that I really "clicked" with one of them in particular. I guess she liked working with me as well because when I called her to request being in her studio (that's the term used for being one of a voice professor's students), she had already saved a spot for me!
So, I ended up being a vocal performance major at LSU! I was still interested in singing musical theatre repertoire, but I thought it couldn't hurt to learn proper vocal technique so that I wouldn't completely lose my voice by the age of 30 due to singing 8 shows a week on Broadway. Nothing could have prepared me for that very first week of classes when I was hit right in the self-esteem by the amount of talent at LSU. Back in high school, I really was a big fish in a small pond, but at LSU I was more like a tiny plankton in the Pacific ocean.
I am going to be completely honest here. My first 2 years of undergrad were very difficult for me. I'm not talking about socially, because I made a lot of friends very quickly and had a couple of very close ones. I'm talking about musically. Singing classically was very hard for me because I could barely sing more than 2 songs without my larynx creeping up on me, which would cause discomfort and prevent me from singing any high notes. As singers, we are taught to sing with a relaxed larynx in order to sing in a healthy and comfortable way. I was singing with decent technique, so I just didn't know why my larynx wouldn't stay relaxed. I pretty much avoided the practice room at all times because I knew that I just couldn't sing for very long without my larynx creeping up on me, which was very frustrating. At the time I was singing very basic soprano repertoire, as were my very best friends. What made matters worse for me was that my friends were having no issues whatsoever singing these songs, so what the heck was wrong with me and my singing?
The main problem ended up being that I'm actually a mezzo-soprano! My voice teacher was a little worried about me when she informed me of this, but I couldn't have been more excited! Singing became so much easier and comfortable for me, which also made it more enjoyable for me. I started singing repertoire appropriate for my voice, and it has been working quite well for me. I've started getting cast in productions at LSU and have done a little concert work as well. I just recently participated in a vocal competition where I made it to the semi-finals! I did that same competition last year, but because I was singing soprano rep, I didn't make it past the 1st round. I know that I still have a TON of work to do on my vocal and acting techniques, but that's exciting to me! And if you're also an aspiring opera singer, that should be exciting for you as well. It's nice to know that I'm definitely NOT at the peak of my career, and that I still have many years left in my musical endeavors.
Now with all of this background information about me, I will finally get to the point of this post. Simply put: everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that baby Jesus has helped me to completely change the direction where my life is going. Who knows where I would be if even 1 of those musical theatre programs had accepted me? I never would've discovered my love for classical music/opera, I would very well be in a lot of debt due to how expensive those schools are, I may have gone into a deep depression due to being pressured to be as skinny as possible in order to be accepted into the musical theatre world, I never would've met my wonderful friends, and I certainly wouldn't be the singer that I am today. Maybe some of the things listed above are a bit extreme, but who knows? All of that could've happened and maybe baby Jesus knew that, which is why I am where I am today.
My message to anyone reading this: Don't let rejections knock you down for too long, because while one door closes, another will certainly open for you. And who knows, that new door could completely change your life in a good way!
I guess that's it for now. I have a lot of interesting posts planned, so stay tuned!
XOXO,
Rachel
