I LOVE outreach!

Three years ago now, my mom ran into Dr. Susan Armbruster, the acting principal at Lake Bluff's elementary school, at the grocery store and she asked her whether or not I might be interested in being their substitute music teacher for... the rest of the year. Their music teacher has left to follow her boyfriend to the east coast when he was transferred since the P/T teaching position wouldn't allow her to pay rent. My mom asked me and, after thinking about it for 5 minutes (I had NO teaching experience) I decided to give it a try. Those few months were extremely challenging, but also very rewarding, and though I am fairly certain elementary music is not my calling, I know that I find the energy and enthusiasm of children refreshing and their ernestness and innocence inspiring. And in all of my outreach experience since (Hansel and Gretel, Little Red, OSB), my knowledge of how to relate to this age group has been invaluable.

I am at Opera Santa Barbara a week earlier than the rest of the YAPS because I am part of the "outreach quartet", consisting of Diana Stoic Richardson (sop), myself, Jonathan Smucker (tenor) and Andrew Darling (baritone). We do scenes and arias from both The Merry Widow and Carmen for the children who are generally K-6th. As with Granny in Little Red at CROT, this is a great learning experience in physicality on stage as well as actively engaging an audience, because children respond primarily to action as apposed to text (especially if it's in French!). The love duet I sing with Jonathan from The Merry Widow is difficult to really make entertaining for the kids, especially since they generally find romance to be disgusting. ;-) The girls are often most interested in the pretty red dress that I wear. Jonathan sings so beautifully though that he keeps their attention throughout his aria preceeding very well. The Habanera is a different story though, because even though I sing in French (which is probably better so that the children to not get all of the sexual inuendos), I am able to miander throughout the audience and make direct eye contact with many of the kids, which immediately connects them to the performance. I think it is also fascinating for them to see this kind of singing up close. The little ones are often just spell bound. And then if I see the pre-pubescent 7th grade boys in the back getting fidgety and seeming like they are just too cool for school, and definitely too cool for opera, THEY are in trouble. ;-) So they generally get a good idea of who Carmen is, the PG version, of course.

Now the most FASCINATING part about this experience is how well I've been singing in these shows! From the moment I'm on stage I forget about myself because I am looking out into the audience for my next "victims". And without my ego getting in the way, worrying about how I'm going to sound and what my audience will think of me (because, in all honesty, the kids don't care whta you sound like as long as you're entertaining), my voice just flows out. No, it isn't technically perfect, but the character and emotion of the piece come out because I am saying every word with intention. And then at the end I often pause before the last F#, because the kids have often gotten quite vocal themselves at this point, giggling and whispering, and once they've quited a bit I let out the loudest and longest F# I've ever sung. Then they get that opera can be both fun as well as impressive. What if I could accomplish this in auditions? Perhaps I'd be having more success!

The greatest part for me is after the show talking with the kids one on one... we don't always get to do this because we often have to run to our next show, or the kids have to leave, but they are desperate to look at the costumes up close. Or they just want to hug you! It makes me a little teary eyes just to think about it. These are easily the most rewarding moments for me as a performer. And I know that as long as I sing I want to combine these two loves: the love of music and the love of children, of teaching them and brightening their world.