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NYSTA introduces the inaugural season of The Josephine Mongiardo Great Coaches Series. This season we proudly present Roger Vignoles. For more information see our Events page. (pictured, Josephine Mongiardo, past President)
NYSTA is proud to offer The Janet Pranschke Professional Development Scholarship, awarded to one Apprentice Member each academic season. For more information or to apply for scholarship email the PDP Director (pictured, Janet Prancshke, Founding Director- PDP)
New PDP On Demand Format NYSTA's Video Archive Our current Video Archives are posted and can be viewed (and re-viewed) at any time 24/7.
We encourage you all to take a look. It’s the next best thing to being there! New events will be posted throughout the season, so check back often. |
NYSTA's Season Opening Event, October 8, 2006 The teachers, students and singers who attended the event—which was open to the public and held Sunday evening at the West Bank Cafe’s Laurie Beechman Theater in Manhattan—were privileged to hear Mitchell speak candidly and personably about training and protecting your voice, working in the theater, and singing for stage, cabaret and CD. Mitchell spent about 40 minutes answering questions, the first three asked by the event’s host, and Mitchell’s close friend, David Sabella-Mills, who’s on the board of directors of NYSTA (and was the original Mary Sunshine in the Chicago revival). After taking questions from the audience, Mitchell discussed how he went about making “The Impossible Dream” his own. In a highly animated 30-minute discussion akin to opening up his diary for the audience, Mitchell analyzed the words and melody, recounted his scrutiny of and experimentation with the song, and described his efforts to differentiate himself from Richard Kiley’s iconic performance. He even sang the song three different ways—“old style,” i.e., as Kiley sang it; the cheesy version that’s been proffered by lounge lizards the world over; and, finally and thrillingly, the way he had performed it (to Tony-nominated effect) on Broadway. Kiley’s “classical” approach to the song entailed “long-line phrasing” that put the emphasis on the last word of each line (“dream,” “foe,” “sorrow,” e.g.), according to Mitchell. But he felt the emphasis belonged on the adjectives—“unbeatable,” “unbearable,” etc.—since the song is about trying to do the impossible. And that’s where the Mount Everest analogy came in. Mitchell recalls seeing an IMAX movie about Mount Everest and how the footage of climbers struggling to reach the summit struck him as a visual rendition of “The Impossible Dream.” Because the song is so famous, Mitchell wanted to “give it my spin and take it someplace that people aren’t expecting.” So he added a key change toward the end and hit a high note on the last line: “…the unreachable star!” Man of La Mancha composer Mitch Leigh liked the key change but not the high note—because, Leigh told him, “the song is about trying to reach the unreachable star, and that note makes it sound like you’ve reached it.” Mitchell decided to sing it with the high note anyway, though once the show opened he realized he should have listened to Leigh since it put such a strain on his voice. So he stopped using the high note, although it’s on the cast recording. Mitchell wanted to make one other change, to the lyric “To bear with unbearable sorrow.” He’d always thought “To bear the unbearable sorrow” made more sense and followed the word pattern in the other lines. When he asked Leigh why lyricist Joe Darion hadn’t written it with “the,” Leigh gave him “like a 10-minute answer,” so he decided it wasn’t worth fighting. “But still I think that ‘the’ would be a better word,” Mitchell confided to the NYSTA audience. During the Q&A, Mitchell answered audience questions about his typical vocal warmup, using classical training when singing popular music and show tunes, and the infiltration of American Idol-style singing on Broadway. He told the NYSTA guests the three bits of advice he most wanted them to take away from the evening: Learn to listen to your heart. Follow it. And know thyself, meaning your strengths and weaknesses. The event concluded with a reception, during which Mitchell answered even more questions for about an hour. ![]() Mr. Mitchell with NYSTA Board members Nancy Adams, Lisa Hogan, Katherine Hoffman, David Sabella-Mills, Dora Ohrenstein, Paula Liscio, Daniel James Shigo and Janet Pranschke
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![]() NYSTA CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION One of the nation’s oldest teaching organizations, The New York Singing Teachers’ Association, Inc. (NYSTA) celebrated its 100th anniversary on April 28, 2006 at the Kosziusko Foundation, 15 East 65 Street in Manhattan, on Friday, April 28th from 6-10 pm. Broadway Star (and NYSTA member) Victoria Clark received this year’s Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her luminous portrayal of Margaret Johnson in the critically acclaimed Craig Lucas-Adam Guettel musical The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. Clark's Broadway debut was in 1985 in Sunday in the Park With George, and she has since delighted audiences and critics in such roles as Alice Beane in Titanic, Smitty in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and in Jerry Zaks’ Tony Award-winning revival of Guys and Dolls. Ms. Millo and Ms. Clark were interviewed at the gala by performer, director and writer Ira Siff, and Broadway performer and voice teacher David Sabella-Mills (respectively).The evening also included honors to past presidents of the organization and to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the field of vocal pedagogy. The New York Singing Teachers' Association, Inc. Among its many achievements, the organization is most proud of its Professional Development Program, founded in 2000 under then president Janet Pranshke. This series of master's level courses for voice professionals taught by leading pedagogues, voice scientists, otolaryngologists and speech pathologists, culminates in a Distinguished Vocal Professional Certificate. With these courses, NYSTA has realized a mission first stated 100 years ago: to place the grand historic tradition of voice teaching on a firm scientific footing. |
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