Last Sunday (15 June 2008), I was lucky enough to take part in a singing Masterclass in Bristol with American Tenor, Chris Swanson. This was another “first” for me (this year seems to producing quite a few) and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. The format was pretty simple: there were ten students, each of whom had prepared two pieces and we each sang one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the time available (which worked out at about 15 minutes per song) Chris could only pick a particular aspect of each performance to work on and this provided the vehicle for his teaching.

Thankfully, Chris is one of those guys you instantly warm to – and you sense immediately that he knows what he’s talking about – so this took any stress out of the event, although I still get slightly nervous when singing in front of people. I was amazed at the difference he made to our performances. After working on a section of song for even a short time, without exception he coaxed us into making real improvements.

In the morning, I sang “Ich Grolle Nicht” from Schumann’s Dichterliebe Song Cycle and we worked on maintaining the energy beyond the top A. In the afternoon I sang Flotow’s “M’Appari, Tutt’Amor” and we worked on ‘letting go’ in the climactic passages in order to achieve a much more open sound. I tend to flap around like a demented penguin when I’m singing and move about far too much, so Chris got me to stand still and channel that energy into the singing instead. All agreed that the resulting performance was an improvement.

When I’m on stage and performing, I think I lose half of my brain (it’s why I have to rehearse a piece to death before I’m confident enough to perform it) and this also means that in the Masterclass, I learnt more by watching the other students (when the spotlight isn’t on you, it’s easier to absorb information).

To be honest, I had worried that the Masterclass might be just a little bit “competitive” but my concerns were unfounded. It would be hard to find a friendlier bunch of folk and of course, we were all there because of our shared passion for music and our personal quests to improve our singing. With Chris’s help, we learnt a lot from each other. So, was the experience worthwhile? Absolutely, and I hope to get along to his next Masterclass if he returns next year.