Sister Story #1

So going back to school, it’s bringing up some old feelings.

Like, I know why I'm doing this. I have a purpose this time.

I always kind of felt in the back of my head that what I was doing with music education was just a step. I actually fought my professors to be a performance major.

This one professor had this way of classifying a student’s voice that was surprisingly accurate. He’d look at people and say, “....facial structure, length of your neck.... I'm going to predict that you're this one type…” and he could be really accurate with it, but it wasn’t 100%. And when he looked at me, he had it in his head that my high cheekbones and long neck = mezzo soprano. And I even had two private teachers tell this director, “No, she's a soprano.” But he kept giving me mezzo roles. I was fighting to keep somebody from literally taking away my voice.

If I could, I’d tell my younger self that it’s ok to admit that you want to go in a certain direction. I think younger me was hearing all this while, “You’d be a great teacher...” from other people, but I was not feeling right about it. In my heart, I knew what was right for me. I'd say listen to that, listen to your intuition; listen to what you know about your own self.

Moving forward, I’m not giving up on anything. It just kind of feels like more a new phase, I guess.

In a way, I’m taking my own voice back.

(Seattle, WA)