Singing for my supper

As mentioned in yesterday's quick update , teaching now dominates my life, and the thoughts below have been percolating for a while (and, in fact, are why I resurrected the blog!).  I often hear new teachers asking questions about choosing repertoire for younger or developing singers, which prompted me to jot down a few notes that guide my own thinking as I choose pieces for my students at all ages and stages of development.    

Eight years since the last post.  EIGHT YEARS.  Not quite sure how that has happened, but here we are!   My old blog summary, which I've just updated:  "Musings on my life as a busy opera singer, voice teacher, photographer and mom - not necessarily in that order! I consider myself immensely fortunate to have carved out a way of doing all of these things which mean so much to me - it may sometimes get a little crazy, but it's always worth it. Welcome to the madhouse!" I'm still fortunate, and I'm still doing all these things in one way or another, but life has sure changed a lot since then. We've come out the other side of a major recession. The beautiful 12 year old in the  sidebar photo is graduating from college and moving on to grad school (note to self, update photo!).  Both of my parents passed away in 2019, after 5 complicated, traumatic years of steep decline.  I was appointed Voice Department Chair of a conservatory Preparatory division and now fi