Live your life to the fullest.
Dance as if no one were watching,
Sing as if no one were listening,
And live every day as if it were your last.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

My 30 Year Singing Career

If one is considered to be a professional once they are paid for their services, then I made my "professional debut" at age 11 when I began touring through Connecticut with a troupe of Irish dancers.  No, I didn't dance (and don't ask me).  My job was to give the dancers a break while I sang a set of Irish songs and later in the program a set of Broadway tunes.  God, can you imagine an eleven year old singing "Climb Every Mountain" or "You'll Never Walk Alone" along with several other inappropriate  selections?  How obnoxious I must have been!  I continued performing for close to thirty years until I felt that public school teaching, along with the lack of consistent practicing (if practice doesn't make "perfect" it certainly makes "better"), was beginning to take a toll on the reliability of my voice. What I could easily do in my 20s and 30s was becoming more difficult and I knew that I couldn't do both well much longer. It just seemed that when I was in the mood to practice I didn't have the time and when I had the time I wasn't in the mood. The decision to stop singing came in the middle of a recital which was going quite well.  I had peaked and it was only a matter of time, in my opinion, that my voice would begin to decline.  Why not just end with this recital while I'm on top?  With the exception of a wedding commitment I had a couple weeks later, I cleared my calendar of future engagements and "turned off the pipes" for good.    Shown below is a scene from  my  junior high school musical in 1967 at Our Lady of Victory School in West Haven.  I have no memory of the name of the show or any of the music but I'll never forget my character's name:  Herr Sforzando . . . an eccentric opera singer.  


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