There's a corner of this community where there's a list of TERRIFIC teachers with experience, perspective, solutions, and tools. I want this to be a place where you have access to some of the best hearts and minds teaching musical theatre singing. Today's feature -- @Rose Van Dyne (I'm going in reverse alphabetical order) Rose is a terrific teacher, fantastic singer and performer, an accomplished music director, and top notch pianist. I had the privilege of working with Rose in BoCo's MFA Pedagogy program. She's brilliant, resourceful, a solution finder, works with intention and grit, and is a great artist for you to know. Her website is here -- https://www.rosevandyne.com/

Today's Teacher Feature is my BoCo colleague (and Greensboro NC native!) Dr. @Emily Siar. Emily is a fantastic teacher and artist. She's brilliant, kind, and dang she can sing. (She won the NATS Artist Award this year which requires you to sing like 78 different genres of classical repertoire -- a big accomplishment.) She explained registration and acoustics better than anyone I'd ever heard at last summer's Vocal Pedagogy Professional Workshop at the Conservatory. And I really appreciate how she shares her own experience, strength, and hope with vocal recovery to help her students and colleagues, destigmatizing the things that can happen to vocal athletes. So glad you're here, Emily. https://www.emilysiar.com/

I'm singing a concert tomorrow with a local wind and brass ensemble, and the piece I'm singing has ever-changing time signatures. At rehearsal this week I thought oh I can read music I should be fine on this counting. I made a few mistakes. So I literally went through my music and wrote the number of beats on every measure, and at the dress rehearsal today I literally counted using my fingers against my folder. I sang it well, and all the rhythms were precise. My brain thought "if you were a real musician you wouldn't need to write these counts out and you would be able to just to feel the internal pulse without counting on your fingers like a second grader." -- messages I picked up from various teachers and professors. Truth is I needed the numbers in my score and I needed my fingers to count so that I could know where I actually was. It worked, and it made me feel confident, and I did good work. Are there things that you tell yourself you shouldn't need? What if you gave them to yourself? Do yourself every favor.

Hey Theatre Singer! 🎭 Welcome to Dan Callaway Studio -- This community helps theatre singers sing great, audition beautifully, get to work, and create a wholehearted life through top-notch tools. We encourage each other, stoke generosity, and remember there's only one you, and somebody needs to her the story only you can sing. STEP 1: Introduce yourself below! (✂️ copy paste these questions 👇) 📍 Where are you from? and/or Where do you live now? 🎵 What song(s) are you currently working on? 🦄 Wave a magic wand and make one thing about your artist life true. What would happen? STEP 2: Read the rules and find out what you can start using in the classroom.

This morning I took an hour before everybody was up to pour my noggin out onto paper. It helped. It was mostly a prayer asking what's best to focus on this summer. I usually go through a period of wiggle waggle when the school year ends and all the things I said I'd get to when I had more time line up like early adopters at the Apple Store. I asked for some clarity, and I got some 🙏. And some of it was super boring and obvious. Like, ok fine, yes, I've been neglecting the good, everyday work that's right in front of me in favor of the shiny maybes. But once I had 15 minutes of quiet to say, "Yep, I'm going to get back to that simple everyday thing," I saw the everyday things that would set the space to do the other things. Kind of like setting up the coffee, cleaning the sink, and running the dishwasher the night before creates a better morning. As I was making pancakes for the boys in the still quiet(ish) kitchen (no podcasts or YouTubes) it was great to see all the input I was getting from me. How much of our own wisdom are we drowning out in a constant stream of inputs? What are some of your daily things that, when you take care of them, will set you up well for the next things? And where are some times in your day when you can put your inputs aside and enjoy some quiet with yourself?