I was first introduced to Anne of Green Gables via the hugely popular PBS movie made in the 1980s starring Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst. My love affair with the books soon followed, and I read all eight of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s classics featuring the feisty, imaginative, intelligent, and passionate Anne. I often wished my hair were red and that I might meet my own Gilbert one day.
Anne Shirley’s zest for life and passion for speaking her mind often results in failures and fiascos, followed by deep regrets of what she should have done or said or, most often, not done or said. Even while lamenting her debacles, Anne looks for the positive. One of my favorite Anne quotables is “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.”
So it can be with all new beginnings, including a new school year. With the cooling temperatures and greens turning to orange, yellow, and red, the change of season and semester offers a chance to turn over a new leaf. If you’re a freshman, a transfer student, or a first-year graduate student, you have no reputation preceding you. No one knows your grades, whether you were the lead in the school play, or that you barely passed chemistry. Even returning students have new classes, new acquaintances, and new opportunities. You decide what type of student, roommate, friend, and colleague you will be in your new setting. How very exciting!
This month’s cover story features legendary bass Samuel Ramey (p. 26). Recognizing that he can’t sing forever, Ramey has taken on a second career: teacher. He freely (and humbly) admits that this fresh start involves making mistakes and a fair amount of trial and error. But according to his students and colleagues at Wichita State University, it’s precisely that attitude that is already making him a success in his new role.
Perfecting and honing one’s craft is the art of making mistakes and turning those mistakes into success. Dedicated singers carry out this art each day in the practice room. In this issue we bring you two articles to help your practice time be less frustrating and more fruitful. First, Michelle Latour lays out the basics for effective practice room time management (p. 52). Then Dean Southern offers a slew of ideas to take your practice to the next level—without ever opening your mouth (p. 56).
Seeing tomorrow as a fresh opportunity may require letting go of common stereotypes or misperceptions. Such is the case for a handful of singers who decided to go back to school after the typical college age (p. 62). These avant-garde pupils candidly discuss the pros and cons of being the less traditional student.
Sometimes we learn from other people’s mistakes—and successes. We welcome the return of the “Distant Voices” column (p. 114). Dean Southern will continue to bring us stories of singers from days gone by for our vicarious learning pleasure. We also bid farewell to the “$50 Week” column. Longtime writer Olivia Giovetti has helped CS readers avoid major money mistakes, but now is off to new adventures. We will deeply miss her contributions to the magazine and wish her well in her fresh start.
For those not going back to school this fall, new beginnings may be difficult to see in day-to-day routines. But fresh-start epiphanies abound. A few days ago, while scrolling through the apps on my iPhone, my eye stopped on the calendar app that prominently displayed the number “1.” My heart did a little leap of joy at the sight. A wonderfully busy month full of sweet memories was ending and a new month lay ahead, like a fresh white canvas waiting to be filled with colorful, new experiences.
Let us remember, as did Anne, that each new day (and week and month) is always fresh with no mistakes in it.
