July is Classical Singer’s Coach’s Month. This Coach issue happens every July—and it gives us the opportunity to spotlight a coach as Coach of the Year. This year we chose New York coach Joan Krueger. You can read more about her in the issue—but it’s easy to see why she was our choice.
Coaches are such an integral part of our business, and so often they don’t get the praise they deserve for all the work they do behind the scenes. They spend hours and hours helping us prepare the opera roles—but we are the ones who step out to take a bow. They often prepare us for recitals that they don’t play, and they do it all with good humor and grace. It’s amazing the level of education many of them have, and the years of training, yet they are willing to work for far less than their counterparts in other fields.
All it takes is a less-than-stellar coach to make you appreciate all the good ones. Not long ago, I was working with a coach who kept undermining me, telling me what a bad singer I was and acting as if I was hurting his ears! He kept telling me that I needed to study voice with him to correct all my faults. He told me over and over again about one of his students who was having great success after working with him as a voice student.
I put up with it for several weeks because he was an excellent pianist—but soon, I realized my confidence was going down the tubes.
I’ve had three coaches who refused to practice my recital material before important recitals—and so, those performances were sloppy and full or errors. Luckily, those coaches are few and far between.
I went back to other coaches who were able to bring out the best in me—beaming when I sounded great, and mentioning when I needed to make an adjustment. Correcting language and pitch inaccuracies, suggesting interpretation ideas—just making great music together. It’s amazing how fast you can progress when you are on the right team.
That is what a great coach should be. You should leave a coaching feeling inspired to do better and work harder, never feeling worse about your talent. Singers should run from coaches who try to act like voice teachers! It’s wonderful when coaches give you feedback about how you sound, but they shouldn’t be monkeying with the apparatus. That is better left to voice teachers. A good coach knows where the line is and doesn’t step over it.
We know as singers what we would like a coach to be. But coaches have their own wish lists. I spoke to a few and here’s what they mentioned:
• Please bring your own water bottles! One glass may not seem like a lot to you but by the end of the day of coaching, it’s a lot of dishwashing.
• Please don’t put your water bottles on the piano! They leave a stain.
• Please don’t staple your music. It can draw blood!
• Please don’t put your music in plastic sleeves. The glare makes it hard to read.
• Please arrive on time. If you are late, understand that the coach needs to start the next lesson on time.
• It would be helpful to write the check out ahead of time so check writing doesn’t take time away from the next appointment.
• Please mark your music clearly for cadenzas, ritards, and fermatas, if you expect your coach to sight-read your music well for an audition.
Not much to ask! So this is coaches’ month. Do something nice for your coach!
Have a great month. To find a good coach, go to the Coach Directory online at www.ClassicalSinger.com
CJ Williamson
Editor
If you have a question about this article or anything else, please write to Ms. CJ Williamson, the editor of Classical Singer magazine at cj@classicalsinger.com (PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS) or P.O. Box 95490, South Jordan, UT 95490. Letters can be used as “Letters to the Editor” if you would like, “Name Withheld” if you’d like, or just meant for the staff only. Just let us know.
