Sara Thomas

Sara Thomas is editor of Classical Singer magazine. She welcomes your comments.

From the Editor : Too Much of a Good Thing

The 2006 M. Night Shyamalan film, Lady in the Water, tells the story of a group of eclectic people that live in the same apartment complex. The movie was hardly

Apr 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : Rock Your Dreams

One night while sitting in my parents’ kitchen watching television, I stumbled across a reality TV show called Rock Star: INXS. I had never gotten into American Idol or other

Mar 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : The Price You (Still) Pay

In recent months, we have a run a series of articles on audition fees for singers. And in this issue, Cindy Sadler continues her discussion on the topic, outlining what singers specifically want to change about the current audition scene (p. 14). One argument that always emerges in such a discussion—and Sadler’s article is no exception—sums up like this: “Musical theatre auditions never require a fee!” An editorial I wrote in August 2009 is just as relevant today as it was then.

Feb 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : Taking Responsibility

When you have two toddler-aged children at home, if the house gets very quiet for very long, you usually know mischief is afoot. Recently, after a moment of such silence,

Jan 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : More Being, Less Doing

While wrapping up this December issue and collecting photos of 2014 highlights from summer programs for our upcoming January issue, I received a panicked e-mail from a program director. “Burning

Dec 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : At First Glance

A few years ago after playing in the pit for the final dress rehearsal of Utah Opera’s The Flying Dutchman, my oboist friend told me that this was one production

Nov 01 Sara Thomas

The Sum of Our Choices

While rocking a sleepy one-year-old recently, I had occasion to sit and look over my shelves of books. I saw at least eight books I have purchased in as many

Oct 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : Squeak Away

It was the end of my freshman year of college and I sat, palms sweating and throat dry, in the vocal department chair’s office. He asked why I had come

Sep 01 Sara Thomas

From the editor : Maintaining Your Musical Mojo

I don’t remember precisely when I first fell in love with opera, but I remember significant, seed-planting moments. It started with my mother. She had degrees in vocal performance and

Jul 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editor : Finding Your Vanilla Yogurt

In an effort to better understand the power of the mind, scientists at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab conducted studies where individuals were asked to sit in front of

Apr 01 Sara Thomas

From the Editior : Inherent Instability

Wilbur and Orville Wright weren’t the first to take flight. But in 1903, their persistent attempts to take to the sky resulted in the first free, controlled, and sustained flights