Subject matter aside, “Florence Foster Jenkins” is one of the best film of the year, if not the decade.  Meryl Streep closes the book on what it means to be an amazing actor, and the others around her provide incredible performances to as well a written biopic script  as I’ve seen.  Not to mention that she performed all of the songs live on the set!  But let’s get back to the subject, Mrs. Jenkins.

No one that has attended a voice lesson in a college in America has missed hearing Florence Foster Jenkins’ album, “The Glory of the Human Voice.”  In all of the schools that I attended or at which I've taught, it was only a matter of time before her Queen of the Night would come wafting down the hallways followed by a gaggle of laughter and sheer looks of surprise from the uninitiated.  Perhaps it’s her regularly out of tune singing, her verbose and active resonant strategy changes, the way her phrasing sheers lines of their intended character through random slides, glottal stops, tempo changes, and smears, and there is so much more to love to hate, if only to show that you know what “good singing” sounds like…and that ain’t it.  

The film depicts her as an avid music supporter whose syphilis had taken a toll on her body and whose husband (though not lover) had created a sealed world around her with her money, allowing her frequent enough performances in closed venues with paid-for reviews from willing columnists.  The kindness with which the film portrayed her was matched by its clear depiction of her eccentricity and the possibilities that money gave her to isolate herself from reality.  Yet, it doesn’t delve into why she has been the favorite punching bag of the American vocal institution for as long as anyone can remember.  That’s a topic that we get to live with. 

Maybe most people are upset by the fact that her wealth afforded her opportunities reserved for the artistic elite, and that she seemingly brazenly dismissed quality for her own sense of public aggrandisement.  I can play the 99% card as well as anyone, but I think this story holds up a bigger mirror, one where the jeers of a judgmental industry regularly shuts people and their voices down before it thinks to build them up. 

The scene where the renowned conductor and vocal coach gives her a lesson is both fantastic comedy and an eye opening vision into the voice world’s mythic past, a world where only those rare few who could make their voices function could make something out of the randomness of vocal instruction.  A major question that the film seems to pose is:

Do we want a world where only a few will sing due to significant social pressures, or one where we all understand that our voices have enormous potential, should we seek to find it? 

Though her central nervous system may have been tragically altered by her disease causing her to never make substantial progress as a coloratura, one can imagine a narrative where supportive and fruitful opportunities existed for a determined, dedicated music enthusiast who wanted to perform for her friends.  . .

Not to say that it isn’t funny.  I’ve laughed along to her album many times, simply because of the profound contrast between Lady Florence’s and others depictions of popular songs.  Still, even from the first time my voice teacher put the needle on his worn copy of “The Glory of the Human Voice”, I found myself wanting to defend her, her right to sing, to be out of tune if that’s what she found herself doing, and to live in a world that didn’t seek to ridicule voice users just for trying.  For all of the people out there who love their voices the way they are, and regularly strive to find new avenues to explore their vocal potential, perhaps Florence Foster Jenkins can now ascend to become your patron, if not your patron saint.  And if we're lucky enough, we'll all get more chances to experience the beauty of people who sing because they love it first and foremost.

~David

 We spent the summer teaching, researching, and performing across the country, starting in Boston, and stopping in Sharpsburg, Nashville, Birmingham, Iowa City, Salt Lake City, Denver, Boulder, Crested Butte, Grand Junction, Ashland, Eugene, Portland, Seattle, and finally San Francisco.  As we spent our last night before arriving in Southern California, and looked out over the Pacific from near Big Sur, we felt the rush of renewal.

 We’ve been looking forward to starting our L.A. life for months, and now it’s under way.  A place to live and livelihoods have been secured, networking has begun,  our new workshop layout will be unveiled soon, and website updates that we’ve been working on all summer will be uploaded over the next few months.  We love Los Angeles already for the weather, the people, and the possibilities.  We hope you’ll enjoy the opportunities that L.A. is able to provide for us, as we share them with you in the coming year!

As the summer wound its way toward July, we found ourselves on the West Coast, traveling north before we ultimately headed south to Los Angeles.  Three workshops in two weeks started in Portland, OR, at Portland State University.  The gathering of college professors and graduate students from several of Oregon’s higher education institutions made for a knowledgeable, and engaged group.  We particularly enjoyed the vocal analyzer sessions at the end, with world-class operatic voices.

Two days later we were presenting at Fremont Abbey in Seattle.  This workshop was tooled specifically for people from the Contemporary Commercial Music side of the voice world, and included a range of voice users from actors and spoken word poets, to death metal, jazz, and pop musicians, and even a choral representative.  The conversations illuminated the varied vocal needs in the CCM community, and we were able to work with professional actors and jazz singers on the voice analyzer, which revealed some interesting information.  The after-workshop was especially fun.  These two workshops back-to-back demonstrated how a vocological approach to singing allows for people of all styles to find healthy, meaningful choices with their instrument, and shows how excited they become about their options.

A week passed before we worked with the Calvary Presbyterian Church choir.  Being a choir-focused workshop, we trimmed a little information, and amped up the participation.  The results were wonderful.  A multi-generational group of singers regularly applied voice science concepts quickly and with predictable, noticeable, measurable results.  They were also incredibly generous, and loads of fun to spend the day with.