On the Horizon of Change

I've blogged off and on for a few years on livejournal and have resolved to start blogging again and integrate it more fully with my web site.  So here goes!I'm in the middle of a big life change.  This fall I will begin doctoral studies in vocal performance and literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I'm excited and feel ready for a change of pace.  Though I've enjoyed my work teaching voice at Earlham College and in the core curriculum at Butler University, I'm ready to devote some serious time to developing my own potential as a musician and educator.Several things have prepared me for this: the Odyssey Writing Workshop which I attended in 2006, the Indy Convergence in which I have participated for four years, and my work with improvisation on my own, with others, and in workshops led by Ann Baltz and by Christopher Azzara.How did a writing workshop prepare me to go back to school in music?  It's complicated.  I'll try to explain briefly, though ideally I'd like to write an essay about this.  I've never had a problem taking criticism.  At least, I didn't think so.  I never got upset or burst into tears if someone told me I needed to improve.  I wouldn't have made it through two degrees in music if that had been the case.  But I think I had a problem successfully integrating criticism in order to be better.  Sometimes I was too much like the dog who is off and running before the stick has left the master's hand--so eager to show that "yes I can do this!" that I didn't always stop to make sure I fully understood the suggestion.  Other times I may have fallen victim to despair ("I'm a dime-a-dozen lyric soprano.  What's the point?")At Odyssey, thanks to Jeanne Cavelos, I learned a lot about how to handle criticism objectively and make use of it in order to improve as a writer.  Since then I have sold some short fiction and I know I am light years ahead of where my writing was before the workshop.  This is also due to returning every year for TNEO, "The Never-Ending Odyssey" which is the Odyssey alumni workshop.  Skills get rusty when unused and having that yearly critique with other Odyssey graduates has been great motivation for me to keep writing in the midst of a pretty busy life.  I wasn't sure for a few years after Odyssey whether I wanted to go back to school in creative writing or in music.  Then I realized that every single thing I learned at Odyssey could also apply to my work as a performer.  Bingo!  Am I ready to have someone take apart my vocal technique to its most organic level and build it back up again?  Absolutely.  I've been through this already with my writing and now I know how.It's fitting, then, that I'm about to return to Odyssey as the Resident Supervisor for this summer, assisting Jeanne and living on campus with the 2012 Odyssey class.  I'm looking forward to being a part of this excellent workshop.Later, I'd like to explain how the Convergence has helped prepare me to go back to school, but right now I'm fresh out of the 2012 Convergence and my head and heart are so full from the wonderful collaborations that there just aren't words.  Yet.