The Beginning of Happiness

Dear readers,

When a fellow live theatre goer shouted at me in the Fall 2021, "another survivor!!!" I chuckled at the statement. It took a moment before I realized that it was no exaggeration. I wish to acknowledge the hardship, adaptation, revision, planning, cancellations, equipment, protocols, and more that artists have had to navigate during this pandemic. We are, indeed, survivors. In these past two years, I have acquired black singer masks, more home recording equipment, attended zoom rehearsals when I don't feel well enough to attend in-person rehearsals, and rapid test before rehearsals. At this point in time, seeing singing faces covered with masks is the norm. I remember at one of my first rehearsals back in June 2021, I marvelled at how heads are attached to bodies, they're not just heads floating in a virtual meeting frame. How was it that 25 other bodies arrived at the same time and place to sing with me? It was such a sensory overload to hear that much sound but a welcome change to feel the energy of singers around me again.

Rehearsal with Good Women in July 2021

I have never been a fan of learning the hard way. I welcome the past wisdom and advice of those who have walked the path before me. However, these past 2 years felt different as we were all figuring out how to continue with Arts creation with fluctuating pandemic restrictions and risk levels. My collaborative project with FEMME Vocal Quartet and Good Women Dance Collective was no different as we cancelled our live show, "The Beginning of Happiness," weeks before the premiere. It was a project we had all been rehearing since July 2019 and planning even before that time. Amongst the artistic core in the Spring 2021, we decided that a film would be a realistic and safe way of seeing through the project. Director of Photography, Tamarra Lessard, assembled a crew for us to film in August 2021. There were many logistics to consider in adapting the live music + dance show to a film. Park permits needed to be obtained for evening filming, costumes had to be adapted to be used in water, and most significant, the score was shortened from one hour to 30 minutes. The film is now available for streaming from February 17-24, 2022. Half of the proceeds will be donated to WIN House.

The Beginning Happiness Performers and Crew for August 2021 filming

Recording at Silver Studios in May 2021 

During our recording sessions in May-July 2021, FEMME recorded the entire one hour work at Silver Studios. All the singers recorded their parts separately to stay covid safe and the recording engineers, Caleb Nelson and Amelia Chan, later layered the tracks to form the ensemble sound. This was possible since we sang to click tracks programmed to specific tempos and heard the playback of the other voices who had recorded their parts already.

My ears are greeted with the reunited sound of FEMME once again as listen to the album writing this post. The music is such sensitive and informed writing for treble voices. For a work that explores and reflects upon issues of domestic violence, there is a healing beauty within the musical storytelling. There is such a wide range of vocal textures created ranging from the warm feel of love to breathless unrest. After having this work living in my tablet for three years, I am so grateful that this music gets to live in the world. There is a wonderful sense of closure to be able to release this music and invite listeners in.

FEMME Vocal Quartet during Aug 2021 filming

The album is available for streaming and download from Bandcamp. We suggest a price of $10 for download but will gratefully accept donations above that amount. Proceeds from the album will go towards FEMME's continued work to amplify a contemporary female perspective within choral music through new commissions and performance.

Take 50 - Canadian Chamber Choir CD Recording

There are many times in my life when I am reminded of how lucky I am to pursue multiple passions. My daily Edmonton life is filled with speech pathology clients, playing with my nieces and nephews, working on my computer while my mom crochets and streams Asian tv shows on her iPad, watching my dad work in the garden as I hand-grind beans for an americano, late-night chai lattes with friends, biking across the high-level bridge, and live theatre in cozy theatres; however, whenever I get the chance to uproot from my local community and venture off to to pursue another passion, choral singing, it leaves me wondering who exactly I am sometimes where I have the luxury to play these multiple roles. I excise myself and transplant myself into another choral community for a few days sharing music-making with others. In this past Canadian Chamber Choir trip, the focus was on recording a C.D. entitled, A Canadian Mass: Sacred Reflections of Canada. It is an array of sacred and reflective texts by Canadian composers.

We arrived in Elmira, Ontario on Thursday evening for rehearsals and starting Friday started a three day process to begin recording 18 tracks for the C.D. As frustrating and fatiguing as it was to have to re-do takes when there were noisy infringements on the recordings atmosphere from busses hissing at their stop to motorcycle mufflers rattling on the road in the front of the church, there was a sense of silent camaraderie ride amongst all the singers and splendid moments of music making.

Tension. I was reminded of how tense I was holding myself during the recording. It stemmed from hearing the increasing number of takes announced on the speaker from CD producer, Jeff Reilly, in the recording room: "Ave Maria by Fogarty Take 34". The starting pitches were given by the Dr. Julia Davids on the digital keyboard. She stepped over the serpentine knotted black piles of recording chords, before resuming her position at the music stand to cue the choir in on a piano entry with a soft onset for the initial vowel in "ave."  So much tension. I had to remind myself to breathe, sing with confidence, and trust in my fellow singers. A recording session is like a simulated pressure cooker in how everybody responds to stress. Sometimes it is removing visual distractions, other times it is accepting things beyond ones control like a tummy gurgle or an elbow pop. Often my tendency is to leave something hard then come back later; however, that was not really an option this weekend. We had a limited amount of time to record a lot of music but I could also sense the anxiety rise exponentially take after take of an imperfect phrase delivery. There were also other moments where I could relax and bask in the searing pure tuning of some final chords like the final word "free" in Barrie Cabena's "Be a still and know that I am God" or the warm, hushed tones of Don MacDonald's "tabula rasa."

There was a nice rhythm to the recording days. It was refreshing to be able to wake up and not have to pack and commute to another town. Instead , I had the luxury of leaving all my things in one place and just preparing what I would need for the recording. Upon early arrival at the church, I also had time to explore Kitchener downtown and locate some local coffee establishments to get me through the rest of the afternoon and evening.

The recording process would usually start with a cold run-through. From there we would get basic notes from Julia and Jeff and then we do another run-through again. From there we might get more detailed notes and do another run-through, this time, starting and stopping the take. Depending on results, we might have to work backwards or just do sections of the piece. If we still needed more precision then we would do a surgical strike and record just a few bars of what we needed. After all of the inner detail work, we would usually run the piece another 1-2 times to see if we could capture any additional magic after all that work. Each piece took about 45 minutes to record on average. In between takes, I would wiping my brow, sticky from the humidity, or sprawling across the stairs on the floor of the church to see if the sharp angle could help dislodge the tension knot in my right shoulder blade from holding my music folder.

After 18 tracks and three recording days we finished our final take of that day, take 50 with Stephanie Martin's "O Sacrum Convivium." A rousing round of cheers, group hugs, and pats on the back resulted after Jeff announced completion after the final take. There was a unison feeling of relief and satisfaction.

You can pre-order the CD at the website which will be released sometime in the Fall.


There are numerous people to thank in order to execute this recording: Conductor, Dr. Julia Davids, Producer Jeff Reilly, Recording technician Rod Sneddon, the 20 CCC singers flying or driving to Ontario, the community billets hosting the singers, all the CCC CD donors, and CCC General Manager Corey Ticknor. I do want to take this time to give a special thanks to Jeff Enns. In addition to being the CCC Composer in Residence as well as CCC singer, he had to juggle so many things at the ground level to make this recording happen. He drove me to the Hamilton airport (I was the only chorister leaving from this location), connected with host families for choristers, tended to a sick pre-teen, managed church bookings for the recording, organized Sunday service, drove choristers everywhere, coordinated vehicles for rides, grocery shopped late on Friday night for sandwich lunch components the next day, and cooked extra soups and casseroles this past week to make sure there was enough food. I'm sure there were even more duties he completed with stealth that I don't even know about. It was a pleasure and a highlight to sing at his church, St. James Lutheran, in Elmira on Sunday and give back in a small way after the additional stressors he took on while maintaining his comedic charm. Covert heroes are the best.

For more social media posts from the weekend:

The Making of The Great Human Odyssey Soundtrack - A Chorister's Perspective

Ready to perform for a live studio audience

It blows my mind what can happen in 28 hours.

That is the amount of time Pro Coro had to record all the vocal parts for the documentary, The Great Human Odyssey. We received a copy of the coiled music, still warm from the printers, on Monday at 6 PM and we finished recording at 10 PM on Tuesday. Furthermore, in that time, we also performed the work to a sold-out audience at the Winspear for the Sound, Light, Motion Event hosted by Make Something Edmonton.

I had an inkling that this would be a pretty cool project but it didn't fully hit me until I saw the amount of media exposure there was in anticipation of this unique event. It is not everyday that a project of this size is realized while recruiting so much participation from the local arts community. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra recorded all the orchestral lines and the film crew decided to use an live choral voices for all the recording instead of synthesizers.

The documentary gathers film footage and interviews from individuals all over the world over the span of 18 months. The documentary content investigates the journey of humans outside of Africa. There is an insightful interview and stunning teaser trailer released online for you to learn more. The three-part series airs on CBC in 2015 on David Suzuki's The Nature of Things. The unique part of this project is its connections to Edmonton. The filmmaker, Niobe Thompson, is from Edmonton as well as the composer, Darren Fung, who had less than seven weeks to compose the score.

Monday night was stressful because we had just received the music and two hours later we were performing it in front of a live audience. However, the warmth of the audience paired with the choir's first glimpses of the footage accompanying the music melted away most of our hesitation. Our vocal parts were just one component of this mammoth machine of Art. We were just coming in for a few hours to contribute our voices for aural storytelling. I can't even begin to imagine how the crew and filmmaker, Niobe Thompson, have been dreaming and living this project for the past few years. You just sense this grateful and excited energy from all of the crew which inspired us, as singers, to help them fully realize their vision.

It was my first time using a click track played through a one-sided headphone. It was a constant metronome click synced with the tempo markings in the music. The other ear was left open to listen. What I found right away is that having one ear blocked wiped out my ability to listen to singers around me and tune chords so I wore as much of the headphone off of my ear as possible during the actual recording on Tuesday. We also popped in some recording tricks to decrease noise, such as wearing slippers or flattening our music stand and turning them 180 degrees to help remedy the scrape of our page turns on the metallic stand ledge. The ESO had also been recording Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning so by the time Pro Coro arrived on Tuesday afternoon we were able to hear the metronome clicks as well as the orchestral parts played back into our ears as we were singing. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of quick turnaround the crew had to do in the recording booth since Darren was able to just say "two bars before measure 40" and they would be able to pull up those exact bars of orchestral accompaniment in our headphone and we could begin singing. The process also demonstrated the fluidity in music recording. We would add or remove lines, try different voicing on parts, sing different melodies in the piano reduction, change vowels, add more notes into the chord - it evolved into this organic process where the music was being created and tweaked right in that very recording session. Darren was having so much fun that there was no increased stress with the last-minute edits. There was an open willingness to experiment and see what we could come up with.

It is exhausting but satisfying to emerge from a 28 hour process that included six hours of recording and a two hour live concert. The entire spirit of the Make Something Edmonton movement is to take the visions of Edmontonians, and with community self-reflection, ask how we can help so individuals can realize their dreams. As a result, we create this common goal of a vibrant city that runs on community powered momentum. I'm left wondering when's the next time I can do something as cool as this.

Recording is a wrap!

I also had the chance to sing with Elizabeth, a blog reader and chorister in Pro Coro #CONNECT

Update: A The Making of a Filmscore Documentary has been released! January 14, 2014

A New Project

Greetings everybody!

It has been a frenzied few weeks with the end of term but I am happy to report that finals are finished and I am taking a well needed break before I start my Spring term classes! For starters, I'm headed to San Francisco on Sunday!

I'm not sure what it is about writing final exams but I always seem to find myself drawn to something else other than studying... yes, some may call this procrastination.... but I think of procrastination as something when you're substituting the work that you should be doing with some menial task like cleaning or watching t.v. I chose a different procrastination route this exam period and I took on a personal recording project. I don't want to divulge too many details at this point, but upon realizing I needed voice recordings of myself, I was able to produce them within two weeks. It seems like a relatively painless procedure but it definitely is a challenge to produce a solo voice recording of yourself when:

1. You don't take voice lessons and your voice isn't coached into a state where solo rep can just be whipped out and performed
2. You're not a music student and do not have free access to music rooms to record in
3. You don't have all the special software and equipment it takes to produce a good recording
4. You don't have an accompanist
5. You don't have tons of money to shell out on said facilities, equipment, lessons, and services

I was deciding whether or not it was worth it to even do in the first place, but then I realized, what do I have to lose?

Time?

I suppose, but I thought that I could live with that since I've done less productive things with my time in the past. I could also part with time if I was learning something new and enjoying it in the process.

Money?

Well, there were ways I could keep the cost low, I could manage to do the recordings myself but there were other variables that I would need to call in favors for and things I was willing to pay for since it was only fair.

These were the things I needed to achieve:

Learn the music-I called in the services of my lovely mezzo soprano friend, Becky, whom I met in the U of A Madrigal singers (MAD's), to help coach me and work on my text and the musical goals I needed to achieve with the music. It was a few hours one afternoon where she worked magical things since I suddenly was able to connect to a soloistic resonance undiscovered in my voice and which I was unable to achieve during my teenage years of voice lessons. Stupid breathy teenage voice! In that few short hours, I knew what I needed to do and the sound that I wanted to achieve but obtaining it consistently was entirely another thing in itself. In order to crash learn the music, I went onto Naxos' e-online library and began listening to tracks of the songs I was looking to sing so I could learn notes by musical diffusion. It seemed to work quite well since the melodies were slightly familiar to me even as I went into my coaching session with Becky. I spent each successive day rehearsing the music at home and my parents were definitely wondering why I had suddenly unearthed my digital piano and was practicing in my brother's old bedroom. Also, probably wondering why I was so gosh-darn loud!

Find an accompanist-Probably my easiest task. I tried to comb my memory for my friends who accompanied voice soloists and a few came to my mind. At the same time, I was regretting the fact that I severed many musical connections via Facebook since it didn't occur to me that I would require their services in the future. Oops! However, a name did pop to my mind: Jessica! I sang with Jessica in MAD's and she is a lovely human being. I kind of felt like we came from the same background since we are both choristers at heart and she was also an excellent accompanist. I e-mailed her, detailing my grassroots recording ambition, and she had no problem in consenting to help me out. Lovely! The only juggle would be to find a time that would work for both of us.

Secure a Recording Location-By far my biggest challenge! If only I still had access to the music building since I knew how to work all the equipment in one of the recording studios (I had taken a music composition course last year) but I no longer had the privilege of accessing those facilities. I tried to make contact and get information from anybody who could help me out! My lovely MAD's conductor, Len, provided me with some good suggestions, Mary-Ellen, my friend, told me to check out some church venues, from here I inquired about some local church locations like Holy Trinity, Roberston Wesley, St. Joseph's. Most of these options led to me to dead-ends or they wouldn't fit my recording needs due to timing. However, I managed to secure a connection to record in the Fine Arts Building but I wouldn't know if the room was free until the very last minute. Needless to say, it worked out.

Obtain Recording Equipment-I knew that if I wasn't going to be able to get into the old studio to use their equipment, I would need to find it elsewhere. My department actually has a materials rooms with video recording and audio recording equipment so I decided to check that out first. The path of least resistance is always desirable. I signed out a small reporter-style digital audio recorder and decided to test it out. It worked alright, nothing amazing, but it made me feel better that I would be able to obtain a recording just maybe not a high quality one. However, my friend Christina from class graciously loaned me her professional recording microphone which is easy-to-use and just hooks into a laptop via a USB outlet. Excellent! We had a mini session where we tested out the equipment and this is when I began to hate Garageband on my Mac. I've played with it multiple times before and I had no problems, but when hooked up to the mic, it just wasn't recording the way I wanted and my insufficient troubleshooting skills forced me to seek an alternative. Upon hearing my recording lament over coffee, my friend Twila suggested Audacity instead. It was free and it would suit my purposes since it was closer to what I used in my composition course! I had used Audacity before but it just didn't occur to me that it was what I should have been using! It's so helpful to get a fresh perspective sometimes.

In the end, it seemed to work out smoothly. I was able to get into a room and I was laden down with so many bags that I pretty much felt like a one-woman recording show. I brought my laptop, numerous extensions cables, Christina's microphone, my backup digital recorder, my noise cancelling recording headset (which I borrowed from my Speech lab) for easy playback, a notebook for Christina to make notes in, and copies of all my music so she could follow along. In the middle room I set up a desk laden with all my personal and borrowed equipment. I was actually pretty proud of myself that I was able to whip it together. It looked equal to more professional recording sessions I've had in the past. The only difference being my equipment probably wasn't as nice.

Suddenly, I felt all this pressure to perform well. It took so many resources, effort, and time to bring all these variables together but it all came down to the fact that I needed to be... recordable. I didn't want to waste everybody's time! However, I just felt a huge amount of support which eased my stress. In the beginning stages when I asked Becky, "Is this even worth it? Am I even good enough or am I just making a complete fool of myself by doing this?" she assured me that I wasn't. I felt like an impersonator. A chorister trying to mimic the voice of a famous mezzo. What I discovered is that I just sounded like me but it was perceptually different from what I was used to hearing because I don't actually hear myself in choir. That probably sounds strange but I'm focused on bringing my sound forward to merge with the other voices that I don't muffle the sound so that I can hear it in my head. Occluding your own sound, just so that you can enjoy it, doesn't really do anything for your audience.

On the day of the recording, all I felt was support from Christina handling my makeshift recording station and Jessica at the piano. When I wasn't able to sing below a middle C, after being too warmed up (any other singers that run into this problem!?!?), they assured me that my chest voice didn't sound crappy and helped me stay positive while I struggled to access the lower range I knew I possessed. So frustrating! But I decided not to dwell on it, called it a day, and used a recording that I made earlier that week when I was playing with the digital recorder during my practice session. I was able to obtain the other recordings I needed from the session. Nothing perfect, I assure you, but probably the best I was able to produce with some slight blips and kinks here and there. I was alright with that. The world isn't perfect, therefore, there are no perfect recordings.

Overall, I have had a busy past 2 weeks! Upon handing in my last final, I went and set-up my own recording session and it seemed like everything just came together at once. I'm just so thankful for all the musical connections I have made and the people willing to help me out throughout the process. I am not used to asking for things so I was just amazed at the amount of generosity I received from all of my friends who were gladly willing to dedicate their time and talent to my cause. I tried to offer monetary compensation to Jessica for playing and even she didn't want it! She said it was just nice to help me out and even come out and see me. It just warms my heart :) I thank all of them here! For the ones that were able to help me out, the ones who weren't able but wanted to, the ones who helped indirectly by listening to me gripe about the frustration of putting a project like this together... thank-you! It was fantastic to feel the musical love and it worked well to counterbalance my headache from all those logistical details!

I'll keep you posted on the outcomes of my recordings :)

Take care!

Recording Torture

These past few recording sessions with Belle Canto have left me feeling extremely murderous. It is mostly due to the fact that I want to strangle all bus drivers, motorcyclists, and drivers with loud mufflers that drive by McDougall United Church from 7-10 pm. Of course, I have nothing against the bus drivers, since I do support eco-friendly transport forms... but I wish buses didn't have to hiss and beep every time they stopped... our recording sessions would have gone so much smoother if they could just quietly purr past the church.

It felt like it was hard to get a clean take of anything since there was always some sort of noise pollution that littered our tracks. It is just so frustrating having no control over environmental noise! It is hard enough to have our pieces in pristine recording condition but now we have to deal with all this ambient sound which makes everything that much harder.

Other than the frustrating traffic sounds in the background, I was reminded how stressful recording sessions are. Mind you, these recording sessions are nowhere near as intense as the ones for CBC (since all those tracks must be sung cleanly in one take) since we can afford to edit and piece together a clean final track this time. However, from taking electromusic, where I had to record my own material, I do not envy the recording engineers job. There are so many tracks to listen to and you have to be listening at all times to check for balance and to find out precisely which spot in the music we would have to re-record because of a loud muffler. I'm just glad that I am not doing it. Cleaning up spots where people cough and seamlessly merging two different sections with different vocal textures is nothing short of an art.

Furthermore, as much as I love the fact that you can preserve the sound of a group of people with recording... singing in a recording session is nothing like singing in front of a live audience. I find that musical nuances and sensitivity is lost during a recording session since you are always thinking so hard about technicality that you loose that ability to sing freely. Or maybe that is something I have just been running into since I instantly become tense when our recording track begins. Suddenly, I have to think of when I am going to turn my page so it doesn't crackle and I wonder if a bus will drive by during an exposed entry.

At any rate, I am glad there is only one more recording session left and soon Belle Canto will have a new c.d. and I will finally be on it!